Abstract:
I ncreasing energy demand, limited resources of fossil fuels and environmental aspects are the main rationales behind the research efforts aiming at wider utilization of biowaste (e.g. sewage sludge) in energy generation systems. Gasification as an alternative to combustion offers increased efficiency, lower negative environmental impact and wider application range of the main product – synthesis gas – in power generation and chemical synthesis. It is also considered as one of the most viable options for hydrogen production, as an environment friendly energy carrier. An increased interest in renewable energy resources has resulted in numerous studies on biomass and biowaste gasification. Municipal solid wastes, sewage sludge and industrial residues are also considered as potential gasification feedstock. In the paper the experimental results on steam gasification of biochar in a fixed bed reactor under atmospheric pressure and at the temperature of 700, 800 and 900oC are presented. The effectiveness of the biochar gasification process was tested in terms of the total gas and hydrogen yield, gas composition, carbon conversion rate and biochars reactivity.
Biography:
Prof. Adam Smolinski, Scientific Secretary, Central Mining Institute (Katowice, Poland). Specializes in clean coal technologies including solid fuels gasification, carbon dioxide sequestration, sorbents and catalysts application in hydrogen production. His expertise covers also exploratory environmental data analysis, multiway data analysis, clustering, data mining, missing elements and outlier detection methods, calibration and autoassociative neural networks. Author of over 200 scientific, peer-reviewed papers.
In his professional career, he has held numerous research and teaching positions. In 2000-2004, he worked as a lecturer in the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Silesia. From 2005 to 2006, he occupied several research positions at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Processes of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, USA, Coal Research Park of Southern Illinois University in Carterville, USA, and the Department of Material Engineering at the Central Mining Institute.
Professor Smolinski serves on various international committees including the Energy Strategic Working Group of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), World Energy Council, Polish Committee for Standardization (PKN), and the Scientific Association of Chemists at Polish Academy of Sciences. He is also the Head of the Silesian Environmental PhD Program in the field of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Technologies and a member of the Scientific Council of the Central Mining Institute. He sits on the editorial boards of several international peer review journals.
