Coal replacement with hydrogen is a strategy for reducing carbon emissions from high-temperature industrial processes. Hydrogen lancing is a direct way for introducing hydrogen to existing coal-fired kilns. This work investigates the effects of hydrogen lancing on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions and ignition behaviour in a pilot-scale furnace that employs a 30 % coal replacement with hydrogen lancing. The investigation encompasses the impacts of lancing distance, angling, and velocity. Advanced measurement techniques, including spectrometry and monochromatic digital cameras, characterise the flame and assess emissions. The results indicate that the 30 % coal replacement by hydrogen lancing enhances combustion and reduces the emissions of carbon monoxides (CO). The flame characteristics vary with the location of the hydrogen injection, generally becoming more-intense than during coal combustion. NOx emissions during lancing are similar or up to double the emissions observed for pure coal combustion, depending on the lancing configuration. Increasing the distance between the hydrogen lance and coal burner increases NOx emissions. 

Pyrolysis oil (PO) derived from biomass has the potential to serve as a renewable feedstock for future carbon black (CB) production. However, its composition is significantly different from the fossil feedstocks currently used for CB manufacturing, as it contains higher concentrations of oxygen and water that might influence the yield and nanostructure of CB. In this article, we examine how the water content in PO affects the production of CB at high-temperature pyrolysis (1400-1600 °C) in an electrically heated entrained flow reactor. The main objective was to investigate the influence of water content on the yield and quality of the CB produced from upgraded PO with varying inherent water contents (0-20 wt %). The experiments in this work were performed with model compounds to simulate an upgraded PO. The produced CB was characterized by using several analytical techniques, including elemental composition, powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and nitrogen physisorption. The results show a clear correlation between the water content in the PO feedstock and the output of CB, showing a reduced yield of CB as the water content increases. These results highlight the crucial role of feedstock composition in making PO a viable renewable feedstock for CB production.

The grate-kiln process for iron-ore pellet induration utilizes pulverized coal fired burners. In a developed infrastructure for H2, it might be desirable to heat the existing rotary kilns with renewably produced H2. Technical challenges of H2 heating of grate-kilns include high emissions of NOX and maintaining sufficient heat transfer to the pellet bed. This article examined cofiring (70% coal/30% H2) in 130 kW experiments using two different integrated burner concepts. Compared to pure coal combustion, cofiring creates a more intense, smaller flame with earlier ignition and less fluctuations. The process temperature and heat transfer are enhanced in the beginning of the kiln. The co-fired flames emit 32% and 78% less NOX emissions compared to pure coal and H2 combustion, respectively. We can affect the combustion behavior and NOX emissions by the burner design. H2/coal cofiring using integrated burners is probably an attractive solution for emission minimization in rotary kilns.

The efficiency of the gasification process and product quality largely depend on the degree of fuel conversion. We present the real-time in-situ tunable diode laser measurements of main carbon and oxygen-containing species in the hot reactor core of a pilot-scale entrained flow biomass gasifier (EFG). The concentrations of CO, CO2, CH4, C2H2, H2O, soot, and gas temperature were measured during the air and oxygen-enriched gasification of stem wood at varying equivalence ratios. The experiments were made at the upper and lower optical ports inside a 4 m long, ceramic-lined, atmospheric EFG, allowing to access the degree of the fuel conversion inside the reactor. The exhaust composition was measured by micro-GC, FTIR, and low-pressure impactor. There was a good agreement between the data measured inside the reactor and at the exhaust for oxygen-enriched gasification implying that the chemical reactions are practically frozen downstream the optical ports. For air, the data indicated that the gasification reactions are still active at the measurement locations. Significant concentrations of C2H2, up to 5000 ppm, were found inside the reactor. 

This work describes the morphological and material changes in the iron powder during four regeneration-combustion cycles. The regeneration in H2 and combustion in air experiments were made in a fluidized bed (FB) and an entrained flow reactor (EFR), respectively. The average size of the iron oxide particles more than doubled between the first and fourth combustion cycles, and many of the particles were hollow. The regeneration step did not change the size of the particles but increased their porosity. A mechanism is proposed that describes the formation of large-diameter hollow particles which increases as a function of the regeneration-combustion cycles. The observed increase in particle size and the change in particle morphology complicates the iron fuel concept, as it leads to a degradation of the structural stability of the particle with time.

Photofragmentation tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (PF-TDLAS) was used to simultaneously measure the concentrations of gas phase atomic potassium (K), potassium hydroxide (KOH) and potassium chloride (KCl) in the reactor core of a 140 kWth atmospheric entrained-flow gasifier (EFG). In two gasification experiments at air-to-fuel equivalence ratio of 0.5, the EFG was first run on forest residues (FR) and then on an 80/20 mixture of FR and wheat straw (FR/WS). Combustion at air-to-fuel equivalence ratio of 1.3 was investigated for comparison. A high K(g) absorbance was observed in gasification, requiring the photofragmentation signals from KOH(g) and KCl(g) to be recorded at a fixed detuning of 7.3 cm-1 from the center of the K(g) absorption profile. In combustion, the fragments recombined instantly after the UV pulse within around 10 μs, whereas in gasification, the K(g) fragment concentration first increased further for 30 μs after the UV pulse, before slowly decaying for up to hundreds of μs. According to 0D reaction kinetics simulations, this could be explained by a difference in recombination kinetics, which is dominated by oxygen reactions in combustion and by hydrogen reactions in gasification. The K species concentrations in the EFG were stable on average, but periodic short-term variations due to fuel feeding were observed, as well as a gradual increase in KOH(g) over the day as the reactor approached global equilibrium. A comparison of the average K species concentrations towards the end of each experiment showed a higher total K in the gas phase for FR/WS, with higher K(g) and KCl(g), but lower KOH(g), compared to the FR fuel. The measured values were in reasonable agreement with predictions by thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. © 2022 The Author(s). 

