Investigation of Fuel Chemistry and Bed Performance in a Fluidized Bed Black Liquor Steam Reformer

Abstract

The University of Utah project "Investigation of Fuel Chemistry and Bed Performance in a Fluidized Bed Black Liquor Steam Reformer" (DOE award number DE-FC26-02NT41490) was developed in response to a solicitation for projects to provide technical support for black liquor and biomass gasification. The primary focus of the project is to provide support for a DOEsponsored demonstration of MTCI's black liquor steam reforming technology at Georgia-Pacific's paper mill in Big Island, Virginia. A more overarching goal is to improve the understanding of phenomena that take place during low temperature black liquor gasification. This is achieved through five complementary technical tasks: (1) construction of a fluidized bed black liquor gasification test system, (2) investigation of bed performance, (3) evaluation of product gas quality, (4) black liquor conversion analysis and modeling and (5) computational modeling of the Big Island gasifier. Four experimental devices have been constructed under this project. The largest facility, which is the heart of the experimental effort, is a pressurized fluidized bed gasification test system. The system is designed to be able to reproduce conditions near the black liquor injectors in the Big Island steam reformer, so the behavior of black liquor pyrolysis and char gasification can be quantified in a representative environment. The gasification test system comprises five subsystems: steam generation and superheating, black liquor feed, fluidized bed reactor, afterburner for syngas combustion and a flue gas cooler/condenser. The three-story system is located at