Supervisors - Dr. Jia Li, University of Edinburgh and Dr. Manosh Paul, University of Glasgow
PhD Student - Erika Palfi, University of Edinburgh
Satus - Closed
Coal gasification is a highly efficient coal utilisation technology that has been widely used around the word (Li et al, 2012a). However, research on biomass/waste as a feedstock to co-gasifiy with coal remains limited. With the increasing demand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, integrating carbon capture with biomass/waste co-gasification process will potentially provide a novel solution by achieving the following objectives:
a) Gasification process modelling and reaction limit definition.
(i) Develop gasification models with different feedstocks with in-house software (UniSim/Aspen Plus). (ii) Investigate the composition of syngas (synthetic gas) from the gasification process at different temperature and pressure. (iii) Identify the operational limit for each selected feedstock.
b) Performance analysis under various gasification conditions.
(i) Develop an integrated carbon capture system model.
(ii) Evaluate the gas/power/heat output performance under various conditions.
(iii) Optimise a wide range of scenarios to achieve profitable plant output while equipped with carbon capture facilities.
c) Novel low temperature gasification carbon capture process.
(i) Ascertain the scope for the low temperature capture process based on the result from b) with increased biomass feedstock.
(ii) Develop a novel process of a relatively low temperature carbon capture with post-combustion capture.
(iii) Optimise the feedstock limits for a carbon neutral process.
d) Examine the temperature distribution for the novel process (Deliver at Glasgow)
(i) Develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for gasifier units and carry out simulations to assess the process temperature. (ii) Verify CFD results with those obtained by the gasification process simulations.
e) Life-cycle emission analysis
(i) Carry out life-cycle analysis for different processes.
(ii) Recommend the feedstock supply radius for less overall carbon emissions and the storage solution for the captured carbon dioxide.