Biomass feedstock analyses

The overall objectives of the project Feasibility of electricity production from biomass by pressurized gasification systems within the EC Research Programme JOULE II were to evaluate the potential of advanced power production systems based on biomass gasification and to study the technical and economic feasibility of these new processes with diffrent type of biomass feedstocks. This report was prepared as part of this R&D project. The objectives of this task were to perform fuel analyses of potential woody and herbaceous biomasses with specific regard to the gasification properties of the selected feedstocks. The analyses of 15 Scandinavian and European biomass feedstock included density, proximate and ultimate analyses, trace com-pounds, ash composition and fusion behaviour in oxidicing and reducing atmospheres. The wood-derived fuels, such as whole-tree chips, forest residues, bark and to some extent willow, can be expected to have good gasification properties. Difficulties caused by ash fusion and sintering in straw combustion and gasification are generally known. The ash and alkali metal contents of the European biomasses harvested in Italy resembled those of the Nordic straws, and it is expected that they behave to a great extent as straw in gasification. Any direct relation between the ash fusion behavior (determined according to the standard method) and, for instance, the alkali metal content was not found in the laboratory determinations. A more profound characterisation of the fuels would require gasification experiments in a thermobalance and a PDU (Process development Unit) rig