Experience with a Pressurized Fluidized Bed Biomass/Black Liquor Gasifier

In 2005 the University of Utah started up a small-scale (200 kW) steam-blown, pressurized fluidized bed black liquor gasifier. During the first year of operation, many operational challenges were encountered and overcome. By the second year, the system was able to operate very reliably and several successful campaigns of 100+ continuous hours were carried out. Recently the system has been modified to process more conventional solid biomass. Feeding solid biomass into a pressurized system is always a challenge. This paper describes the experience with this gasifier over the past five years, including startup, shutdown, operation, control, and sampling of sygnas and tars.