CO2 gasification of elephant grass in a fixed bed reactor

In order to supply the growing world demand of energy and relieve the global warming, biomass is considered a potential clean energy source. In this work, the thermochemical conversion of the elephant grass, through CO 2 gasification, for the production of a combustible gas was evaluated. The gasification experiment was conducted at the temperature of 900 °C for 90 min under a carbon dioxide atmosphere. CO presented a maximum production rate of 2.25 mmol/min.g biomass and a maximum concentration of 82 %mol/mol. The fuel gas produced had an average high heating value of 8.5 MJ/Nm³. Considerable hydrogen production rates were observed throughout the experiment. The experiment had an energy yield of 28.4 kJ/g biomass . Tar produced was mainly composed of primary products and phenolic derivatives compounds. The results showed that CO 2 gasification of elephant grass has the potential to produce a combustible gas allowing the reduction of CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere. http://dx.doi.org/10.18226/23185279.v6iss3p27