5th International Conference on “Combustion, Incineration/Pyrolysis and Emission Control (i-CIPEC 2008)”

16-19 December 2008, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Co-gasification of High Moisture Rubber Woodchip mixed with Shredded Rubber Waste in a
Bubbling Fluidized Bed Gasifier

Sommas Kaewluan1,2 and Suneerat Pipatmanomai1,*

1
The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, KMUTT, Bangkok, Thailand
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: +66 28729014, Fax: +66 28726978, E-mail: suneerat_p@jgsee.kmutt.ac.th

Abstract: High moisture content is a typical problem when gasifying biomass as it significantly reduces the reaction temperature and
hence deteriorating the gasification performance. Moreover, the high amount of tars and moisture content in the synthesis gas are
expected when the moisture content in raw biomass increased. Rubber woodchip, which is abundant as wood processing residues from
the southern region of Thailand, is one of the typical high-moisture biomass. The freshly cut woodchip has the moisture content in the
range of 30 to 50 %, which is too high even for fluidized bed gasifiers. The necessary reduction of the moisture content to meet the
acceptable level may be carried out by natural or machine drying processes; however, these will lead to additional investment and
operational cost. In this study, an alternative to pretreatment of biomass was studied. Shredded rubber waste with 1 % moisture
content and the heating value of 37.5 MJ/kg was selected to mix with the high-moisture rubber woodchip having the initial moisture
content of rubber woodchip was 27 %. Three ratios of rubber woodchip to shredded rubber waste prepared were 100:0, 90:10, and
80:20, which corresponded to the heating values and moisture contents of 13.0, 15.4 and 17.8 MJ/kg and 27.0, 24.4 and 21.8 %,
respectively. The mixtures were gasified with air in the bubbling fluidized gasifier at various equivalence ratios (ER). The effects of the
mixture composition and ER on the temperature distribution inside the gasifier, product gas composition, gas yield, gas heating value,
carbon conversion efficiency and gasification efficiency were investigated. The experimental results show that, with increasing the
percentage of shredded rubber waste in the fuel mixture to 20 % at the same ER, the gasification temperature increased by 65C.
When increasing ER, a similar effect on temperature was also found. The higher the percentage of shredded rubber waste in the
mixture, the more the gasification efficiency is sensitive to ER. Both the increase in ER and percentage of shredded rubber waste in the
mixture constantly raised the gasification efficiency and carbon conversion efficiency and gas yield. Higher percentage of shredded
rubber waste also has a positive effect on the synthesis gas heating value; however, the increase in the heating value was not
proportional to the percentage of shredded rubber waste. Increasing ER decreased the synthesis gas heating value for all three fuel
cases, especially for gasification of 100 % rubber woodchip. Therefore, to effectively operate the gasification, the condition of ER to
give maximum heating value of the produced synthesis gas while maintaining the system efficiency at the highest possible needs to be
optimized.

Keywords: Co-gasification, Fluidized bed gasifier, rubber wood chips, shredded rubber waste

1. INTRODUCTION

As a natural rubber producing country, the rubber tree which have plantation area in Thailand about 2.72 million ha in
2000 [1]. The economic lifetime of the rubber trees is around 25-30 years, after which they are cut down for
replantation. This leads to the average annual generation of 14.7-19.6 million tons of rubber wood. The rubber wood has
become an important raw material for manufacturing wood products, such as furniture. The rubber wood residues from
processing factories include the unused fractions such as branches, twigs and roots, and the by-products such as wood sl
abs, wood chips, wood shaving and wood sawdust. Rubber woodchip, which is abundant as rubber wood processing by-
product, is one of the typical high-moisture biomass. The freshly cut woodchip has the moisture content in the range of
30 to 50 %, which is too high even for fluidized bed gasifiers. Biomass gasification with air in the fluidized bed gasifier
normally uses low-moisture biomass, at around 8 to 20 %, as a fuel [2-4]. It has been concluded from many studies that
the high moisture content is a typical problem when gasifying biomass as it significantly reduces the reaction
temperature and hence deteriorating the gasification performance. Moreover, the high amount of tars and moisture
content in the synthesis gas are expected when the moisture content in raw biomass increased. Therefore, pretreatment
to reduce the moisture content in the high-moisture biomass is necessary to meet the acceptable level for gasification.
The reduction of the moisture content may be carried out by natural or machine drying processes; however, these will
lead to additional investment and operational cost.
In this study, an alternative to pretreatment of biomass was studied. Shredded rubber waste with 1 % moisture content
and the heating value of 37.5 MJ/kg was selected to mix with the high-moisture rubber woodchip having the moisture
content of 27 % at various ratios. The mixtures were gasified with air in the bubbling fluidized gasifier at various
equivalence ratios (ER). The effects of the mixing ratio and ER on the temperature distribution inside the gasifier,
product gas composition, carbon conversion efficiency and gasification efficiency were investigated.

