Does distance among biomass particles affect soot formation in an entrained flow gasification process?

Soot creates technical challenges in entrained flow biomass gasification processes, e.g. clogging of flow passages, fouling on system components and reduced efficiency of gasification. This paper demonstrates a novel soot reduction method in a laboratory-scale entrained flow reactor by forced dispersion of biomass particles. Gasification of small biomass particles was done in a flat flame burner where a steady stream of biomass was sent The flat flame burner was operated with a premixed sub-stoichiometric methane-air flame to simulate the conditions in an entrained flow gasifier. The dispersion of biomass particles was enhanced by varying the flow velocity ratio between particle carrier gas and the premixed flame. Primary soot particles evolved with the distance from the burner exit and the soot volume fraction was found to have a peak at a certain location. Enhanced particle separation diminished the peaks in the soot volume fraction by 35-56% depending on the particle feeding rates. The soot volume fraction was found to decrease towards an asymptotic value with increasing inter-particle distance. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.