Biomass gasification: the effect of surface area of different materials on tar abatement efficiency.

The problem of the production of tar along with syngas in gasification processes limits the diffusion of this technology. In this work, the tar abatement capacity of four bed materials was investigated. The bed materials, namely, activated carbon, aluminum oxide, olive residue char, and pumice stone, listed in order of decreasing surface area, were chosen to investigate their effect on the abatement capacity. Furthermore, the deactivation of these materials with time on stream was measured, and the results were used to develop a kinetic model. The tar abatement capacities were highly influenced by the surface area. Activated carbon presents a removal capacity of about 97%, while pumice stone presents a removal capacity of 80%. A correlation between the surface area and tar abatement capacity was found.