Abstract
This study investigated biomass (wood pellets) gasification to syngas using direct current (DC) thermal arc plasma at atmospheric pressure. Water vapor was used as a main gasifying agent and a plasma-forming gas. The biomass gasification system was quantified in terms of the producer gas composition, the tar content, the H(2)/CO ratio, the carbon conversion efficiency, the energy conversion efficiency and the specific energy requirements. It was found that the gasification performance efficiency was highest at the water vapor-to-biomass ratio of 0.97. The producer gas was mostly composed of H(2) (43.86 vol.%) and CO (30.93 vol.%), giving the H(2)/CO ratio of 1.42 and the LHV of 10.23 MJ/Nm(3). However, high content of tars of 13.81 g/Nm(3) was obtained in the syngas. The yield of H(2) and CO was 48.31% and 58.13%, respectively, with the highest producer gas yield of 2.42 Nm(3)/kg biomass. The carbon conversion efficiency and the energy conversion efficiency were 100% and 48.83%, respectively, and the production of 1 kg of syngas required 1.78 kWh of electric energy input. Finally, the obtained results were compared with different plasma methods, including plasma-assisted application coupled with conventional gasification.