Studying the Process of Thermal Catalytic Biomass Processing in a Fluidized-Bed Reactor

The paper is devoted to studying the process of thermal catalytic biomass processing in a fluidized-bed reactor for useful heat generation. Miscanthus, pine nut shells, and spent coffee were selected as initial biomass. The biomass crushed to a fraction smaller than 0.5 mm (coffee was not ground, as the size of its particles was initially 0.2–0.4 mm) was fed into a fluidized-bed reactor at processing temperatures of 650, 700, and 750°C, respectively. The objective of these experiments was to generate useful heat by burning the supplied biomass and utilize it, e.g., in maintaining an autothermal regime, as well as to investigate the resulting ash residues and analyze the flue gases emitted during the combustion process, followed by process simulation in Aspen Plus. The data of simulation show good agreement with experiment, and the proposed scheme can be used as one of the approaches to evaluating the feasibility of catalytic biomass combustion in a fluidized-bed in autothermal mode.