Biomass gasification – A synthesis of technical barriers and current research issues for deployment at large scale

About the project

Thermal gasification at large scale for cogeneration of power and heat and/or production of fuels and materials is a main pathway for a sustainable deployment of biomass resources. However, so far no such full scale production exists and biomass gasification projects remain at the pilot or demonstration scale.

This project has focused on the key critical technology challenges for the large-scale deployment of the tre following biomass-based gasification concepts:

1. Direct Fluidised Bed Gasification (FBG)
2. Entrained Flow Gasification (EFG)
3. Indirect Dual Fluidised Bed Gasification (DFBG)

The main content in this report is based on responses from a number of experts in biomass gasification obtained from a questionnaire. The survey was composed of a number of more or less specific questions on technical barriers as to the three gasification concepts considered. For formalising the questionnaire, the concept of Technology Readiness Level (TRL 1-9) was used for grading the level of technical maturity of the different sub-processes within the three generic biomass gasification technologies.