【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Technical verification achieved for 23–202 million-ton class two-stage fluidized bed gasification industrial test units
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Let’s give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Ongoing updates and summaries available; feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** Technology for producing syngas through two-stage gasification in a 10,000-ton-scale biomass fluidized bed. On April 14th, reporters learned from Shenyang University of Chemical Technology that a team led by Professor Xu Guangwen, in collaboration with Jinan Huangtai Gas Furnace Co., Ltd., has developed an industrial test facility capable of carrying out two-stage fluidized-bed gasification on a 10,000-ton scale. This facility has recently completed its industrial tests, confirming the effectiveness of this technology. The test results show that the two-stage gasification technology in a fluidized bed, when applied to the production of biomass fuel, can effectively ensure the quality of the biomass syngas and the continuous stable operation of the process equipment. It possesses technical advantages and features such as low tar content and wide fuel adaptability. These results also verify the feasibility of using this new technology to produce biomass syngas, as well as the effectiveness of further scaling up its application on an engineering scale. Using biomass as a carbon source, coupled with photovoltaic water electrolysis to produce \"green hydrogen\", and employing catalytic synthesis to manufacture green aviation fuel and green methanol have become hot topics in the development of green and low-carbon technologies, as well as emerging trends in the energy and chemical industries. However, among the many key technologies such as syngas production, purification, and catalytic synthesis, the biomass gasification-based syngas technology, which has not achieved industrial breakthroughs, remains the \"bottleneck\" restricting the entire technology chain. Large-scale biomass gasification based on fluidization is considered the most suitable technical option, but it is necessary to overcome the problem of \"tar\" in the biomass gasification and purification processes, as well as to advance the engineering scale-up and industrial application of the complete set of processes for converting biomass into syngas. Industrial tests on a scale of 10,000 tons and technical validations have been completed for the production of syngas via two-stage pure oxygen/steam gasification in a biomass fluidized bed system; this has opened up new possibilities for advancing the industrialization of green fuel synthesis technologies. It represents a strong competitor capable of supporting the development of the \"green methanol and green aviation fuel industry chains\" in the future, as well as contributing to the advancement of core biomass gasification technologies. “These are the results of industrial test operations to produce syngas via biomass gasification, which to date feature the longest continuous operation time in China, the largest variety of biomass fuels tested, the lowest tar content in the produced syngas, and the highest effective syngas yield. ”Xu Guangwen told a reporter from Science and Technology Daily. It is worth noting that previously, the gas production technology based on two-stage air gasification in a fluidized bed has been successfully applied to biomass wastes from light industry processes such as traditional Chinese medicine residues and liquor distillation by-products. Multiple industrial-scale treatment plants with annual processing capacities ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 tons of industrial biomass waste have been built in regions such as Henan, Sichuan, Shandong, and Anhui, achieving international advanced technical standards with a tar content in the gasified fuel below 50 milligrams per standard cubic meter. Building on this successful industrial trial, Xu Guangwen said that the team will make every effort to advance engineering and industrialization collaborations with large enterprises both at home and abroad. On the one hand, efforts are made to promote the industrial application and demonstration of the atmospheric-pressure fluidized two-stage gasification technology; on the other hand, research is conducted on the development of process equipment for producing biomass syngas through pressurized fluidized two-stage gasification. These approaches aim to address the challenges and bottlenecks associated with the industrialization of green synthesis processes based on biomass feedstocks.
