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 (H2) and syngas production. The reactor was designed and built to operate in semi-continuous mode, where equivalence ratio (?), the gasifying agent, and different particle sizes of solid fuels were assessed. Rich (? > 1) and lean (? < 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 (H2 and CO) were measured. The maximum H2 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/m3, 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. © 2024 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC