Simulation of Enhanced Biomass Gasification for Hydrogen Production using iCON

Due to the environmental and price issues of
current energy crisis, scientists and technologists around the globe are intensively searching for new environmentally less-impact form of clean energy that will reduce the high dependency on fossil fuel. Particularly hydrogen can be produced from biomass via thermo-chemical processes including pyrolysis and gasification due to the economic advantage and can be further enhanced through in-situ carbon dioxide removal using calcium oxide. This work focuses on the synthesis and development of the flowsheet for the enhanced biomass gasification process in PETRONAS’s iCON process simulation software. This hydrogen
prediction model is conducted at operating temperature between 600 to 1000oC at atmospheric pressure. ffects of temperature, steam-to-biomass ratio and adsorbent-to-biomass ratio were studied and 0.85 mol fraction of hydrogen is predicted in the product gas. Comparisons of the results are also made with
experimental data from literature. The preliminary economic potential of developed system is RM 12.57 x 106
which equivalent to USD 3.77 x 106 annually shows economic viability of this process.