Experimental microwave-assisted air gasification of biomass in fluidized bed reactor

Microwave-assisted heating is an effective heating method for thermochemical conversion of biomass. In this study, experimental syngas production from microwave-assisted air gasification of biomass in a fluidized bed reactor at different gasification temperatures, equivalence ratios and silicon carbide loads, was studied and re-ported. The results showed that the highest syngas yield (78.2 wt%), higher heating value (6.3 MJ/Nm3) and cold gas efficiency (81.8 %) were obtained at gasification temperature of 900 degrees C, equivalence ratio of 0.35 and silicon carbide load of 30 g, and the gasification temperature had significant influence on the syngas production. Microwave-assisted heating showed positive effect on tar reduction, i.e., the tar content at 900 degrees C (2.1 wt%) in this study was even lower than the tar content (3.2 wt%) from catalytic electrical air gasification of rice husk at 950 degrees C. Generally, the introduction of microwave-assisted heating showed positive effect on biomass gasification.