Pyrolysis is a Hot Technology of the Future

Pyrolysis - Lets see what this technology can unleash!

Pyrolysis could in future be useful to reduce landfills because it can be used to mine waste and burn it for energy, reducing the waste in landfills and reverse the rapid expansion of real estate being used to store garbage.

However, it is also unfortunately an expensive process to implement nowadays and for many cities is too expensive to take advantage of. Nevertheless, hyrolysis has progressed significantly in the processing of herbaceous materials as well as woody plants. In fast pyrolysis, the widely used fluid bed reactor is a relatively simple design with favorable heat transfer characteristics.

Modular Biomass Combined Heat & Power System (CHP)

Pyrolysis rates for siloxane fluids are very sensitive to trace catalysts. Measurements of the global heat of gasification for ultra-clean polymers resulted in significantly higher values (3000 kJ/kg). Pyrolysis, often incorporating gasification, is a thermal process where organic materials in the waste are broken down under pressure and in the absence of oxygen. The process works best when the input waste is carbon-rich, preferably sorted or pre-sorted.

Pyrolysis can be used as a means of reducing scrap tires disposal problems. In this context it is defined as the degradation of the rubber of the tire using heat in the absence of oxygen.

Surprisingly some people are reporting on the web that they have chosen some unusual fuels for their pyrolysis experiments and they appear to be paying off. Pyrolysis of used frying oils, for example, seems to be one option for this attractive alternative as described in a recent US study. Until 2002, 80% of waste edible oils were discharge in sewers and only 20% were upgraded into high value chemicals or biofuel. Now the situation could be rapidly improved with less oil going to sewer if this technology becomes established..

Pyrolysis of biomass can be achieved by pyrolysis as well as by gasification. Such biomass is the main source of energy for a large number of small, rural, and cottage industries along with the majority of rural households. The majority of these enterprises belong to an unstructured sector and hence information and data on these industries are scarce.

Biomass also offers major environmental benefits. Initial applications will be with biomass residues generated in agro- and forest-product industries. Biomass fuels generally contain high levels of corrosive ash.

Pyrolysis technology as with gasification is becoming much more popular due to rising costs for landfilling. Costs are soaring for landfill, from current rates of about $25 per ton, and many are projecting that costs could soon rise to the $75 to $100 per ton range. Costs of the pyrolysis process will include the utilities, hydrogen feedstock, depletion of the catalyst, and in some situations, a reduction in the cracker operating rates in order to regenerate the catalyst.

Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of biomass occurring in the absence of oxygen. It is the fundamental chemical reaction that is the precursor of both the combustion and gasification processes and occurs naturally in the first two seconds. Pyrolysis is known for low emissions to the environment.

Pyrolysis is a process for thermal conversion of solid fuels in the complete absence of oxidizing agent (air/oxygen), or with such limited supply that gasification does not occur to any appreciable extent. Commercial applications are either focused on the production of charcoal or production of a liquid product, the bio-oil.

Pyrolysis consists in most process of applying high heat to organic matter (ligno-cellulosic materials) in the absence of air or in reduced air. The process can produce charcoal, condensable organic liquids (pyrolytic fuel oil), non-condensable gasses, acetic acid, acetone, and methanol.

Pyrolysis is considered to be one of the more feasible solutions that may be economically profitable at large scale and minimise mans impact on nature.  The interest we hold in this process is centred on the fact that the products obtained by this process may be easily handled, stored and transported and they may be transformed in other units that are not near the recycling one.

Steve Evans is enthusiastic about gasification and other renewable energy sources from digesters of syngas . He also runs a great web site about dog breeds.

Advantages of Large Scale Biomass Gasification Plants

Large scale biomass gasification has big potential.

In this article we will talk about biomass gasification which means the gasification of biomass as distinct from carbonaceous fuels. The idea of gasification has been practiced for a long time, and most notably on coal to produce town gas until the 1950s when oil and oil derived fuels became the more popular, and coal production reduced in most developed nations.

Only recently with the rising cost of fossil fuels has the idea of gasification come once more to the fore. Expect to hear much more about gasification over the next few years!

Gasification works best as an efficient means of converting low value-residual biomass (such as municipal solid waste) into higher value products including power, steam, hydrogen, and basic chemicals.

It is a process that produces mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (synthesis gas or syngas) from carbon-based feedstocks such as coal, petroleum, coke and heavy oils. Gasification can play a significant role in large scale biomass gasification plants delivering a sustainable energy economy and is therefore one of the most technically and economically convincing energy possibilities for a carbon neutral economy.

To give you an idea what gasification is let us start by considering first the small scale and a simple wood gasifier. In this example gasification works by way of a downdraft that sucks wood gas from the firebox in the top chamber down into a bottom chamber where superheated combustion occurs. In most cases this can be achieved without a fan, and the downdraft can be powered by the gasifier itself once the system is lit.

In principle gasification produces very efficient clean combustion especially at large scale biomass gasification plants where economy of scale helps reduce costs. In these plants, ensuring that the action of burning takes place at a high temperature and controlled oxygen levels by creates a gas known as “syngas” within the process. Syngas may be removed from the process and as we have already indicated used as a feedstock in the creation of other organic chemicals. If syngas is stored and burnt later it can be used very efficient to run power generation units in large scale biomass gasification plants.

Gasification can be used for fertilizer and chemical manufacture and in the quest for lower carbon emission technologies , it is forecast that production will grow dramatically particularly in China.

Gasification can be used at any level from the small scale on-farm utilizing farm waste as a feedstock to highly technological uses and at extreme heat seldom seen on earth outside volcanic eruptions, and lightning strikes but it is more complex to run at the small scale and works best in large scale biomass gasification plants.

One such example of large scale biomass gasification plants is gasification in the form of plasma arcs. The very high temperatures created in a plasma arc reduce matter to its basic elements, and they do this remarkably cleanly which avoids the production of the majority of the unwanted combustion products which bedevil so many other waste to energy technologies requiring huge cost to remove and imposing high parasitic loads on the plant itself.

Gasification of wood and wood-type residues and waste in large fixed bed or fluidized bed gasifiers with subsequent burning of the gas for heat production is also state of the art and destined to become commonplace in the quest to use renewable fuels to their fullest.

Wood gasifiers are nowadays employed ever more frequently, for example, in the Scandinavian countries where they are used almost entirely for heat generation and use local forest wood, replacing that nations previous large appetite for fossil based fuels (oil, gas and coal) to heat its population during the long cold winters.

The Scandinavians see gasification of their nation’s renewable forest asset as a major player in their progression toward ever diminishing fossil fuel dependency, and many of these will be large scale biomass gasification plants.

Steve Evans is enthusiastic about gasification and other renewable energy sources from biomass. He also runs a great web site about the anaerobic digestion community.