Date of Award:

5-2015

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Biological Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Foster A. Agblevor

Committee

Foster A. Agblevor

Committee

Ronald Sims

Committee

Heng Ban

Abstract

Utilization of coal as a low-cost domestic energy source is becoming a subject of utmost importance due to fluctuating crude oil prices. However, coal use emits pollutants such as nitrous oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and particulates that have negative environmental impact and significant issues on health. To minimize the harmful effects of coal use, renewable and sustainable biological or green materials called biomass are processed with coal to produce synthetic gas (syngas) that can be processed into clean energy fuels and value-added products.

Currently, coal is converted using combustion technology; however, novel techniques such as co-gasification (thermochemical process) convert coal under conditions that reduce pollutant emissions. However, very limited information exists on the behavior of coal and biomass mixtures during thermal conversion, which could be due to large variations in the physical and chemical properties of various biomass.

This study investigated the effect of co-gasifying biomass feedstocks (hybrid poplar wood and corn stover) with sub-bituminous coal on product yields and gaseous compounds. Results showed that hybrid poplar wood can be successfully gasified with coal. However, use of corn stover needs further processing consideration as it produced agglomerates (ash sticking effect) that had negative impact on the co-gasification process.

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