A wet packed-bed scrubber for removing tar from biomass producer gas

• Published in: Fuel processing technology Vol. 193; pp. 197 - 203
• Main Authors: Lotfi, Samira, Ma, Weiguo, Austin, Kevin, Kumar, Ashwani
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.10.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Configurations; Cooking; Flow velocity; Gasification; Naphthalene; Producer gas; Scrubbers; Tar removal; Toluene; Waste cooking oil; Wet packed-bed; Wood chips; Woodchips; Tar removal; Waste cooking oil; Wet packed-bed; Naphthalene; Toluene; Gasification; Woodchips
• ISSN: 0378-3820; 1873-7188
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuproc.2019.05.024

In this work, we report the performance of a lab scale wet packed-bed scrubber using woodchips as a packing material. Wood chips were wetted by waste cooking oil which acted as a scrubber medium. Residence time of 8.5 s was comparable to the packed-bed filter used in a pilot scale gasifier. We studied the effects of oil/gas ratio (4.7 and 7 m3/s/m3/s × 103), oil temperature (ambient, ~23 °C and 50 °C) and woodchips size (coarse = ~0.02–0.045 m, 0.003–0.03 m and 0.002–0.007 m and fine = (0.015–0.04 m) × (0.002–0.005 m) × (0.001–0.003 m)) to remove tar model compounds from producer gas. The results demonstrate liquid to gas ratio has significant effect (p-value = 0.002) on removing toluene as tar model compound; next important parameter is bed configuration (p-value = 0.014), impacting toluene removal efficiency. For naphthalene, oil flow rate (p-value = 0.022) and bed configuration (p-value = 0.024) have almost similar effects. Oil temperature has relatively lower impact on removing tar. •Effect of waste cooking oil and woodchips on removing tar studied.•The studied wet packed-bed scrubber removed 76% of toluene and 92% of naphthalene.•Contaminated woodchips packing can be gasified and eliminate regular washing with detergent.•Effect of oil/gas ratio, temperature and size of woodchips investigated.