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1 Raw materials preparation for co-gasification

It is normally preferred that the biomass fuel for air gasification should have the moisture content as low as possible.
Generally, the moisture content should not exceed around 20 %, which corresponds to the higher heating value (HHV)

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 5th International Conference on “Combustion, Incineration/Pyrolysis and Emission Control (i-CIPEC 2008)”
16-19 December 2008, Chiang Mai, Thailand

of above 15 MJ/kg. Therefore, three mixing ratios of high-moisture rubber woodchip to shredded rubber waste were
prepared to lower the average moisture content to the acceptable level for gasification. The three ratios were 100:0,
90:10, and 80:20 on the weight basis, which corresponded to the heating values and moisture contents of 13.0, 15.4 and
17.8 MJ/kg and 27.0, 24.4 and 21.8 %, respectively. Fig. 1 shows the rubber woodchip (HRW), shredded rubber waste
(SR) and the mixture.
The ratios of high-moisture rubber woodchip to shredded rubber waste at 100:0 and 0:100 represent the only high-
moisture rubber woodchip and only shredded rubber waste, respectively. The analysis results show that the shredded
rubber waste has a very high content of carbon and a few percent of moisture compared to those in the high-moisture
rubber woodchip, as shown in Fig. 2. The carbon content in the mixture increased while the moisture content decreased
with increasing the proportion of shredded rubber waste in the mixture.

(a) High-moisture rubber woodchip (b) Shredded rubber waste (SR) (c) Mixed materials
Fig. 1 Raw materials for co-biomass gasification

Fig. 2 Chemical element and heating value of the mixture at various ratios of high-moisture rubber woodchip to
shredded rubber waste

2.2 Bubbling fluidized bed gasification system

The schematic diagram of the atmospheric-pressure fluidized bed gasifier used in this study is shown in Fig. 3. The
gasifier was 300 mm I.D. and 2500 mm high from the level of air distributor. The nozzle-type air distributor consisted
of 9 closed-end nozzles, each of which had 42 air distributing holes. The distributor configuration was designed to
promote the re-circulation of gas and solid in the bed zone as well as to prevent the bed aggregation.
Nine K-type thermocouple probes were installed to continuously monitor the temperature variation along the height of
the gasifier. Three were located below and within the bed zone. Five were located along the freeboard zone and one at
the exit before the cyclone.

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 5th International Conference on “Combustion, Incineration/Pyrolysis and Emission Control (i-CIPEC 2008)”
16-19 December 2008, Chiang Mai, Thailand

10 12 18

8
P3
3
T7

13 14
2 16 17
15

1 11

4 7

9 6 5

Fig. 3 Bubbling fluidized bed gasification system: (1) ground hopper (2) screw conveyor (3) upper hopper (4) injection
screw (5) force draft fan (6) air flow meter (7) air distributor plate (8) fluidized bed reactor (9) preheat system (10) fly-
ash cyclone (11) fly-ash container (12) spray tower water scrubber (13) gas-water separator (14) pack bed filter (15)
volume filter (16) induce draft fan (17) gas flow meter (18) flare

