Effects of low-grade gas composition on the energy/exergy performance of a polygeneration system (CH2HP) based on biomass gasification and ICE

Bio-hydrogen from sustainable biomass (i.e. agro-industrial residues) gasification can play a relevant role in the hydrogen economy, providing constant hydrogen from renewable sources. Nowadays, most hydrogen production systems integrate one or more water-gas shift (WGS) units to maximize the hydrogen yield that, however, needs additional syngas treatments, investment and operational costs. Besides, different electricity inputs are needed along the process to power the compression of raw syngas, shifted syngas, and pure hydrogen to the desired pressure. This common process integration with WGS generates a kind of off-gas from the hydrogen separation unit whose composition may or may not be suitable for power production, depending on the operating conditions of the gasification unit. In this regard, this work proposes a different approach in which no WGS reactors are involved and the off-gas is used to generate heat and power to provide the energy input needed by the system. In particular, the authors tested the bio-syngas and the corresponding off-gas in a 4-cylinders, spark ignition natural gas internal combustion engine operated in cogeneration mode with the aim to analyse the effect of removing the hydrogen from the original bio-syngas on mechanical/electric and thermal power, on fuel efficiency and CO2 specific emission.