Worldwide, gasification has reliably gained a good share in the past few decades, as there is a rise in chemical, energy, and natural gas demand all over the world. Gasification is a thermochemical process, thus there is a considerable interest in routes to liquid biofuels involving gasification as a result of the potential for routes to have low costs, high efficiency, and high well-to-wheel greenhouse savings. The improvement in characteristics of current fuels has taken the production of fuels upwards compared to traditional biofuels. This has become a substitute for clean energy supply with increased acceptance.
The important key components of gasification cover: abundant resources and deposits of coal, demand for clean energy, wide range of biomass / waste feedstock, recover energy locked in biomass and municipal solid waste, eliminating incineration of landfilling and produce electricity with significantly reduced environmental impact compared to conventional technologies. The increase inurbanization and the population living in cities and towns, and the rise in the price of oil, have put pressure on traditional energy supplies, and have helped drive the gasification dramatically over the years. The failure to acquire current energy and power resources, lack of alternatives to gasification, increasing industrialization by exploiting natural resources, and acceptance of governments to invest in R&D of gasifier plants, has increased the gasification demand.
Entrained flow gasifiers (EFG) has been used for various carbonaceous feeds ranging in quality from lignite to petcoke. Syngas has been generated for various applications, including Fischer-Tropsch catalyst testing, pyrolysis, examination of slag formation, hydrogen production, and more. Because of the high temperatures employed in the EFG operation, very little tar or hydrocarbon is generated, and the product gas has been successfully cleaned to non-detectable limits of contaminants such as H2S and particulate. EFGs have the ability to handle practically any coal feedstock and produce clean, tar-free syngas. In addition, these types of gasifiers are environmentally more benign, and glassy slag is inert and easily disposed.
