The effectiveness of bauxite residue in reducing biomass gasification tars
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Kim, Young Yoon
issued: 2019-12-23T18:46:04Z
issued: 2019
related degree: Master of Applied Science - MASc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Biomass gasification converts the carbon and hydrogen in biomass feedstock into useful syngas. While there are notable commercial biomass gasification projects around the world, one of the major roadblocks in further technological advancement is the formation of the byproduct, biomass tar. Tar is a mixture of heavy condensable hydrocarbons that drops out from the gas as viscous liquid at lower temperatures. It easily condenses on cooler surfaces and plugs downstream equipment. It can also form aerosols and further polymerize into more complex structures. Catalytic tar reduction can reduce the tar in syngas by decomposing it into additional syngas, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the gasification process. Bauxite residue, an industrial waste rich in iron content, was investigated as an alternative catalyst for reducing biomass tars in the syngas generated from the Bioenergy Research Demonstration Facility at the University of British Columbia. An experimental unit was designed and commissioned to evaluate the catalytic activity of the bauxite residue. The bauxite residue catalyst was prepared and tested as untreated and as pretreated with calcination and pre-reduction processes. The pretreated bauxite residue was highly effective in reducing the biomass tars in comparison to the untreated catalyst. However, the spent-catalyst analysis revealed that the iron species oxidized back in the syngas environment over the duration of the experiment, demonstrating that a reducing environment is critical to maintain the catalytic activity of the bauxite residue.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/72937
note: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BAUXITE RESIDUE IN REDUCING BIOMASS GASIFICATION TARS by Young Yoon Kim B.A.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2014 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Chemical and Biological Engineering) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2019 © Young Yoon Kim, 2019 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: The effectiveness of bauxite residue in reducing biomass gasification tars submitted by Young Yoon Kim in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Chemical and Biological Engineering Examining Committee: Naoko Ellis, Chemical and Biological Engineering Co-supervisor Xiaotao Bi, Chemical and Biological Engineering Co-supervisor Paul Watkinson, Chemical and Biological Engineering Supervisory Committee Member Robert Legros, Chemical Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Biomass gasification converts the carbon and hydrogen in biomass feedstock into useful syngas. While there are notable commercial biomass gasification projects around the world, one of the major roadblocks in further technological advancement is the formation of the byproduct, biomass tar. Tar is a mixture of heavy condensable hydrocarbons that drops out from the gas as viscous liquid at lower temperatures. It easily condenses on cooler surfaces and plugs downstream equipment. It can also form aerosols and further polymerize into more complex structures. Catalytic tar reduction can reduce the tar in syngas by decomposing it into additional syngas, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the gasification process. Bauxite residue, an industrial waste rich in iron content, was investigated as an alternative catalyst for reducing bioma…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2020-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0387309
language: eng
degree discipline: Chemical and Biological Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/72937