Plasma Treatments and Biomass Gasification

Exploitation of forest resources for energy production includes various methods of biomass processing. Gasification is one of the ways to recover energy from biomass. Syngas produced from biomass can be used to power internal combustion engines or, after purification, to supply fuel cells. Recent studies have shown the potential to improve conventional biomass processing by coupling a plasma reactor to a pyrolysis cyclone reactor. The role of the plasma is twofold: it acts as a purification stage by reducing production of tars and aerosols, and simultaneously produces a rich hydrogen syngas. In a first part of the paper we present results obtained from plasma treatment of pyrolysis oils. The outlet gas composition is given for various types of oils obtained at different experimental conditions with a pyrolysis reactor. Given the complexity of the mixtures from processing of biomass, we present a study with methanol considered as a model molecule. This experimental method allows a first modeling approach based on a combustion kinetic model suitable to validate the coupling of plasma with conventional biomass process. The second part of the paper is summarizing results obtained through a plasma-pyrolysis reactor arrangement. The goal is to show the feasibility of this plasma-pyrolysis coupling and emphasize more fundamental studies to understand the role of the plasma in the biomass treatment processes.