Numerical modelling of biomass gasification with steam injection for catalytic bed materials

Biomass gasification with steam injection in a fluidized bed reactor has emerged as a promising method to improve syngas quality by increasing hydrogen production. In this work, a simplified yet comprehensive three-dimensional multiphase model incorporating combustion chemistry and heat transfer was integrated into AVL FIRE CFD software through the implementation of user-defined subroutines. Biomass combustion and gasification for four different bed materials acting as catalysts to the biomass pyrolysis process with steam injection were investigated for this work. Beechwood was consistently used as the biofuel for all the experiments while varying the bed material. Four various types of bed materials (Silica sand, Olivine, Na-Y Zeolite, and ZSM-5 Zeolite) were used in the study and a constant steam injection was maintained. ZSM-5 Zeolite exhibited the highest hydrogen production under steady-state condition. The present model was validated against experimental results available in the literature for a lab-scale fluidized bed reactor. The model's results of species concentrations of the syngas were analyzed and compared with the experimental results and found reasonable similarity.