Reduction of tar content in synthesis gas production from fluidized bed gasification of raw and torrefied empty fruit bunch.

This paper presents evaluation of cleaning system for reducing tar content in synthesis gas production from fluidized bed gasification. Two types of feedstocks were used namely raw and torrefied empty fruit bunch (EFB) due to its abundances, availability and potential as renewable energy source in Malaysia. Based on gasification experimental works, raw and torrefied EFB produce synthesis gas yields of 1.11 and 1.28 Nm3/kg as well as tar contents of 11821 and 14774 mg/Nm3 respectively. Cleaning system consists of cyclone separator, wet scrubber and biomass filter was used for tar removal. Based on cleaning system, tar contents were successfully reduced to 266 mg/Nm3 in the case of raw EFB and 474 mg/Nm3 tar content was remained in the case of torrefied EFB. This contributes to overall tar reduction reaches 97.75% and 96.79% for raw and torrefied EFB respectively indicating the proposed cleaning system is able to reduce tar content for raw and torrefied EFB. Correlation between pressure drop and tar removal efficiency was established and shows an increment of pressure drop leads to the rise of tar removal efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]