Title: Exergetic performance assessment of gasification and pyrolysis processes of pre-treated wood board wastes

Authors: Yildiz Kalinci, Arif Hepbasli, Ibrahim Dincer

Addresses: Department of Technical Programs, Izmir Vocational School, Dokuz Eylul University, Education Campus Buca, Izmir TR-35160, Turkey. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ' Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ont., Canada L1H 7K4

Abstract: This paper investigates exergetic performance of gasification and pyrolysis processes and compares their exergy efficiencies, using the experimental data on a two-step process of thermo-chemical conversion of Wood Board (WB) wastes. The exergy values of biomass samples change from 17.49 MJ/kg to 24.57 MJ/kg, respectively. Hydrogen produced from pyrolysis step of gasification varies between 17 (%v/v) and 47 (%v/v) and ranges from 17.1 to 42.6 (%v/v) in pyrolysis. The exergy contents of hydrogen range from 2.20 kJ to 16.26 kJ with the highest efficiency of 93% in pyrolysis step of gasification of WB_1000 samples, and from 2.01 kJ to 10.43 kJ with the highest efficiency of 51% in pyrolysis of WB_250_1000 samples.

Keywords: gasification; pyrolysis; energy; exergy efficiency; performance evaluation; hydrogen; wood board waste; pre-treated wood board; thermo-chemical conversion; biomass.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2011.037217

International Journal of Exergy, 2011 Vol.8 No.1, pp.99 - 112

Published online: 30 Nov 2010 *

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