Miss Hongman Sun and Dr Chunfei Wu in Queens University and Belfast has published an interesting work in Environmental Science and Technology. The title is:

“Auto-thermal CaO looping biomass gasification for Renewable Syngas Production”

It is reported that:

“New CaO-based materials will be developed and injected into a gasifier. The material streams (CaO and CO₂) react to produce heat inside the gasifier providing energy for biomass gasification with a high concentration of CO₂ (>30 vol.%) as the gasification agent. When the reaction between CaO-based materials and CO₂ is finished or the released energy cannot sustain the biomass gasification, the used CaO-based materials will be transferred to a separate reactor for the regeneration. The proposed technology will provide solutions to the above challenges of biomass gasification. 1) High calorific value syngas will be produced and direct injection of air to gasification is avoided to enhance energy efficiency. 2) As biomass combustion is largely avoided, less CO₂ will be produced. In addition, using flue gas as biomass gasification agent will convert CO₂ partially into CO contributing syngas production. Thus, extra benefit of carbon emission can be obtained. 3) A novel temperature control mechanism will be applied in the proposed CaL-Gas technology. The low-temperature flue gas (~650 ˚C) and the controlled release of heat from CaO-CO₂ reaction will largely mitigate ash agglomeration inside gasifier due to the temperature is a key factor for ash agglomeration”

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