(498e) Reactor Characteristics for the Suspended-Catalyst Scwg Process

The supercritical water gasification of chicken manure was studied using suspended activated carbon catalyst. Employing suspended catalyst is a new idea so that reactor plugging is to be avoided in supercritical water gasification reactor. The feedstock used in this study is the egg layer's manure, and collected from the farm. It was first pulverized with a commercial continuous pulverizer to particle size less than 500 micrometer, and then hydrothermally pretreated. Then the activated carbon powders made from coconut shell was added. The reactor employed was a laboratory-scale continuous reactor with inner diameter of 2.16 mm and length of 12 m. The feedstock was fed to the reactor with a piston, heated to the reactiont temperature in a preheater, and then gasified in the reactor. To determine the reaction characteristics, the concentration of the feedstock itself and the amount of added catalyst was changed. The residence time of the feedstock in the reactor was also changed. The reaction temperature was another parameter. The activated carbon catalyst could be recovered at the in-line liquid-solid separator, and the resulting effluent was clear water. The product gas was separated from the liquid phase after depressurization, and its volumetric flow rate was determined with a wet gas meter. The product gas composition was measured with gas chromatograph. The liquid phase was analyzed with TOC. From these anlaysis, carbon gasification efficiency was determined for each conditions. Chemical reaction engineering analysis on the resulting data was conducted to determine the chemical reaction characteristics for this proposed catalyst-suspended supercritical water gasification reactor.