The Properties and Suitability of Various Biomass/Coal Blends for Co-Gasification Purposes

Gasification is a promising technology for the production of gaseous fuels, mainly syngas, which is produced from the hydrocarbon-based materials such as coal and biomass. Currently, coal is the main feedstock that is used for the gasification process due to its large reserves and higher energy per volume. However, the use of coal has been a more concern because of the environmental im-pacts caused by the emission of toxic gases such as the sulphides, sulphates and nitrates as well as the ash slagging problems forming inside the gasifier. On the other hand, biomass is a renewable energy resource of interest as a replacement for coal to reduce the environmental impacts associ-ated with fossil fuel usage. Much consumption of fossil fuels has caused serious energy crisis and environmental impacts, globally. Co-gasification of coal and biomass is considered as a connection between energy production based on fossil fuels and energy production based on renewable fuels. The utilization of biomass by co-gasification with coal causes reductions of carbon dioxide, nitro-gen and sulfur emissions due to the renewable character of biomass and low contamination con-tent in biomass. This study determined the properties of various biomass/coal blends and thei