Autothermal Fixed Bed Updraft Gasification of Olive Pomace Biomass and Renewable Energy Generation via Organic Rankine Cycle Turbine Green energy generation from waste biomass in the Mediterranean region

Waste biomass, a renewable resource, is a reasonable choice for green clean power generation using advanced thermal treatment technologies such as gasification. In this research, dried-densified olive pomace residues from olive oil production have been applied as biomass feedstock in a new gasification process for synthesis gas (syngas) generation using a 500 kg h(-1) throughput capacity autothermal modified updraft gasifier system. The product syngas generation rate is found to be approximately 2.5 Nm(3) kg(-1) of olive pomace, with a calorific value (CV) between 5.0 MJ Nm(-3) and 7.0 MJ Nm(-3). More than 85% of carbon in pomace is converted to produced syngas by the gasification system. The gasification reactor generates syngas which passes through a specially designed swirl hot gas burner and is then burned directly in a thermal oil boiler retrofitted to an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbine generator. As a result, the produced syngas at around 350 degrees C is directly combusted with tars so that a great deal of chemical energy loss is prevented. The thermal oil heater has a thermal energy capacity of 1.77 MWh. The generated 1.6 MWh thermal energy from the thermal oil heater is transferred to the ORC turbine to generate 240 kW electrical power.