Waste-to-energy technologies are an integral part of a low-carbon energy future. Energy from waste has dual benefits of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by avoiding landfill and offsetting fossil fuels.
Waste-to-energy technologies are an integral part of a low-carbon energy future. Energy from waste has dual benefits of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by avoiding landfill and offsetting fossil fuels.
Additionally, small distributed systems reduce or eliminate the waste transportation costs and associated GHG emissions. Gasification is ideally suited to convert solid waste feedstocks into a gaseous fuel for electricity or liquid fuel production. The NRC is a leader in waste gasification, operating a full scale (15 kWe) gasifier generator on a variety of wastes.
Our capabilities
The NRC's gasifier generator contains an air-blown downdraft gasifier (10-15 kg/hr) that converts waste into a gaseous fuel containing H2, CO, CO2, CH4 and N2. The gas is cleaned of contaminants in a novel process and then injected into a spark ignition generator for the production of electricity (10-15 kW). This scale is ideally suited for distributed energy production in remote communities or industrial sites where waste is generated or transferred. The system has the ability to de-couple the gasifier from the engine for testing of novel downstream components for gas clean-up, or liquid/gaseous fuel production. The system's novel characteristics include:
- Fuel flexibility: Commercially available gasifier generators like that at the heart of the NRC's facility, are designed for operation on clean wood chips that meet tight moisture and size specifications. Through extensive modifications and enhanced control strategies, the NRC has increased the fuel flexibility and can now operate on a variety of waste fuels including: post-consumer waste wood, construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) waste, railway ties and solid recovered fuel (SRF) briquettes. This provides stakeholders an opportunity to test a variety of fuels in a full scale gasifier generator.
- Gas clean-up: The gas produced in the gasification process contains tar (condensable hydrocarbons) and char contaminants. The NRC's novel gas clean-up system utilizes inexpensive absorbents that can remove tar and char and be gasified as a fuel when spent.
Why work with us
The NRC's biomass gasifier generator facility offers partners and stakeholders the opportunity to test a wide variety of feedstocks and different system components on a full scale system.
Equipment
The gaseous products and stack emissions from the system are characterized using a permanent gas analyzer, tar sampling train and a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) gas analyser. They provide partners and stakeholders with a comprehensive characterization of emissions from solid fuel gasification. A suite of analytical equipment includes: thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur analyzers (CHNS), gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and a calorimeter are used to characterize fuels and solid/liquid products.
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Contact us
Darryl Roberts, Director, Research and Development
Telephone: 613-998-7133
Email: Darryl.Roberts@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Adam Shales, Client Relationship Leader
Telephone: 613-991-3245
Email: Adam.Shales@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca