Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Improving the performance of uidized bed biomass/waste gasiers

for distributed electricity: A new three-stage gasication system
Alberto Gmez-Barea a, *, Bo Leckner b, Angel Villanueva Perales a, Susanna Nilsson a, Diego Fuentes Cano a
a
b

University of Seville, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, ETSI, Camino de los descubrimientos sn, Seville 41092, Spain
Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Energy and Environment, Gteborg S-412 96, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 5 June 2011
Accepted 13 December 2011
Available online 22 December 2011

Methods to increase the conversion of char and tar in uidized bed gasiers (FBG) are discussed, with the
focus on small to medium-size biomass/waste gasiers for power production (from 0.5 to 10 MWe).
Optimization of such systems aims at (i) maximizing energy utilization of the fuel (maximizing char
conversion), (ii) minimizing secondary treatment of the gas (by avoiding complex tar cleaning), and
(iii) application in small biomass-to-electricity gasication plants. The efciency of various measures to
increase tar and char conversion within a gasication reactor (primary methods) is discussed. The optimization of FBG by using in-bed catalysts, by addition of steam and enriched air as gasication agent, and
by secondary-air injection, although improving the process, is shown to be insufcient to attain the gas
purity required for burning the gas in an engine to produce electricity. Staged gasication is identied as
the only method capable of reaching the targets mentioned above with reasonable simplicity and cost, so it
is ideal for power production. A promising new stage gasication process is presented. It is based on three
stages: FB devolatilization, non-catalytic air/steam reforming of the gas coming from the devolatilizer, and
chemical ltering of the gas and gasication of the char in a moving bed supplied with the char generated
in the devolatilizer. Design considerations and comparison with one-stage FBG are discussed.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Gasication
Fluidized bed
Char
Tar
Biomass
Optimization

1. Introduction
Gasication is a thermo-chemical route for conversion of solid
fuel into gas used in a variety of applications [1,2]. Gasication in
uidized bed (FB) has several advantages over that in xed/moving
bed or entrained-ow [3]. FB provides high mixing and reaction
rates, accommodates variation in fuel quality, and allows scaling-up
of the process, making it ideal for processing of biomass and waste.
Various concepts have been developed for gasication in FB.
Stand-alone, air-blown, bubbling FB gasication (FBG) is a simple,
directly heated design, but it delivers a gas diluted by nitrogen,
having low heating value (4e6 MJ/Nm3) and high tar content
(10e40 g/Nm3). Medium heating-value gas (10e15 MJ/Nm3) can be
produced by directly heated gasiers using mixtures of oxygen and
steam in one single reactor [4], or by indirectly heated gasiers
using air and steam in a dual FB reactor [5]. In all types of FBG the
tar concentration in the gas is high, since the process temperature is
kept relatively low to prevent agglomeration and sintering of bed
material [1e3]. The low temperature also results in incomplete

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 34 95 4487223; fax: 34 95 4461775.

E-mail address: agomezbarea@esi.us.es (A. Gmez-Barea).
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.12.025

carbon conversion in directly heated FBG. The unconverted char

reduces the efciency of the process and the high concentration of
heavy tars limits the application of the gas to direct thermal
applications, like burning in kilns and boilers. Therefore, applications, such as gas engines, turbines, fuel cells, and conversion of the
gas for synthesis of fuels or chemicals, need extensive and costly
gas cleaning [1].
Fig. 1 illustrates the problem of optimizing a FBG: raising the
temperature increases tar and char conversion, but the danger for
sintering of ash and bed material also increases and sets
a maximum temperature, which mainly depends on the fuel.
Considering the balance between benets and drawbacks associated with the thermal level, the temperature range for the operation of a biomass gasier is between 800 and 900
C. Even at the
highest temperature acceptable, it is difcult to convert heavy tar
compounds in the reactor, so secondary methods for tar removal or
conversion have been developed [6e10]. These methods are based
on physical separation and condensation (wet/physical methods)
and on reforming/cracking of the tar in the hot gas. Wet methods
have been tested, using water [6,7] or organic solvents [8], and have
been reported technically efcient. This way to clean the gas is,
however, too complex and expensive for small or medium-size
plants [1]. The conversion of tar by catalytic reforming/cracking

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A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

Higher

Gas heating value

Lower

Higher

Tar content

Lower

Lower

Char conversion
Sintering

Decreasing risk

700 C

800 C

Agro
fuels

Higher
Increasing risk

900 C

Refused Woody
derived biomass
fuel

1000 C

Coal

Fig. 1. Effect of temperature on parameters and processes during gasication [13].

in a downstream vessel is also efcient [9,10] but catalysts have

technical shortcomings. Novel catalysts, tested in the lab, come up
daily but they need demonstration, so there is no commercially
available catalyst yet [11].
In direct oxygen-blown entrained-ow gasiers the process
temperature is higher than in FBG, producing a gas with minimum
tar content and the char can be fully converted. However, economy
makes such concepts only applicable at very large scale. Indirectly
heated FBG and direct oxygen-blown circulating FBG convert most
of the char, but the tar content of the gas is similar to that in airblown FBG. The complexity and/or cost of these FBG together
with the need for extensive secondary gas cleaning to remove tar
make this option unfeasible for small to medium-size plants for
power production. Only if the gas is used to synthesize high-quality
products like liquid biofuels or synthetic natural gas (SNG), which
demand very large scale, these types of FBG seem applicable. In
combined heat and power plants with high heat demand (like in
northern Europe), this technology may be feasible at medium scale
(a few MWe). It can be concluded that the development of gasication of biomass and waste for the production of distributed
electricity requires improvement of current stand-alone, air-blown,
FBG. The objective of the present work is to assess technical and
economical methods to improve the performance of such systems.
The main requirement is to convert the char and tar in the reactor
itself [12] with a minimum of secondary cleaning, improving the
process efciency and allowing gas utilization in engines.
2. Methods to improve char and tar conversion in FBG
The main requirements for a FBG to be technically feasible for
power production are identied below in terms of efciency of the
process and quality of the gas produced. Thereafter, conversion of
fuel, char, and tar is reviewed to understand the strategies to be
applied to improve FBG.
2.1. Requirements of FBG for power production
The effect of poor conversion of char in a FBG on energy efciency is shown by the following example. One kg of dry and ashfree biomass (daf) is taken as a basis. With a lower heating value
of 18 MJ/kgdaf and a carbon yield in the form of char generated after
devolatilization (kg xed carbon in char/kgdaf) of about 0.18 kg, the
energy content (assuming that the heating value of the carbon in
the char is 33 MJ/kgC) becomes 5.9 MJ/kgdaf or 33% of the energy in
the fuel. In conventional bubbling, directly heated, air-blown FBG,
the char conversion is often below 70%, meaning that an energy
content in the char of 1.8 MJ/kgdaf, or 10% of the energy in the fuel, is
lost. The energy fraction in the tar is relatively lower than that in

the unconverted char: the energy in the tar contained in a gas with
a concentration of 20 gtar/Nm3drygas (taking a heating value 35 MJ/
kgtar) represents less than 1% of the energy in the fuel. Therefore,
the energy in the unconverted char constitutes the most signicant
energy loss that can be recovered in an improved gasier. The
fraction of the char converted has been assumed constant in this
example, but, of course, this value depends on char reactivity,
gasication temperature and reaction time. The latter depends on
the entrainment and mixing of the char in the bed, both related to
gas velocity and char size. The interaction of all these variables is
discussed below.
The need for tar conversion depends on the use of the gas. For
distributed power production by gasication, the most convenient
option is to burn the gas in a gas engine, and this requires tar
reduction. The acceptable limit for tar is usually expressed on the
basis of species concentration, being in the range of 50e100 mg/Nm3.
However, it has been demonstrated that the dew point of the gas is
a more appropriate parameter for engine application: a dew point
below 30
C is recommended. Gas containing 100 mg/Nm3 tar with
a dew point above 70
C has been found to cause engine problems
[1]. Conversely, gas with a tar concentration above 5000 mg/Nm3
having a dew point of 20
C has been used in engines without
technical problems. This shows that the nature of the tar, and not
the tar concentration, is the key parameter for assessment of the
suitability of a gas for engine application.
Apart from tar, the gas from gasication of biomass and waste
contains other contaminants, such as alkaline metals, nitrogen,
chlorine and sulfur compounds, as well as dust. These compounds
can be removed by conventional equipment downstream of the
gasier if it is done before the gas condenses. Conversion of the tar
is preferred, since it increases the heating value of the gas.
2.2. Fundamentals of tar and char conversion in FBG
The fundamentals of char and tar conversion in a FBG have been
dealt with in detail elsewhere [3,13]. Here we only summarize the
main aspects to understand the methods to be described below.
The rate of devolatilization and the yields of primary char, tar, and
light gases vary mainly with the temperature and the heating rate at
which the fuel is transformed. General trends of devolatilization
have been published, where the yields of char, light gas, and tar as
a function of the temperature at various heating rates and particle
sizes are presented for a variety of biomass materials [14]. At the
lowest temperatures (<300
C) char is the main product. At middlerange temperatures (450e550
C) a maximum is observed for
liquids (condensable tar compounds). Further increase of temperature leads to higher production of gas at the expense of tar, while the
proportion of char remains roughly constant. Thermal decomposition of mm-sized particles in a FBG is referred to as primary pyrolysis, occurring in the lower range of temperature during the heating
up of a particle (300e500
C). Thereafter, at bed temperature in
a single-stage FBG (800e900
C), when most volatile matter has
been released, secondary conversion takes place, characterized by
the oxidation and reforming of gas and tar in the gasier. The
conversion of the char also takes place by gasication with CO2 and
steam, since O2 is rapidly consumed by the gas.
The conversion of char and tar is related to the effective time of
reaction with gas and catalysts, which in turn depends on the
residence time of fuel and char particles in the bed and on the local
mixing conditions [15]. Of particular importance is the contact
between char and tar with oxygen and steam and the position
where the fuel particle is devolatilized. Formation of bubbles,
bypassing of gas, entrainment of material and other factors inuence the reaction time [3,15]. The key operation parameter in a FB is
the supercial gas velocity and the properties of the fuel particle

A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

1455

(mainly size and density), determining the degree of mixing and

entrainment in the reactor [3,16]. High supercial velocity
improves solids mixing, but biomass particles with lower density
and larger size than the bed particles can still be non-uniformly
distributed. Char particles more likely circulate in the bed, while
devolatilizing fuel particles tend to oat on the beds surface,
assisted by the lift force of the escaping volatile matter [3].
However, increasing gas velocity enhances entrainment and
decreases the residence time of a particle in the reactor. Entrainment of biomass particles during devolatilization does not play an
important role in a bubbling unit, but entrainment of ner char
particles may be severe.
3. Methods to improve char and tar conversion in
conventional FBG
A directly-heated FBG of a given type and ow rate of biomass
(thermal input) is optimized by adjusting the ow rate of oxygen
(air or enriched air), steam and catalyst or additive, if any, to give
sufcient temperature and time for char and tar conversion (time
for gas mixing and contact with catalysts and char) under the
condition of safe operation (without sintering) [13]. An ideal gasication process should eliminate the need for further complex gas
treatment, and the char should be completely converted in the
gasication reactor. Primary measures that can be applied are:
adjusting the composition and ow rate of the gasication agent,
staging of the gasication agent, and addition of an in-bed catalyst.
The following section discusses the efciency of the current
methods that have been applied for increasing char conversion and
reducing tar in the gas in existing FBG. Most of information discussed is based on experiences acquired during the last decade in
our own rigs, lab (0.5 kg/h), pilot (20 kg/h) and demonstrationscale (500 kg/h) FBG gasiers, as well as data reported in literature, are discussed for the development of the new design
presented in Section 4.
3.1. Temperature
The rise of temperature is the rst measure to be tried, because
it is easily achieved by adjusting the oxygen to fuel ratio. The higher
this ratio, the higher the temperature, and the more the fuel is
converted, but also more gas is burnt, lowering the heating value of
the product gas. This is shown qualitatively in Fig. 1. The danger for
ash sintering limits the operational temperature to a level where
full conversion may not be attained, and the temperature rise
should also be weighted against the decrease of the heating value of
the gas. At the point chosen, the gasier is said to be optimized
from the efciency point of view. Fig. 2, calculated by modeling [3],
helps to understand the conversion of char attained as a function of
residence time at various temperatures. The modeling takes into
account the uid-dynamic and fuel-conversion processes affecting
char conversion, so the residence time on the horizontal axis is the
ratio of the mass of char in the gasier to the xed carbon in the
input fuel-stream (the actual effective time is internally calculated
by the model taking into account entrainment, solid mixing, and
the removal of bed material). The operational data correspond to an
atmospheric air-blown bubbling FBG with an internal diameter of
1 m [17], processing wood pellets. At 800
C the residence time of
the char has to be longer than 0.5 h to achieve a char conversion of
80%. In contrast, at 900
C, the conversion is 10 times faster. The
points in the graph correspond to different airebiomass ratios and
thermal inputs of the gasier, hence, they are affected by the
supercial gas velocity. It is concluded that for a standard residence
time in FBG, about 5e20 min, the char is virtually converted in the
range of temperature of 850e950
C for most biomasses.

Fig. 2. Effect of temperature and char residence time on char conversion in a FBG.
Calculated by modeling based on data from Ref. [3].

There is, in principle, an optimum temperature at which the FBG

should operate. However, the remaining concentration of tar in the
gas is important. Fig. 3 summarizes a result from ECN [18], plotting
tars grouped in four classes and total tar. The rise in temperature
reduces the total tar content because of the dramatic conversion of
heterocyclic tars and the slight conversion of LAH tars. However,
the concentrations of LPAH and HPAH tars increase with temperature. The tar composition, rather than the total tar concentration,
or gravimetric, tar [18], is the key factor in electricity production
where downstream equipment may be affected. Heavy tars (especially HPAH tars) are responsible for fouling and soot formation in
pipes and in a gas engine. The explanation of the effect observed is
that, once the tars are emitted from a particle (at 400e600
C) they
meet the bed temperature, and their chemical nature changes by
breaking of the aliphatic structures into lower hydrocarbon molecules and light gas, as well as by rearrangement of lower hydrocarbon chains to more stable aromatic structures. In general, the
secondary reactions decrease the tar yield but enhance generation
of refractory non-substituted, stable, polyaromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs) [18e21]. It is demonstrated that up to 900
C, PAHs are not
signicantly converted inside the gasier. Similar conclusions have

Fig. 3. Tar content in the gas produced in a biomass gasier as a function of

temperature. Total (gravimetric) tar (black) and tar grouped in four classes are plotted
(see legend): phenols and other high wateresoluble tars (heterocyclic), light aromatic
hydrocarbons (LAH), light polyaromatic hydrocarbons (LPAH), and heavy polyaromatic
hydrocarbons (HPAH). Adapted from Ref. [18].

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A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

Cold Gasification Efficiency

70%

Enriched air (40% O2)

65%

60%

Air (21% O2)

55%
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Steam / SBR
fuel ratio
Fig. 4. Optimization of an autothermal FBG by steam and enriched air as uidization
agent. Adapted from Ref. [20].

temperature of the input steam is limited to that achievable by heat

integration (for instance, by heat exchange with the produced gas)
if the gasication process is conducted autothermically (no external
heat is added). Low-cost oxygen, such as produced by membranes
with a purity of 40%, together with steam, preheated by the hot
produced gas, has been shown to improve the process signicantly,
achieving a carbon conversion of up to 97% [28]. Fig. 4 illustrates the
optimization of the composition of the gasication agent in a pilotscale FBG [20]. The gure shows that steam addition together with
enrichment of the air permits to increase the cold gasication
efciency (chemical energy in the gas/heating value of the fuel), to
a maximum at a certain combination of these parameters. Despite
the increase in efciency, the tar content in the gas is not reduced to
the limit required, and the dew point of the gas is well above
100
C.
3.3. Air staging

been obtained in other work [19e21], and the evidence is that no

FBG operates without tar problems unless an extensive secondary
treatment is applied [1]. We conclude that the temperature at
which the fuel is fully converted into gas is not the optimum for
electricity production, because the gas has a high dew point and
cannot be used in an engine without an extensive secondary
treatment.
3.2. Steam addition
Char and tar reduction in an air-blown FBG can be improved by
adding steam or enriched-air steam mixtures (namely, uidization
agents that can reasonably well be used in small-scale systems,
where addition of pure oxygen is too expensive). Addition of steam
to a directly heated gasier enhances tar reforming and char gasication, improves the quality of the gas, and reduces its tar content
[19,20]. However, steam addition reduces the temperature of the
gasier and more oxygen has to be added to maintain the
temperature level, lowering the heating value of the fuel gas
produced [20]. There is an optimal steam to oxygen ratio where
steam addition, producing CO and H2, positively compensates for
the burnt fuel gas, because char is further converted [19,20]. Steam
addition at high temperature is an effective measure [22], but the

Staging of the gasication agent creates various thermal levels

in the gasier. The principle is illustrated in Fig. 5(a). Staging by
injection of secondary air has been tested in conventional FBG at
pilot scale [21,23,24]. In the secondary-air injection arrangement,
a portion of the inlet oxygen is conducted to a port in the upper part
of the bed or in the freeboard. Fig. 5(b) shows the temperature
prole attained in a demonstration FBG [17]. There are two main
temperature levels in the gasier: one in the bed, where the
temperature is highly uniform due to intense mixing, and one in
the freeboard, with a temperature that levels off slightly with
height. A considerable tar reduction, especially of heterocyclic and
LPAH tars (especially naphthalene), from 15 to 5 g/Nm3, was achieved in that system [17]. More signicant reduction of tar has been
reported [24], up to 1 g/Nm3. However, in this case the air ratio was
increased simultaneously with the re-distribution of air, and more
gas is burnt, lowering the heating value of the gas. In addition, the
bed was operated in an external oven, so it was not possible to draw
any conclusion about tar reduction during autothermal operation.
Injection of secondary air at constant air ratio, i.e. to analyze the
effect of injection in an isolated way, and applying a control system
to simulate autothermal operation, was studied in a 100 kWth pilot
plant [21], showing reduction of tar in agreement with Ref. [17]. In
Ref. [21] an effective reduction of phenols and other light tar

Fig. 5. (a) Conceptual diagram of staging of the gasication process by injection of secondary air. (b) Experimental temperature prole measured in a demonstration FBG with
secondary-air injection. Data taken from internal reports mentioned in Ref. [17].

A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

compounds was achieved, but the total tar concentration was still
high (a few grams per Nm3), and the proportion of stable aromatic
tar compounds in the gas increased signicantly. Staging of the
gasication agent, oxygen and steam, despite being potentially
interesting, has not been reported. In any case, it seems that a more
distinct division of zones in the gasier is necessary to achieve the
tar reduction required. This makes it necessary to leave the
conventional design, as we will show in the new process introduced in Section 4.
3.4. Catalysts
An in-bed catalyst has a great inuence on the cracking and/or
reforming reactions [6,9e11]. Enhancement of local gas and solids
mixing is necessary for the efciency of the catalyst. Typical in-bed
catalysts are calcined limestone, dolomite, and olivine sand and,
less frequently, Ni-based or other metallic catalysts. The use of
cheap catalysts, such as natural mineral (dolomite, olivine, etc.)
reduces tar concentrations down to 0.5 g/Nm3. Fig. 6 shows the
dew point of the exit gas from a pilot FBG for 6 runs where two
types of catalyst were tested for different operating conditions
(equivalence ratios, ER). It is shown that the dew point is above
170
C, without signicant reduction between the tests. In spite of
this high dew point, the total tar concentration in the gas was
reduced by a factor of 5, from about 16 g/Nm3 down to 3 g/Nm3
[21]. This result points out that small amounts of heavy tar
contribute signicantly to the dew point of the gas, and this will
cause problems in applications where the gas has to be cooled to
the ambient temperature, so this method has to be complemented
by secondary treatment.
More effective catalysts, such as those based on nickel, improve
tar reduction in the bed, but their rapid degradation makes this
option less suitable. Ni-based catalysts are preferred in downstream vessels, but deactivation is still a problem to be solved [12].
Carbonaceous materials like activated carbon also have been found
to have catalytic activity for tar reduction [12,25e28]. Char generated in the process acts as a catalyst enhanced by the alkali and
alkaline earth-metals remaining in its structure, especially potassium in the form of carbonates, hydroxides or oxides, which affects
steam reforming of the nascent tar [26,27]. During the conversion
process, char undergoes signicant transformation, while it is
gasied by steam. Polymerization of PAH compounds in the char at
temperatures above 700
C [28] lowers the rate of char gasication
with steam, whereas below 600
C the char acts as a tar lter
reducing signicantly the tar concentration without being gasied.
To give a rough idea on the effectiveness of distinct catalysts,
experimental ndings [25] are illustrated in Fig. 7, taking

180

Alumina

175

170
0.2

Lime

0.25

0.3

0.35

naphthalene as a model compound. The measurements were made

in a xed bed with 0.3 s residence time at 900
C, using two initial
tar concentrations (40 and 80 mg/Nm3). Naphthalene is shown to
be thermally stable at 900
C (only 2% was converted over silica
sand), whereas it is more converted with dolomite and olivine, and
almost fully converted in the presence of nickel-based catalyst and
char. Two types of biomass char are shown, one from pine and one
commercially available, leading to similar conversion behavior. It is
concluded that char effectively converts the heavy tar compounds
in the conditions tested. A secondary, xed bed reactor, with this
material could be effective, but the situation in a FBG differs from
that in a xed bed: the proportion of char is low in standard FBG
and the contact of tar with in-situ generated char is difcult due to
mass-transfer effects in the gas bubbles and bypassing of gas. It is
difcult to achieve a reasonable conversion in a single vessel owing
to these uid-dynamic effects, but staged gasication could make
this concept possible, as we will see below.
3.5. Conclusion on reduction of tar by operational primary
measures
The impact of the primary measures discussed can be improved
if the effect of these measures on different tar compounds is
understood [3,12,13,18,21]. The main conclusions are the following:
(i) water-soluble tar (heterocyclic) is effectively reduced by
increasing the temperature in the freeboard through injection of
secondary air as a consequence of the enhanced oxygenetar
contact, contributing to oxidation and reforming. (ii) Light
aromatic hydrocarbons, including benzene (LAH) are effectively
removed by increasing ER. (iii) 2e3 Rings polyaromatic hydrocarbons (LPAH), naphthalene being the most important component in
the mixture, are converted only within limited operation conditions, i.e. by a smart combination of ER, catalyst, and composition of
the uidization agent. For a given FBG there is a limited throughput
for which the above is true. (iv) The 4e5 rings polyaromatic
hydrocarbons (HPAH) are converted to a similar extent as LPAH
tars. However, even a very low concentration of HPAH tars greatly
limits the use of the gas, because these tars determine to a great
extent the dew point of the product gas. The reduction of HPAH tars
with primary measures has been shown to be insufcient for
lowering the dew point of the gas to the target level (20e40
C).
As a main conclusion, the combined use of cheap in-bed catalysts (mineral rocks and char), injection of secondary air, and
optimization of the composition of the gasication agent in
conventional FBG designs, despite improving the process, has been
shown to be insufcient to attain the gas quality required in power
production with gas engines. It is concluded that further measures
involving redesign of the gasier/process are necessary, i.e. innovative designs should be developed.

Naphthalene
conversion (%)

Gas dew point (C)

185

1457

100

100

94.4

99.6

73.7

80

55

60

61

60.3

40
20
0

0.4

ER=fed O2 / stoichiometric O2
Fig. 6. The effect on the tar dew point of the gas of various catalysts used in-bed in
a FBG. Adapted from Ref. [21].

Fig. 7. Effect of various catalysts on naphthalene conversion at 900
C and 0.3 s residence time of the gas. Adapted from Abu El-Rub et al. [25].

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A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

3.6. New developments based on staged gasication

It was shown that primary measures in conventional, directly
heated, FBG are not sufcient for tar reduction. Indirectly heated
gasiers, consisting of dual beds, convert most of the char, but the
tar problem remains, so expensive secondary cleaning of the gas
cannot be avoided. Therefore, staged gasication in directly
heated gasiers has been proposed as an alternative, searching
for high conversion of both tar and char in the reactor itself
[29e39].
Staged gasication creates zones in the gasier, which enable to
optimize the process by increasing simultaneously the conversion
of char and tar. The essential idea is similar to that conceptualized
in Fig. 5, but here a more distinct zone division than that of
secondary-air injection is brought about by dedicated design.
Various thermal levels are created in the gasier by staging the
oxidant: the fuel is devolatilized at relatively low temperature by
decreasing the amount of oxygen supplied to the devolatilization
zone; the temperature is increased in a second zone by addition of
the remaining oxygen together with steam. This two-stage procedure favors the conversion of tar because it creates a gas with highreactive tar compounds at high temperature in the presence of
steam (non-catalytic gas-phase reforming). If the char generated is
used to form a third stage (see Fig. 8), the char can be gasied with
steam and further tar can be converted. In Fig. 8 devolatilization is
conducted without addition of oxygen [34]. The heat for pyrolysis
comes from the gas generated in the second stage, transported by
successive heat exchanges (not shown in the gure).
A few innovative processes have been proposed based on staged
gasication. Examples are processes like CASST, developed at
Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands [35], the TSG at Danish
Technical University in xed bed [34] and uidized bed [36], STARMEET at Tokyo Institute of Technology [29], CleanStgGas at ITE Graz
University of Technology [37], and other [38,39]. In most gasiers of
this type the char is converted by gasication (with steam or CO2),
so the efciency of the process depends on how the conversion is
organized. The char gasication reactions are slow, and it is
necessary to provide long residence time to attain signicant char
conversion. Therefore, such processes generally have been based on

Biomass

Pyrolysis unit

Gasification unit

Heat

Pyrolysis gas,
tar and char
Steam+
Air

Char bed

Gas with low

tar content
Fig. 8. Staged gasication with three stages [34].

xed bed designs where this can be achieved easier. A process

combining uidized and moving beds [38,39] has been suggested
recently, oriented to the conversion of difcult waste with high fuel
utilization, but the tar content in the gas is still high.
4. FLETGAS: a new method to improve the performance of
biomass/waste FBG
4.1. Guidelines to be considered for the new development
The main lessons learned from stand-alone, directly heated, FBG
constitute the basis for the development of the new gasication
system described below, summarized as follows:
e Increasing the temperature of the gasier enhances both char
conversion and thermal cracking and reforming of tars. In an
autothermal FBG the temperature is increased by raising the
oxygen to fuel ratio, but the increment of oxygen further burns
the light gases, which reduces the process efciency. In the
range of temperature achievable in conventional FBG
(800e900
C) the tar compounds are only partially converted
in the reactor, and the share of heavy polyaromatic tars is
increased.
e Measures for tar reduction, such as stratication of the gasication agent by secondary injection or increasing the residence
time of tar in the reactor by feeding the fuel at the bottom,
reduce the total amount of tar in the gas but lead to more stable
and heavy (polyaromatic) tar compounds in the gas, which
increases the dew point of the produced gas.
e Addition of cheap, solid, catalysts (based on mineral rocks) and
steam signicantly enhances tar reforming, which reduces the
tar concentration in the gas, but these measures are still not
sufcient for the gas quality required for power application.
Other catalysts, such as those based on nickel, are more efcient for tar reforming but, besides the high cost, they deactivate rapidly in the bed and contaminate the ash, so they are not
adequate as a material to be added to the bed.
e The contact of steam, oxygen and char with freshly generated
tar could effectively reduce the tar. However, this is not
possible in conventional FBG due to the lack of contact time
caused by bypassing of gas through bubbles and the low
proportion of char in the bed.
e The risk for agglomeration of the ashes from biomasses or
wastes limits the temperature of the gasier, and the gasication efciency is low due to the high amount of carbon in the
output ash. Particularly, in wastes with high-ash content, bed
extraction to maintain the process pressure lowers the efciency because of the high content of carbon and sensible heat
contained in the extracted material. It is necessary to nd
a different design to favor char conversion in these cases.
e The staged gasication designs developed up to now are xed
or moving beds. In order to carry out staged gasication,
enabling high throughput as well as adaption to a variety of fuel
size and quality, uidized bed is desired.

4.2. FLETGAS concept

Following the above guidelines, a new design is proposed where
a separation of process steps is made to distribute the gas and solids
into convenient zones of temperature and composition of gasication agent. Fig. 9 summarizes the main processes occurring in
each part of the system. The justication for the creation of three
stages is found in the previous discussion. The process steps (or
stages) are as follows:

A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

 The rst stage is a uidized bed gasier whose temperature

is kept below 800
C and, in fact, with this low temperature
it is a devolatilizer with negligible char or tar conversion.
This stage yields a gas with high content of fresh tar, with
low proportion of aromatized tars, due to the relatively low
temperature and residence time in the devolatilizer, so it is
highly reactive toward steam reforming as was explained
above (Section 3.1).
 In the second stage, the gas from the devolatilization stage is
reformed at high temperature in a steam-rich atmosphere. In
this zone the highest temperature of the system is achieved by
injection of enriched air and steam. The maximum temperature is in the order of 1200
C, i.e. that required for reaching
high tar conversion as discussed in Section 3. The amount of
oxygen injected is determined by the maximum temperature
required for the reforming, as detailed below.
 In the last stage, the char generated (well devolatilized but
poorly gasied due to the low temperature of the devolatilizer)
forms a packed, down-draft, bed serving as a catalyst lter for
tar reduction and gas quenching (the endothermic char gasication reactions lower the gas as well as the bed temperature). The benets of char as catalyst in this third stage is
increased compared to the conventional FBG, i.e. uidized bed
in a single-stage design, because the contact time between char
and tar is signicantly increased.
In summary: the gasication concept described is based on
three stages: 1) FB devolatilization, 2) non-catalytic air/steam
reforming of the gas coming from the devolatilizer, and 3) chemical
ltering of the gas and gasication of the char in a moving bed
supplied with the char generated in the devolatilizer.

4.3. Assessment of system performance by modeling

In order to establish the principle layout of the system, a series
of analyses were carried out. Two main challenges are obvious in
the development of the concept: (i) to know the optimal operation
conditions for a given biomass (yields of gas, char and tar),
including the understanding of the tar decomposition under
different operation conditions (temperature, steam concentration
and residence time) and (ii) the uid-dynamics of the system
(movement of gas and solids from one segment of the system to
another). Dried sewage sludge was taken as reference fuel for the
Enriched Air

Steam reforming of fresh tar

with steam at high T

HT Steam

Rapid devolatilization
at low T
High yield of tar
Gas seal
Solid
transport

Fuel

Char gasification
Catalytic tar reforming
Particle filtering
Gas quenching

Gas out
Air
Steam

Air

Steam

Solids out

Fig. 9. Basis for the conceptual development of the FLETGAS process with indication of
the essential steps occurring in various parts of the system.

1459

process development because of its high-ash content, and

furthermore, the ash has a certain catalytic activity.
The uid-dynamic behavior was studied by means of a cold test
rig [40]. The cold rig was scaled-down from an imaginary 2 MWe
gasication plant operating with dried sewage sludge following
similarity rules of FB [41]. A uid-dynamic model was developed
for this system to theoretically predict the movement of gas and
solids, and the distribution of solids mass between the various
sections of the system [40].
The conversion behavior of various fuels was studied in experiments with special focus on dried sewage sludge. Devolatilization
[42], char gasication [43], and tar conversion [44] tests were
conducted in a bench-scale rig, which can work in uidized and
xed bed mode. These results, together with some work still to be
published, form the input to a model of the system including the
chemical conversion of char and tar. So far a process model has been
developed to simulate the system under various conditions [45].
4.4. Design considerations and layout of the FLETGAS system
4.4.1. The devolatilizer
The devolatilizer is operated at a temperature, suitable for
release of most volatile gases from the fuel, but the requirement for
substantial char gasication (high temperature) does not have to be
satised in this component of the system. This means a bed
temperature somewhere between 700 and 750
C. Air and steam
are added for uidization at low velocity, sufcient for satisfactory
uidization of the entire bed. The amount of air added is that
needed to reach the desired temperature. If necessary for uidization, more gas is supplied in the form of steam, but, as
mentioned, signicant gasication is not expected. The cross
section of the bed Ab is determined by the fuel feed rate F and the
desired uidization velocity. The depth of the bed H is estimated
considering the residence time needed for devolatilization of the
fuel sd compared to the mean residence time of a fuel particle in
a well-stirred bed sbed. Here

sd adb
sbed Ab Hr=F1  Yvol
where d is the initial equivalent diameter of a fuel particle and Yvol
the fraction of volatiles released from the particle, r is the bed
density, and a and b are empirical coefcients found in literature for
different fuels. (1  Yvol) is the solid, non-devolatilized part of the
fuel, i.e. the char, mainly made of ash and carbon. Specic data for
the fuel of reference (dried sewage sludge) can be found in Refs.
[42] and [43].
The bed height H is given by sd > nsbed, namely, the devolatilization time should be greater than a certain multiple n, to be
determined by experiments, of the average residence time of the
solid part of the fuel in the bed. Already here, we note a complication because the residual solid may be quite variable for different
fuels. For instance, sewage sludge, having a high content of ashes
(around 50% on dry basis), could be compared with wood, containing less than 1% of ash: the amount of solids, and hence, the
residence time, is smaller for sludge than for biomass. Another
consideration to be taken into account is the amount of inert
material for different fuels: whereas a high proportion of inert
material forms the bed during conversion of wood, minor amounts
are needed for dried sewage sludge, whose ash/char particles can
be properly uidized. The system is dimensioned for a reference
fuel, and it will have to be adjusted by changing process conditions
to some extent, corresponding to the properties of another fuel, to
perform in a satisfactory way.

1460

A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

The fuel can be fed onto the beds surface. Devolatilizing fuel
particles are known to oat on the surface of the bed, and the bed is
not as well mixed as assumed for simplicity above. Since the
devolatilizing fuel particles move rapidly to the top of the bed in
any case, even if they are introduced at the bottom, it is an
advantage to design for fuel feed onto the surface of the bed,
removing potential problems involved in feeding against a counter
pressure (such as at the bottom of the bed). When the devolatilization is complete, the fuel particles (the char) are no longer lifted
by the released volatile gases but circulate in the entire bed. An
internal vertical division in the bed (not shown in Fig.10) establishes the required solids circulation pattern in the system.
4.4.2. The reformer
The gas ows out of the bed and enters the reformer located
downstream with a temperature of 700e750
C. As has been
pointed out before, the fresh tar compounds are reactive and the tar
is drastically reduced in the reformer, where a gas temperature of
up to 1200
C is created by partial combustion of air. The injection
of steam into the reformer avoids coking and polymerization of tar.
The steam temperature, about 450
C, is attained by heat exchange
with the hot outlet product gas, reproducing the behavior of an
industrial autothermal gasier. The optimum conditions to reform
different tars can be found by dedicated experiments, such as those
described in Ref. [44] and references therein. Conversion of the
various tar compounds under different operating conditions using
a variety of kinetic data of tar cracking and reforming has been
investigated also by modeling [3,45].
4.4.3. The moving bed: tar reforming and char gasication in the
third stage
The solids (char and ash) are transferred from the devolatilizer
to the moving, packed bed, composed of char and ashes, which
descend in the nal step of the equipment located in the shaft that
follows the gas reforming step. The reformer gas passes this bed
and transfers its heat to the bed. This bed acts as a catalytic lter,
promoting tar decomposition reactions with simultaneous steam
gasication, the latter cooling down gas and bed (chemical quench)
by the endothermic char gasication reaction with steam. Hence,
this bed is a combined heat and mass exchanger, whose number of
transfer units (length, at a given temperature difference) determines its performance [45]. The length of the moving bed is
determined by the maximum of the following two values: (i) that
enabling complete conversion of the tar, and (ii) that for complete
conversion of char. The kinetics used for the design of the pilot
plant are specied elsewhere [45]. The cross section is selected by
considering the share between excessive pressure drop in the xed
bed and to have proper distribution of gas and solid in the bed.
Finally, the ashes exit the bed containing very little carbon in the
case of a successful design, and likewise, the gas has a negligible
concentration of tar after passing the two reduction steps. The low
temperature of the gas and solids streams leaving the system
contributes to attain a product gas with higher chemical energy
and, therefore, increases the gasication efciency of the system.

likely to be removed prematurely through the overow from the

devolatilizer. These inconveniences can be solved by a loop seal, fed
with solids from the bottom of the uidized bed but still working
with overow, such as shown in Fig. 10.
The direction of the ows of solids (biomass, bed material and
char) and gas (inlet ows of the uidization agent) is indicated in
Fig. 10 (the arrows indicate the direction of solids and gas ows).
The right-hand side of the loop seal is always lled and delivers its
solids to the moving bed by overow. The loop seal can be operated
as an oxidizer (fed with air) or as a light reformer (fed with H2O)
depending on the fuels reactivity and the ash properties. However,
its temperature is low (similar to that of the FB) and any reaction
except oxidation would be slow. A control valve can be used to
adjust the pressures in the system by increasing the solid inventory
in the seal. When the valve is partly closed it increases the pressure
on the FB side, which decreases the height of the left-hand column
of the seal, while the other column works as before. Whether the
valve is needed or not in industrial developments can be determined when experiences of pilot plant operation have been
acquired.
4.4.5. Air supply system
Air and steam can be injected at various points (in the devolatilizer, steam reformer and seal) with different proportions of the
two reactants. Enriched air, with an oxygen concentration of up to
40%, (for instance, produced by membranes to keep the cost
reasonably low) can be used instead of air to increase the heating
value of the gas produced. With dry sewage sludge and hot air the
amount of air added to the FB devolatilizer is 10e20% of stoichiometric air for complete combustion, while the corresponding air
quantity added to the reformer would be a similar quantity. Air
addition to the loop seal is typically 5 times lower than that fed in
devolatilizer and tar reformer. The total amount of oxygen to be fed
in the new system should be equal or, ideally, lower than that fed to
a one-stage FBG, in the order of 0.3e0.4 for dried sewage sludge.
The essential idea of the new system is to use a similar oxygen
quantity as to a conventional FBG but with a distribution between
injection points that increases as much as possible the conversion
of tar, char and global efciency. This is better understood in the
simulation example below.

