Evaluation of Pyrolysis and Steam Gasification Processes of Sugarcane Bagasse in a Fixed Bed Reactor

Sugarcane bagasse is the main byproduct of sugarcane mill, ready available at the production site so that it may be a suitable raw material for the production of biofuels, chemicals and electricity. Among the methods that have been widely studied, there are thermochemical processes such as gasification, pyrolysis and direct combustion. The direct combustion is used to produce electricity while the pyrolysis and gasification are used to obtain high value-added products such as bio-oil and synthesis gas (Syngas). In this study we performed a comparison between the experimental results by pyrolysis and gasification reactions. The pyrolysis and gasification of sugarcane bagasse was carried out, using a laboratory-scale fixed bed reactor in order to produce bio-oil (pyrolysis) and Syngas (gasification). The gasification and pyrolysis were studied and evaluated the char, tar and gas production as well as the composition of the gas produced. For the pyrolysis temperature was varied from 500 °C to 900 °C and a quite broad reaction time range was considered. In gasification were evaluated the reaction temperature equal to 900 °C, reaction time and steam/bagasse ratio equal 2.0. The behavior for both process was presented.