The characteristics of steam gasification of biomass and waste filter carbon

The carbon in a waste filter for water purification may be a new source of energy. The char of waste filter carbon and the char of wood chip have been gasified with steam in a thermobalance reactor under atmospheric pressure. The effect of gasification temperature (700-850°C) and partial pressure of steam (0.3-0.9 atm) on the gasification rate has been investigated. Several gas-solid reaction models have been compared for their prediction ability of the gasification reaction behavior. The modified volumetric reaction model was used to evaluate kinetic data. The gasification rate of waste filter carbon has been compared with the rates of coal and wood chip biomass. The activation energies of filter carbon and wood chip were determined to be 89.1 and 171.4 kJ/mol, respectively. The apparent reaction rate equation for waste filter carbon has been presented.