Methane is one of the main gas species produced during biomass gasification and may be a desired or undesired product. Syngas CH4 concentrations are typically >5 vol-% (when desired) and 1–3 vol-% even when efforts are made to minimize it, while thermochemical equilibrium calculations (TEC) predict complete CH4 decomposition. How CH4 is generated and sustained in the reactor core is not well understood. To investigate this, accurate quantification of the CH4 concentration during the process is a necessary first step. We present results from rapid in situ measurements of CH4, soot volume fraction, H2O and gas temperature in the reactor core of an atmospheric entrained-flow biomass gasifier, obtained using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) in the near-infrared (1.4 µm) and mid-infrared (3.1 µm) region. An 80/20 wt% mixture of forest residues and wheat straw was converted using oxygen-enriched air (O2>21 vol%) as oxidizer, while the global air-fuel equivalence ratio (AFR) was set to values between 0.3 and 0.7. Combustion at AFR 1.3 was performed as a reference. The results show that the CH4 concentration increased from 1 to 3 vol-% with decreasing AFR, and strongly correlated with soot production. In general, the TDLAS measurements are in good agreement with extractive diagnostics at the reactor outlet and TEC under fuel-lean conditions, but deviate significantly for lower AFR. Detailed 0D chemical reaction kinetics simulations suggest that the CH4 produced in the upper part of the reactor at temperatures >1700 K was fully decomposed, while the CH4 in the final syngas originated from the pyrolysis of fuel particles at temperatures below 1400 K in the lower section of the reactor core. It is shown that the process efficiency was significantly reduced due to the C and H atoms bound in methane and soot. © 2021 The Authors

The precise control of bio-based combustion is challenging due to the varying composition and moisture content of the fuels, difficulties in achieving stable fuel feeding, and complex underlying thermochemical processes. We present simultaneous online diagnostics of two combustion parameters, the equivalence ratio and fuel moisture content, in a pilot-scale environment. The parameters were evaluated by analysing the H2O and CO2 concentrations. These were measured using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer (exhaust) and tuneable diode laser (TDL) absorption spectroscopy (combustion chamber) in pilot-scale diesel and pulverized biomass combustion. Liquid H2O was added into the combustion chamber to represent fuel moisture. The equivalence ratio of diesel and wood combustion was varied by adjusting the flows of combustion air in a staged manner or by using rapid periodic variations (on the order of seconds). The moisture fuel levels calculated using the measured fuel and water flow rates (flow method) and the FTIR and TDL H2O and CO2 concentrations agree within 3% (absolute) for both fuels. The TDL and FTIR equivalence ratios agreed quantitatively for both diesel and biomass combustion. However, close to stoichiometry, the TDL values for biomass are up to 15% lower than the FTIR values, indicating ongoing combustion at the location of the TDL measurements. © 2022 The Authors

Petrochemical products could be produced from circular feedstock, such as waste plastics. Most plants that utilize syngas in their production are today equipped with entrained flow gasifiers, as this type of gasifier generates the highest syngas quality. However, feeding of circular feedstocks to an entrained flow gasifier can be problematic. Therefore, in this work, a two-step process was studied, in which polypropylene was pre-treated by pyrolysis to produce a liquid intermediate that was easily fed to the gasifier. The products from both pyrolysis and gasification were thoroughly characterized. Moreover, the product yields from the individual steps, as well as from the entire process chain, are reported. It was estimated that the yields of CO and H2 from the two-step process were at least 0.95 and 0.06 kg per kg of polypropylene, respectively, assuming that the pyrolysis liquid and wax can be combined as feedstock to an entrained flow gasifier. On an energy basis, the energy content of CO and H2 in the produced syngas corresponded to approximately 40% of the energy content of the polypropylene raw material. This is, however, expected to be significantly improved on a larger scale where losses are proportionally smaller. © 2021 by the authors. 

In the present work, 5 different axisymmetric burners with different directions of the oxidizer inlets were experimentally tested during oxygen blown gasification of torrefied wood powder. The burners were evaluated under two different O2/fuel ratios at a thermal power of 135 kWth, based on the heating value of torrefied wood powder. The evaluation was based on both conventional methods such as gas chromatography measurements and thermocouples and in-situ measurements using Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy. It was shown that changes in the near burner region influence the process efficiency significantly. Changing the injection angle of the oxidizer stream to form a converging oxidizer jet increased process efficiency by 20%. Besides increased process efficiency, it was shown that improvements in burner design also influence carbon conversion and hydrocarbon production. The burner with the best performance also produced less CH4 and achieved the highest carbon conversion. The effect of generating swirl via rotating the oxidizer jet axes was also investigated. Swirl broadened or removed the impingement area between the fuel and oxidizer jets, however resulting in differences in performance within the measurement uncertainty.