2.3 Experimental procedure

Co-gasification of high-moisture rubber woodchip mixed with shredded rubber waste was carried out in the bubbling
fluidized bed gasifier as shown in Fig. 3. The three mixture ratios (100:0, 90:10, and 80:20) of high-moisture rubber
woodchip with a moisture content of 27.0% and shredded rubber waste were prepared. About 25 kg of silica sand was
added into the gasifier to serve as the bed material. Ambient air was fed into the reactor at the flow rate corresponding
to the superficial velocity at 0.22 m/s, which was above the predetermined minimum fluidization velocity, i.e. 0.19 m/s
at ambient temperature. The superficial velocity was equivalent to an air flow rate of 74.3 kg/h. The bed material was
then heated by LPG combustion until the bed temperature reached approximately 800°C. With the fixed flow rate of air,
raw materials started to be fed into the reactor at controlled feed rates in the range of 32-54 kg/h. The rates were varied
to achieve a wide range of air to raw material ratios. During the experiment, the pressure in the reactor was controlled to
be slightly lower than ambient in order to prevent any gas leakage. The temperature profile along the height of the
reactor was continuously monitored and recorded for further analyses. The main stream of the product gas went through
the gas cleaning section and burnt at the flare. Some of the product gas was continuously sampled to analyze its
compositions using the micro-gas chromatograph [Varian CP-4900] and the infrared analyser [Servomex 4200 series].
To finish the experiment, the raw material feed rate was decreased gradually so that all the remaining raw material/char
were burnt out. The reactor was left to cool down naturally.
Experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of the proportion of shredded rubber waste in the mixture on
gasification temperature and products at various equivalence ratios (ER).

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The mixtures were gasified with air in the bubbling fluidized gasifier at various equivalence ratios (ER). The effects of
the mixing ratio and ER on the bed temperature, gas composition, higher heating value, carbon conversion efficiency
and gasification efficiency were disclosed.

Fig. 4 Average bed temperature of co-biomass gasification at various equivalence ratios

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5th International Conference on “Combustion, Incineration/Pyrolysis and Emission Control (i-CIPEC 2008)”
16-19 December 2008, Chiang Mai, Thailand

(a) Dry basis (b) Dry and N2-free basis

Fig. 5 Effect of mixing ratio on gas composition for co-biomass gasification at various equivalence ratios

(a) Higher heating value (b) Gas yield

Fig. 6 Higher heating value and gas yield of co-biomass gasification at various equivalence ratios

(a) Carbon conversion efficiency (b) Gasification efficiency

Fig. 7 Carbon conversion and gasification efficiencies of co-biomass gasification at various equivalence ratios

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 5th International Conference on “Combustion, Incineration/Pyrolysis and Emission Control (i-CIPEC 2008)”
16-19 December 2008, Chiang Mai, Thailand

3.1 Effect of mixing ratio on average bed temperature at various equivalence ratio
As an increasing proportion of shredded rubber waste in the mixture, moisture content in the three mixtures raw
materials (Mixed-0, Mixed-10 and Mixed-20) were slightly decreased as shown in Fig. 2. The decreasing moisture
content in raw materials is beneficial for the process temperature due to reducing of energy demands for evaporation of
water (moisture). The consequence is an increase of the bed temperature with the proportion of shredded rubber waste
in the mixture, as shown in Fig. 4. Jouret et al. [5] studied the effect of moisture fraction of the biomass on the average
bed temperature. They found that the bed temperature increased around 25C for every 10 % decrease in biomass
moisture content through the range of biomass moisture content from 0 to 50 %. Fig. 4 also shows that the average bed
temperature inside the gasifier increased with increasing the equivalence ratio for all mixtures. The increasing of the ER
would promote the oxidation reaction resulting in more heat release and the rise of gasifier temperature.

