Production of hydrogen and syngas via gasification of the corn and wheat dry distiller grains (DDGS) in a fixed-bed micro reactor

Production of hydrogen and syngas via gasification of the corn and wheat dry distiller grains (DDGS) with oxygen in a continuous downflow fixed bed micro reactor are studied in this paper. A series of experiments have been performed to investigate the effects of reaction time (15–45 min), reactor temperature (700–900 °C) and oxygen to nitrogen ratio (0.08–0.2 vol./vol.) on product gas composition, gas yield, low heating value (LHV) and carbon conversion efficiency. Over the ranges of the experimental conditions used, the results obtained seemed to suggest that for both biomasses the operating conditions were optimized for a gasification temperature around 900 °C, an oxygen to nitrogen ratio of 0.08 and a reaction time of 30 min, because a gas richer in hydrogen and carbon monoxide and poorer in carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons. The results showed that the product gas of corn DDGS gasification has higher H2 and CO concentrations (11 and 56.5%) than that of wheat DDGS gasification (10.5 and 51.5%). In addition gasification of corn DDGS resulted to higher gas yield (0.42 m3/kg), LHV (10.65 MJ/m3) and carbon conversion efficiency (44.2%).