Co-gasification of woody biomass and chicken manure: Syngas production, biochar reutilization, and cost-benefit analysis

Ng, W. C., You, S. , Ling, R., Gin, K. Y.-H., Dai, Y. and Wang, C.-H. (2017) Co-gasification of woody biomass and chicken manure: Syngas production, biochar reutilization, and cost-benefit analysis. Energy, 139, pp. 732-742. (doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.07.165)

Abstract

The management and disposal of livestock manure has become one of the top environmental issues at a global scale in line with the tremendous growth of poultry industry over the past decades. In this work, a potential alternative method for the disposal of chicken manure from Singapore local hen layer farms was studied. Gasification was proposed as the green technology to convert chicken manure into clean energy. Through gasification experiments in a 10 kW fixed bed downdraft gasifier, it was found that chicken manure was indeed a compatible feedstock for gasification in the presence of wood waste. The co-gasification of 30 wt% chicken manure and 70 wt% wood waste produced syngas of comparable quality to that of gasification of pure wood waste, with a syngas lower heating value (LHV) of 5.23 MJ/Nm3 and 4.68 MJ/Nm3, respectively. Furthermore, the capability of the gasification derived biochar in the removal of an emerging contaminant (artificial sweetener such as Acesulfame, Saccharin and Cyclamate) via adsorption was also conducted in the second part of this study. The results showed that the biochar was effective in the removal of the contaminant and the mechanism of adsorption of artificial sweetener by biochar was postulated to be likely via electrostatic interaction as well as specific interaction. Finally, we conducted a cost-benefit analysis for the deployment of a gasification system in a hen layer farm using a Monte Carlo simulation model.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This research programme is funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister's Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme with Grant Number R-706-001-101-281, National University of Singapore.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: You, Dr Siming
• Authors: Ng, W. C., You, S., Ling, R., Gin, K. Y.-H., Dai, Y., and Wang, C.-H.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Energy
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0360-5442
• ISSN (Online): 1873-6785
• Published Online: 30 July 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd.
• First Published: First published in Energy 139: 732-742
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy