Conversion of Olive Tree Prunings Fluidized Bed: Experiments and Gasifier Modeling

Abstract

Fuel conversion measurements were conducted in a laboratory fluidized bed (FB) to characterize the most important steps taking place a FB gasifier in the range of 800.900 ºC. The main inputs for the gasifier model to be developed were obtained: product yields from devolatilization (light gas, tar and char) of olive tree pruning (OTP) and gasification kinetics of the produced char with CO2 and H2O. In the second part of this work, the obtained experimental data have been employed in a previously developed FB gasifier model to assess the gasification performance with OTP under various operating conditions. The effect of equivalence ratio, temperature of the feed gas, gasifier throughput, fuel moisture and ash content were analyzed. The main outputs from the model (bed temperature, gas composition, char conversion and gasification efficiency) are used to identify the optimal operation condition