Global biomass gasification research activities

Gasification
Gasification has been receiving attention throughout the world. Based on the current stage of development of thermochemical conversion technologies, gasification provides potential for near-term deployment, while pyrolysis will help to meet longer-term biofuels goals and in providing a route to renewable gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Biomass gasification is a complex thermochemical process that begins with the thermal decomposition of a lignocellulosic feedstock. This is followed by partial oxidation or reforming of the fuel with a gasifying agent—usually air, oxygen, or steam—to yield raw syngas. The raw gas composition and quality are dependent on a range of factors, including feedstock composition, type of gasification reactor, gasification agents, stoichiometry, temperature, pressure, and the presence or lack of catalysts.
Work is being carried out on the gasification of variety of biomass such as municipal solid wastes, agricultural wastes and forest residues for different applications such as heat/power generation, production of syn-gas, methane, and hydrogen etc.It is reported that in the near future, the use of gasification to convert solid wastes into ready-to use fuel could literally solve several environmental problems at the same time.
A great number of small-scale fixed bed gasifiers are available around the world. So far successful applications have been seen in Finland, and Denmark where the gas is used for combustion in a boiler. Also other countries have demonstrated small fixed bed gasifiers with success for 1000 hours of operation in a year for power production. Biomass gasification devices aboard generally are large-scale, of high automation degree with complex techniques, and concentrated on power generation and thermal application. Their gasification efficiencies can reach 60-90%, and combustible gas has a caloric value of 17-25MJ/m3.
In the early 1980’s, rice husk-based gasification device was developed in China, using a down-draft fixed-bed gasifier of volume varying from 60 kW to 160 kW, which were applied in the local food industry and were also exported. The biomass power plant developed in China produces a valuable gas named producer gas - Syngas (Synthetic gas). The biomass (agricultural), used for this purpose is straw like materials such as: Rice stems, rice husks, cotton stalks, corn stalks, millet stalks, wood dust, cane trash, wheat straws, hemp palm husks and other forms of biomass. This system can produce electric power in the range of 200kW 6.0MW by using a few parallel modular units.
Since Biomass itself is almost sulfur free, the gasification process will not produce any sulfur oxide emissions (SOx). However, fuels such as diesel and HFO contain a considerable amount of sulfur. HFO could have as much as 4% sulfur and therefore requires special additional treatment to neutralize these emissions.
Similarly the gasification of biomass produces very low concentrations of nitrous oxide emissions (NOx) when manufacturing the Syngas and thereafter leads also to low emissions in the combustion engines.

In other EU countries, electricity from biomass is an option only lately starting to be considered by Greek companies. However, the currently used gasification technologies are still far from satisfactory. The main challenges faced is non-stable gas production process caused by local hot spots existing in the gasifier, non-flexibility to diverse biomass types, difficulty of scale-up, and low quality of product gas. Despite the great number of developments at different industries and the pilot plants available around the world, there are only a few that achieve a commercial operation.

Advanced technical level on the field of producer gas has been mastered by many countries such as Sweden, the United States, Italy, and Germany. In recent years, the United States had a breakthrough in biomass pyrolysis gasification, and researched and manufactured a set of biomass comprehensive biomass gasification set with gas turbine generation system for large-scale generation.

Country wise activities in brief
Australia
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's primary publicly funded research organization, is collaborating with the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Coal in Sustainable Development, to operate an advanced coal gasification research facility. CSIRO has also established partnerships with other public entities and industry participants to tackle several gasification issues including researching technologies to measure coal conversion reaction processes, advancing coal and char reactivity knowledge, examining coal slag flow in gasifiers, and studying the water-gas-shift reaction in syngas processing.
Canada
The CANMET Energy Technology Centre-Ottawa (CETC-O) a R&D arm of Natural Resources Canada represents Canada's primary gasification R&D facility. CETC-O's research involves developing gasification, syngas treating, and H2 production technologies.
China
The Thermal Power Research Institute (TPRI) is a Chinese research organization devoted mainly to researching technologies and equipment of fossil-fired power plants, including gasification development.
Germany
The Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor (BMWi) in Germany initiated a R&D program called COORETEC (CO2 reduction technologies) leading to a wide variety of research projects in gasification with the goal of realizing zero-emission power plants.
India
The Indian Ministry of Power operates the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) which engages in fossil fuel gasification research. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy performs biomass gasification research for developing rural power generation.
Japan
In Japan, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is coordinating the Multi-purpose Coal Gasification Technology Development (EAGLE). This program is aimed at developing the most advanced oxygen-blown, single-chamber, dual stage, spiral-flow gasifier that can efficiently produce syngas.
South Africa
Development of fluidized-bed gasification technology at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa has been supported by the recently-formed South African National Energy Research Institute (SANERI).
United Kingdom
The Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), in the U.K. is working with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the British Coal Utilization Research Association (BCURA), industry, and international partnerships to advance gasification technology.
Other Countries
Other countries are also involved in gasification R&D to varying degrees. The links subsection offers other resources on the world of gasification research.