VALVE

NONCATALYTIC
REFORMER

Fuel

DEVOLATILIZER

4.4.4. Solids transfer: the seal

The solids should be transferred from the devolatilizing bed to
the char and tar reduction bed. In the simplest possible case, this
transfer can be achieved by overow from the devolatilization
reactor to the moving bed, placed in a lower position with the
reformer above. However, in such a case the particles would have to
pass the reformer, being in contact with its high-temperature zone,
and such an arrangement leads to a danger of melting of particles
and has to be tested in practice. Moreover, in this arrangement the
devolatilizing fuel particles, moving on the surface of the bed, are

Steam +
Enriched Air

LOOP-SEAL

CHAR
CONVERTER

Fuel
gas

Ash
Steam +
Enriched Air

Steam +
Enriched Air
GAS

SOLID

Fig. 10. Diagram of the performance of the FLETGAS process with indication of solid
and gas ows (with arrows).

A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

One stage
Produced
Gas

1461

Three stages
T max = 1200 C

Air

T = 750 C

T = 820 C

T = 660 C

Tin = 1120 C

Fuel

Fuel

Tout = 880 C
Air
Steam

Air

Produced
gas

Air
Solids out

Gasification efficiency: 67%

Char conversion: 59%
Tar content produced gas: 31 g/Nm3

Gasification efficiency: 81%

Char conversion: 98%
Tar content produced gas: 0.01 g/Nm3

Fig. 11. Comparison between a single-stage FBG and a three-stage FBG system (FLETGAS) for sewage sludge gasication (maximum temperature set at the bed 820
C).

4.5. Sample calculation

Fig. 11 shows simulation results from a comparison of a singlestage FBG and the proposed three-stage system burning dried
sewage sludge. In order to compare the performance of the
proposed three-staged gasier to one-stage FBG [17], the simulation of the single-stage FBG was made with a bed temperature of
820
C [45], which was the maximum temperature achievable in
the FBG without problems of bed sintering. The three-staged
gasier was simulated using the same air-to-fuel ratio as the onestage unit, but distributing the air in the various components [45].
The most relevant temperatures calculated in the three-stage
system are visualized in Fig. 11: 750
C in the bed, 1200
C as
peak temperature in the homogeneous reformer and 880
C at the
exit (gas and solid have similar temperature at the exit of the xed
bed). The quench effect is also noted by a temperature drop of
240
C in the xed bed. The efciency, char and tar conversion in
the two systems are indicated below respective gasier in Fig. 11. A
great improvement is observed, as expected, in the proposed
system.

presented here. The new process is promising, because it increases

the exibility and capacity of existing staged gasication developments. In the new system the char conversion is increased leading
to higher process efciency, while the heavy tar content in the gas
is virtually converted inside the system, leading to a gas with a low
enough dew point for burning in a gas engine. The system is
especially suitable for high-ash fuels, improving the performance of
conventional FBG where discharge of bed material to maintain the
bed inventory leads to poor efciency. Conceptual design of the
FLETGAS process is reported and comparison with conventional,
stand-alone FBG is made to illustrate the main advantages of the
three-stage concept. The FLETGAS process is still under development at pilot scale.
Acknowledgements
This work was nanced by the Junta de Andaluca under the
project FLETGAS.
List of symbols and acronyms

5. Conclusions
Measures to optimize fuel conversion have been discussed in
order to achieve high tar and char conversion in FBG for biomass
and waste. Treatment of tarry gas downstream of the gasier is
complex and expensive for power production in small and
medium-size gasication plants, so methods to improve tar
conversion within the gasier (primary methods) are preferred for
such plants. The optimization of conventional FBG by primary
methods such as in-bed catalysts, addition of steam and enriched
air, and secondary-air injection, although improving the process, is
shown to be insufcient to attain the gas purity required for
burning the gas in an engine to produce electricity. Staged gasication creates zones in the gasier, which promote high conversion
of char and tar and, therefore, it is an effective way to conduct
gasication. Various developments for small-scale gasication have
been proposed over the last decade based on xed bed, but none of
them has still reached commercial status. A new three-stage
gasier (FLETGAS), based on a uidized bed design, has been

a
Ab
b
d
ECN
ER
F
FB
FBG
H
HPAH
LAH
LPAH
PAH
Yvol

r
sd
sbed

coefcient (e)
cross section of the bed (m2)
coefcient (e)
equivalent diameter of fuel particle (m)
Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands
equivalence ratio (e)
fuel feed rate (kg/s)
uidized bed
uidized bed gasier
height (m)
heavy PAH
light aromatic hydrocarbon
light PAH
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
mass fraction of volatiles in the fuel (e)
density of bed (kg/m3)
devolatilization time (s)
mean residence time of fuel in the bed (s)

1462

A. Gmez-Barea et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 1453e1462

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