Effects of Oxygen Enrichment in Air Oxidants on Biomass Gasification Efficiency and the Reduction of Tar Emissions

This study applied oxygen-enrichment conditions to remove tar (the main problem in biomass gasification) and increase gasification efficiency. Experiments on oxygen-enrichment conditions were conducted at oxygen concentrations of 21%, 25%, 30%, and 35% in oxidants. This was expected to increase the partial oxidation reaction in gasification reactions, thus leading to thermal decomposition of tar in producer gas. The decomposed tar was expected to be converted into syngas or combustible gases in the producer gas. The results were as follows: Tar-reduction efficiency was 72.46% at 30% oxygen enrichment compared to the standard 21% enrichment condition. In addition, the concentrations of syngas and combustible gases in the producer gas tended to increase. Therefore, the 30% oxygen-enrichment condition was optimal, resulting in 78.00% for cold gas efficiency and 80.24% for carbon conversion efficiency. The application of oxygen enrichment into the lab-scale gasification system clearly reduced the concentration of tar and tended to increase some indexes of gasification efficiency, thus suggesting the usefulness of this technique in large-scale biomass gasification operations.