Gasification of Cork Wastes in a Fluidized Bed Reactor

Biomass gasification has been identified as an option for energetic valorisation of organic wastes. This work aimed to study the gasification of cork industry wastes using a semi-batch fluidized bed reactor. The experimental tests were performed using air as oxidizing agent and sand particles as bed material. The heating was performed with an electrical resistance of 3 kW. The effect of biomass load (2–5.6 g), and bed temperature (780–900 °C) on gasification performance was evaluated using an air flow rate of 0.092 g/s. Samples of producer gas were analysed by a gas chromatograph fitted with a thermal conductivity detector. The detected and quantified compounds on producer gas were H2, CO, CH4 and CO2. Temperature and mass load had a predominant role in gasification performance and all gasification parameters increased with the temperature rise. The increase of mass resulted in a decrease of carbon conversion efficiency, cold gas efficiency and dry gas yield. Best results were obtained with mass load at a range of of 2–4 g, working at 850 °C. The results showed that cork particles are a sustainable raw material for gasification processes.Financial support from the “FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia” under the Research Project UID/EQU/00305/2013.