【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Processing Equipment】The first domestic full-industry-chain demonstration project for civilian liquid hydrogen was successfully completed from 2022 to 2025. https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-5687409-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Industry Forum)
Using biomass as a carbon source, combined with photovoltaic water electrolysis to produce \"green hydrogen\", and employing catalytic synthesis to manufacture green aviation fuel and green methanol have become current hotspots in the research and development of green and low-carbon technologies both domestically and internationally. They also represent emerging trends in the energy and chemical industries, as well as key technologies for advancing the goal of \"carbon neutrality\". Among the many key technologies such as syngas production, purification, and catalytic synthesis, the biomass gasification technology for producing syngas – which has yet to see industrial breakthroughs both domestically and internationally – has become the \"bottleneck\" in the entire technological chain. Due to the significant differences between biomass and coal in terms of fuel composition, grindability, slurry-forming properties, and ash physical properties, various large-scale gasification technologies with extensive industrial application records (mainly fluidized-bed gasification) are difficult to apply to biomass fuels. Large-scale biomass gasification based on fluidization is considered the most suitable technical option, but it is necessary to overcome the problem of \"tar\" in the biomass gasification and purification processes, as well as to advance the engineering scale-up and industrial application of the conditions required for producing syngas from biomass. The team led by Professor Xu Guangwen from Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, in collaboration with Jinan Huangtai Gas Stove Co., Ltd., has innovatively developed an industrial test facility for fluidized-bed two-stage gasification with an annual capacity of tens of thousands of tons. This facility utilizes fluidized reactors to achieve the decoupling and reorganization of fuel pyrolysis and semi-coke gasification/tar cracking reactions, thereby creating a complete cycle of “catalysis” and “regeneration” for biomass semi-coke (as shown in Figure 1). By combining the effects of thermal cracking, oxidative cracking, and high-temperature catalytic cracking of biomass tar within the rapid fluidized-bed reactor, it is possible to achieve thorough removal of tar from the reaction mixture, thus fulfilling the technical goal of producing gas or syngas with low tar content through biomass gasification. Leveraging the technical advantages of efficient mass transfer and reaction in fluidized reactors, this innovative biomass gasification technology exhibits unique adaptability to biomass fuels with high moisture content and low calorific value.
The fluidized bed two-stage air gasification technology for producing gas has been successfully applied to biomass wastes from light industry processes such as traditional Chinese medicine residues and liquor distillation residues. Multiple industrial-scale plants with annual processing capacities ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 tons of industrial biomass waste have been built in regions such as Henan, Sichuan, Shandong, and Anhui, achieving the internationally advanced technical standard of a tar content in the gasified fuel below 50 mg/Nm3. The main objectives of this industrial test are to verify the technical feasibility of the two-stage gasification process in a constant-pressure fluidized bed for producing high-quality gas from various biomass feedstocks using an oxygen-enriched gasifying agent (oxygen + air + water vapor), as well as the continuous stability of the plant operation for producing syngas through pure-oxygen gasification (oxygen + water vapor). Industrial tests utilized shaped pellet fuels made from local rice straws and corn straws in Shandong (as shown in Table 1). By adjusting the reaction conditions as well as the supply of oxygen/water vapor, the temperature of the gasification system was maintained within the range of 750–880 °C, with a maximum continuous stable operation time of over 110 hours (as shown in Figure 2).
The corresponding gas production results are shown in Figure 3. In the continuous operation experiments, the feed rate was 2400–2800 kilograms per hour, the excess air coefficient was 0.3–0.4, and the oxygen concentration in the gasifying agent was maintained at 30–40%. During operation, it is possible to easily switch between oxygen-enriched and pure oxygen oxidation, replace inferior raw materials, and adjust the fuel processing volume; the process and equipment exhibit excellent stable operating characteristics. By adjusting the operating parameters, the calorific value and effective gas content of the product gas can be varied within a certain range. As shown in Figure 3, the torch appears bright yellow at high calorific values; in the experiments conducted (using N2 as the return gas), the highest calorific value exceeded 2400 kcal/Nm3 ； At high hydrogen levels, the flare appears light blue; the hydrogen content at the outlet of the unit is as high as nearly 40% (by volume), with an effective syngas (CO+H2) fraction of around 65%, but it also contains about 5% methane. The device also shows good adaptability to low-quality biomass fuel, corn stalks 2, but a high ash content in the feedstock significantly reduces gas production. During the experiment, the cold gasification efficiency of biomass remained stable at over 80%. In practical industrial applications, superheated steam is used as the return gas for the return valve; this allows for further optimization of the quality of the product gas and an increase in the effective gas fraction. Analysis of the fly ash components collected in bag filters shows that the carbon content of the fly ash resulting from continuous and stable operation can be kept below 30% (as shown in Table 2).