Fate and Remediation of Biomass Gasification Gas Contaminants

The development of alternative and renewable energy and fuels is at the forefront of research because of the forecasted depletion of crude oil reserves and the growing concern of irreversible environmental damage caused by the greenhouse gases. As lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable feedstock, its conversion to energy and fuels is particularly very attractive as it has the potential to replace fossil fuels derived liquid fuels, chemicals and energy while recycling carbon dioxide (CO2) into plant material by photosynthesis. Lignocellulosic biomass conversion can be achieved thermally by pyrolysis, gasification or combustion and biologically by fermentation. Biomass gasification is well suited among other thermochemical technologies due to its higher efficiency and the plethora of applications that could increase efficiency as well as synthesize value-added by-products. Energy and fuel production from biomass is well adapted to southern states in the United States due to abundant biomass resources. Of the woody biomass feedstocks, pine is the most likely feedstock for large-scale production as it accounts for 83 % of tree species in the aforementioned states. Therefore, this dissertation project focuses on pine gasification with an emphasis on the fate of synga