Treatment of biomass
gasification tars with non-thermal plasmas
Biomass can be used for
power generation and value-added chemical
production via biomass gasification and
downstream processes. It is necessary to reduce
the tar in the product gas for various
application processes. For example, the
successful use of product gas in internal
combustion engines or turbines depends upon
successful removal of tar.
In this project, non-thermal
plasma was used to reduce the concentration of
tar in the product gas, and its performance was
analyzed/evaluated at different reaction
conditions. In this study, toluene was used as a
tar model compound. The effect of reaction
parameters such as the residence time and plasma
power on tar removal was studied in a tubular
dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma
reactor at low temperatures and ambient
pressure. It was observed that DBD plasma was an
efficient tool to remove/decompose tar compounds
in the product gas. The percentage removal of
tar increased with an increase in plasma power
and residence time to as high as 99% in each
carrier gas (CO2, H2, N2 and CO).
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