(106a) Aspen Plus Simulation of Biomass Gasification in a Downdraft Gasifier

Biomass is widely perceived as a renewable energy resource which can be used to produce fuels, chemicals and power. Biomass gasification is an important method to obtain syngas. Aspen Plus modeling relies on minimization of the Gibbs free energy to approximate the chemical equilibrium occurring in the subsequent reactor was used to convert biomass elementary composition to final products.  However, this approach is only valid in a specific range of equivalence ratio (ER). In this paper, a detailed Aspen Plus model is described. Kinetics of gasification reactions have been identified from the literature and have been inserted into reactor blocks using an explicit methodology.  The model predicts syngas composition over a wider range of ER. These predictions have been compared with both experimental data and predictions obtained from model that minimizing the Gibbs free energy. This work also examines syngas composition from different biomass feeds to evaluate their use for biomass gasification process.