Kinetics Modeling of Pyrolysis and Steam Gasification of Palm Kernel Shell with Tar Formation for Hydrogen Production

With the tight environmental emission standards in place and the inevitable depletion of fossil fuels, hydrogen energy economy is a promising future alternative. This study aims to investigate the process of producing hydrogen rich gas through steam gasification of palm kernel shell. A mathematical model is developed to predict the kinetics behavior of a thermal conversion process of palm kernel shell in the presence of steam and CaO for hydrogen production. Assuming that the thermal conversion process occurs in two stages i.e. pyrolysis and gasification, the model predicts product gas composition of 84.9 mol% H2, 3.78 mol% CO, 11.29 mol% CO2 and 7.0310-8 mol% CH4 at temperature of 900°C, constant gasifier pressure of 1 atm, steam-to-biomass ratio of 2.65 and CaO-to-biomass ratio of 1. Effects of process parameter on product gas composition including gasification temperature, steam-to-biomass ratio and CaO-to-biomass ratio have been evaluated. Generally, the model is capable to capture the kinetics behavior of the process