KINETIC BASED SIMULATION OF WOOD GASIFICATION FOR HYDROGEN PRODUCTION USING ASPEN PLUS

The wood biomass gasification process has been widely studied as a promising resolution to various environmental problems. Serving as another environmentally friendly method to produce hydrogen, it helps to mitigate greenhouse gaseous emissions, manage the disposal of wood waste, and provide another alternative to solve non-renewable energy source depletion. In this study, the kinetic study of gasification of wood biomass was simulated using ASPEN Simulation software using Pine woodchip as the feedstock. The operating condition for the simulation is conducted at a temperature of 900℃, the pressure of 1.1 bar, and Peng-Robinson as the property package. To predict the accuracy of the simulation model, the generated simulation result was validated with the previous experimental study of Pine woodchip gasification using a downdraft gasifier by calculating the percentage error. The simulation model using kinetic parameter data from works of literature was then used for the optimization of the gasification performance using sensitivity analysis in terms of gasification temperature in the range of 600℃ to 1200℃ and steam mass flow rate in the range of 0.05 kg/hr to 0.2 kg/hr. Eventually, the optimum gasification temperature and steam mass flow to produce high hydrogen production was obtained at 950℃ and 0.11 kg/hr, respectively. The findings of this study provide extra sources for kinetic-based gasification of wood using ASPEN Plus, specifically for Pine woodchips in the ‘RPlug’ block reactor which can be extended by using other kinetic data parameters