3.2 Effect of mixing ratio on gas composition at various equivalence ratio

The produced synthesis gas from co-gasification reaction was generally composed of combustible gaseous species (CO,
H2 and a much small amount of CH4 and C2Hn) and incombustible gaseous species (CO2 and N2). As moisture and
impurities must be removed prior to the gas analyzer, the measured gas composition is presented on the dry basis. The
percentages by volume of each gas species obtained at various equivalence ratios and mixing ratios are shown in Fig. 5a.
In all cases, more than half of the synthesis gas volume was N2, i.e. 60-65%, and CO2 was slightly more than CO. The
content of these incombustible gases dilutes the synthesis gas hence lowering its heating value considerably.
To eliminate the dilution effect of N2, which may lead to a misinterpretation of the gas product formation, the
concentrations of each gas were converted into the N2-free basis and the results are shown in Fig. 5b. The effect of
mixing ratio of shredded rubber waste and rubber woodchip on concentration of CO and CO2 were clearly observed,
while the changes in H2, CH4 and C2Hn gases were negligible. As the proportion of shredded rubber waste in the fuel
mixture increased, the CO increased, while CO2 decreased. The higher proportion of shredded rubber waste in the fuel
mixture is thought to be the most important factor influencing the Boudouard reaction (i.e. C+CO2  2CO). This is
because a higher proportion of shredded rubber waste would decrease the average moisture in the fuel mixture and
therefore increasing the average bed temperature favoring the forward Boudouard reaction. Fig. 5 also shows that co-
gasification using a mixture of high-moisture rubber woodchip with shredded rubber waste can operate at lower
equivalence ratio and produce higher percentage of combustible gases compare to high-moisture rubber woodchip
gasification. Moreover, the broader range of ER for co-gasification is obtained. When increasing the proportion of
rubber woodchip in the mixture, the ER can be reduced to meet the minimum limit of operation temperature, to attain
the required carbon conversion efficiency. Upper limit of ER is established such that the gas quality and tar
contamination are in acceptable level, while the temperature is below the fusion temperature of biomass ashes. The
effect of ER on the concentration of synthesis gas is shown in Fig. 5b. The increase of ER also introduced more oxygen
to raw material ratio that resulted to increase the production of CO2 and the bed temperature due to the increase of the
partial combustion effect. Consequently, slightly decrease amount char remaining for gasification reaction that resulted
to decrease amount of hydrocarbon gases such as CO, CH4 and C2Hn. The H2 production shows an increase with the ER
in the early stage and then slightly decreased with the ER in the later stage. As ER was increased during the early stage,
the temperature in the reactor slightly increased which stimulated steam-carbon reaction (C+H2OCO+H2) while H2
slightly decreased with ER at high value due to the consequent increase in partial combustion of H2. The H2 production
showed a maximum at ER around 0.42, 0.43, and 0.38 when increasing the proportion of shredded rubber waste in the
mixture of 0, 10 and 20 %, respectively.

3.3 Effect of mixing ratio on gas heating value and gas yield at various equivalence ratio
As increasing the proportion of shredded rubber waste in the fuel mixture, the average bed temperature was slightly
increased. Too high average bed temperature can also lead to stimulation of the endothermic reaction such as the
Boudouard reaction. Heating value of dry synthesis gas and gas yield are presented in Fig. 6a and 6b, respectively. The
higher heating value increased by 6.9 and 8.4%, while gas yield also increased by 15 and 30% with increasing the
proportion of shredded rubber waste in the mixture to 10 and 20 %, respectively. For all mixtures, increasing the ER
significantly decreased the higher heating value of synthesis gas, since higher equivalence ratio would raise the content
of incombustible gases, which would lower the heating value of the gas product. The increasing of ER also had a
significant effect on the synthesis gas yield. This was estimated by the method of overall nitrogen balance. From Fig.
6b, it can be seen that gas yield increases with the increase in ER.

