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Synergistic Effects in Gasification of Coal/Biomass Blends: Analysis and Review

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Coal and Biomass Gasification

Part of the book series: Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ((ENENSU))

Abstract

Electricity generation through coal–thermal route is one of the highest contributors to environment pollution through greenhouse gas emission, which has given rise to issue of climate change risk. Among different alternatives of renewable energy, an important source is biomass-based energy. Utilization of biomass for energy production in coal-fired power plants is essentially in terms of partial substitution of coal feed with biomass. Major challenge in this route is fluctuating supply and varying compositions of biomass. It can be overcome by adopting co-gasification technology (using mixed feed of biomass and low-grade coal) for power generation. In this chapter, we have presented a critical review and analysis of the literature in the area of co-gasification of biomass and coal. Analysis in this paper touches upon several facets of co-gasification process such as effect of biomass/coal ratio, the composition (proximate/ultimate analyses of biomass/coal), gasification media, temperature and heating rates on the gasification kinetics, producer gas composition, and yield. The synergistic effects between gasification of coal and biomass have been reviewed. The alkali/alkaline earth metal content in the ash of biomass catalyzes the kinetics of the gasification of coal char. However, if coal has high silica content, adverse reaction between silica and potassium oxides can deactivate the catalytic effect. Actual chemical mechanisms related to this synergy have also been described and discussed. Finally, a brief review of the literature on gasification of coal/biomass blends in bubbling/circulating fluidized bed gasifiers has also been presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

    Debarshi Mallick & Pinakeswar Mahanta

  2. Center for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

    Pinakeswar Mahanta & Vijayanand S. Moholkar

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

    Vijayanand S. Moholkar

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  1. Debarshi Mallick
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  2. Pinakeswar Mahanta
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  3. Vijayanand S. Moholkar
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Correspondence to Vijayanand S. Moholkar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Santanu De

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Avinash Kumar Agarwal

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    V. S. Moholkar

  4. Bio-Fuels Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Bhaskar Thallada

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Mallick, D., Mahanta, P., Moholkar, V.S. (2018). Synergistic Effects in Gasification of Coal/Biomass Blends: Analysis and Review. In: De, S., Agarwal, A., Moholkar, V., Thallada, B. (eds) Coal and Biomass Gasification. Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7335-9_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7335-9_19

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