Biomass Derived Syngas Cleaning Technologies : Implementation of catalytic cracking as the hot gas cleaning technology in palm shell gasification process

One of the fundamental steps to the successful operation of biomass gasification technologies for power generation is the efficiency of the gas cleaning step. Catalytic cracking is selected as the hot gas cleaning technology for this research using zeolite HZSM-5 catalyst in order to reduce tar produced from palm shells gasification in the laboratory scale fixed bed gasifier. The catalyst load of 2, 5 and 10 weight % of the weight of palms shells has been tested in experiment. Gas chromatographic analysis of the tar produced has been conducted along with the study of biomass gasification index (BGI), emissions of CO, NO, and SO2. Furthermore, suitable correlations for the tar removal cleanup for syngas derived from biomass palm shells at different operating parameters when using HZSM-5 catalyst have been developed from the interpolation of the experimental data obtained.