3.4 Effect of equivalence ratio and mixing ratio on carbon conversion and gasification efficiencies
Fig. 7a shows the trend of carbon conversion efficiency with varying the equivalence ratio at various mixing ratio of
high-moisture rubber woodchip to shredded rubber waste. The carbon conversion efficiency increased when either the
equivalence ratio or the proportion of shredded rubber waste in the mixture was increased. As the ER increased, the
higher oxygen availability in contact with solid carbon together with the resulting increase in the temperature would
accelerate the oxidation of carbon leading to a higher carbon conversion. As the proportion of shredded rubber waste in
the mixture increased, increasing amount of heat released per unit mass of the products at the same ER because of the

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 5th International Conference on “Combustion, Incineration/Pyrolysis and Emission Control (i-CIPEC 2008)”
16-19 December 2008, Chiang Mai, Thailand

heating value of the mixture was increased. Moreover, decreasing the moisture content in the mixture reduced the heat
consumption by evaporation of moisture in the mixture. Both advantages from increasing the proportion of shredded
rubber waste in the mixture resulting increase in the temperature would accelerate the endothermic reaction of carbon
through the Boudouard reaction (i.e. C + CO2  2CO) leading to a higher carbon conversion. Similar effects of
equivalence ratio and mixing ratio of high-moisture rubber woodchip to shredded rubber waste were also observed for
the gasification efficiency, as shown in Fig. 7b.

4. CONCLUSION

Gasification of high moisture rubber woodchip with air at the range of ER between 0.36 and 0.49 had the reactor
temperatures of 705-765C, which were lower than the typical temperature during biomass gasification (i.e. 750-850oC).
This high moisture content in biomass is undesirable as it causes the problem of significant reaction temperature
reduction and hence deteriorating the gasification performance. Mixed high-moisture rubber woodchip (HRW) with
low-moisture shredded rubber waste (SR) can improve the qualities of raw materials for gasification process. With the
moisture content of the fuel mixture reduced while the carbon content increased, the higher heating value (HHV) of fuel
mixture increased. For co-gasification, the average bed temperature inside the gasifier was around 65C higher,
compared to the temperature from HRW gasification. This was due to the decrease in the moisture content in the
mixture as a result of the increased proportion of SR in the mixture and the increase in ER. In addition, the conditions of
increasing SR in the mixture also resulted in the increase in CO and decrease in CO2. Therefore, adding the low-
moisture shredded rubber waste into the high-moisture rubber woodchip can reduce the problems, which would
otherwise be encountered when gasifying the high moisture rubber woodchip alone. It significantly increased the
reaction temperature and improved the gasification performance as seen from the experimental results. The carbon
conversion efficiency and the gasification efficiency increased with increasing the ER and the proportion of low-
moisture shredded rubber waste in the mixture.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors would like to thank National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC) for the financial support under
Contract No. MT-B-49-ENV-20-004-G. The authors are thankful for the Ph.D. Studentship of the Joint Graduated
School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE) for Sommas Kaewluan. The authors would also like to thank Siam
Cements Co. Ltd. for the supply of rubber wood chips for experiments.

6. REFERENCES

[1] Krukanont, P. and Prasertsan, S. (2004) Geographical distribution of biomass and potential sites of rubber wood
fired power plants in Southern Thailand. Biomass and Bioenergy, 26 (1), PP. 47-59.
[2] Morita, H., Yoshiba, F., Woudstra, N., Hemmes, K. and Spliethoff, H. (2004) Feasibility study of wood biomass
gasification/molten carbonate fuel cell power system: comparative characterization of fuel cell and gas turbine
systems. Journal of Power Sources, 138 (1-2), pp. 31-40.
[3] Hughes, W.E.M. and Larson, E.D. (1998) Effect of Fuel Moisture Content on Biomass - IGCC Performance.
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, 120 (3), pp. 455-459.
[4] Cummer, K.R. and Brown, R.C. (2002) Ancillary equipment for biomass gasification. Biomass and Bioenergy, 23
(2), pp. 113-28.
[5] Jouret, N., Helsel, L., Ven den Bulck, E. and Leuven, K.U. (2005) Study of the wood gasifier at the power plant of
Electrabel-Ruien. http://www.efpe.org. pp. 1-6.