Abstract

Natural gas supported co-combustion of gaseous and solid fuels (biomass, coal, and polyethylene) was carried out in a reciprocal porous media reactor (RFR) to evaluate the suitability of the concept for hydrogen (H-2) and syngas production. The reactor was designed and built to operate in semi-continuous mode, where equivalence ratio (phi), the gasifying agent, and different particle sizes of solid fuels were assessed. Rich (phi > 1) and lean (phi < 1) combustion regime were evaluated, while steam and air/steam were used as gasifying agents. The first configuration (C1) has a solid fuel volume space with a width of 25 mm and a diameter of 40 mm, and the second configuration (C2), has a diameter of 17 mm and a height of 40 mm, both in the center of the reactor. The temperature, the reaction wave propagation rate, and the resulting concentration of the main species (H-2 and CO) were measured. The maximum H-2 produced was 19.63 vol%, obtained in C2 with biomass, using only air as gasifying agent. The highest efficiency (87%) was also obtained in this case. In the case of C2, the particle matter emission concentration in the case of biomass was 1.4 g/m(3), mainly of PM4 and PM2.5. Chemical reactions, such as water-gas-shift, methanation, Boudouard, and others, were recognized in each experimental case. This experimental work shows promising results in the search for solutions to gasify solid fuel in continuous mode.