Kentaro Umeki

• Professor
• Professor at Luleå University of Technology

Biomass gasification is a promising technology in current and future low carbon energy systems. Soot formation is a great technical challenge for the industrialization of biomass gasification that is inevitable at high temperature and fuel rich conditions. In this review, a comprehensive summary of soot formation in biomass gasification is provided...

This paper presents thermal deactivation of beech wood chars during secondary pyrolysis in a drop-tube reactor. Pyrolysis temperature was varied between 1000 °C and 1600 °C at a constant residence time of 200 ms. The effect of pyrolysis conditions on initial conversion rate R0 during gasification, graphitization of the carbon matrix and ash morphol...

The work investigates in a drop tube furnace the effect of potassium on carbon conversion for three different types of fuels: an ash lean stemwood, a calcium-rich bark and a silicon-rich straw. The study focuses on an optimal method for impregnating the biomass with potassium. The experiments are conducted for 3 different impregnation methods; wet...

In most industrial applications, combustion and gasification of char progresses under regime II conditions. Unlike in other regimes, both particle size and density change simultaneously in regime II due to non-uniform consumption of carbon inside the particles. In this work, mathematical predictions of diameter changes in regime II were made by a o...

A Stefan flow can be generated during a phase change or reactions of a particle immersed in a fluid. This study investigates the effect of Stefan flow on the exchange of momentum (drag coefficient (CD)) and heat transfer (Nusselt number (Nu)) between the particle and bulk-fluid. Fully resolved simulations were carried out for a flow near a spherica...

The heat and mass transfer in packed bed reactors (PBRs) are strongly influenced by the random packing of particles, making a thorough understanding of the packed bed structure crucial for optimal reactor design. This study investigates the impact of particle shape irregularities and size distributions on packing and transport properties using X-ra...

Char conversion is a complex phenomenon that involves not only heterogeneous reactions but also external and internal heat and mass transfer. Reactor-scale simulations often use a point-particle approach (PP approach) as sub-models for char conversion because of its low computational cost. Despite a number of simplifications involved in the PP appr...

Packed bed reactors play a crucial role in various industrial applications. This paper utilizes the Discrete Element Method (DEM), an efficient numerical technique for simulating the behavior of packed beds of particles as discrete phases. The focus is on generating densely packed particle beds. To ensure the model accuracy, specific DEM parameters...

To address the impacts of climate change, it is imperative to significantly decrease anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Biomass-based chemicals and fuels will play a crucial role in substituting fossil-based feedstock...

Binary and ternary composites of BiOI with NH2-MIL-101(Fe) and a functionalized biochar were synthesized through an in situ approach, aimed at spurring the activity of the semiconductor as a photocatalyst for the removal of ciprofloxacin (CIP) from water. Experimental outcomes showed a drastic enhancement of the adsorption and the equilibrium (whic...

The aim of the work was to study the effects of neighboring particles with uniform Stefan flow in particle–fluid flows. Particle-resolved numerical simulations were carried out for particles emitting a uniform Stefan flow into the bulk fluid. The bulk fluid was uniform and isothermal. The Stefan flow volume emitted from the two particles is equal,...

Forced intermittent combustion with periodical variations of pressure, velocity, and air-fuel ratios is a promising method to increase efficiency and reduce emissions from combustion and gasification applications. In this work, flame characteristics and emissions from a pulverized biomass burner are investigated under oscillations induced by an aco...

Our earlier study showed significant differences in average particle velocity between simulation and experimental results for devolatilizing biomass particles in an idealised entrained flow reactor [N. Guo et al., Fuel, 2020]. This indicates that the simulations do not accurately describe the physicochemical transformations and fluid dynamic proces...

Inter-particle distance and particle dispersion during gasification of biomass have been found to significantly affect soot emission. Consequently, enhanced particle dispersion decreases energy losses and the risk for blockages of downstream equipment, increasing the efficiency and reliability of entrained flow reactors (EFRs). In this work, we inv...

This study investigates the influences of intraparticle and interparticle diffusions on the reaction rates of char gasification in a packed bed without forced convective flows. The main objective is to elucidate how the dominant scales of mass diffusion resistance change based on particle size distributions (PSD). CO2 gasification rates were measur...

In the field of energy supply, the focus is shifting from conventional combustion to a variety of new energy conversion technologies. Nineteen articles in this Special Issue describe different aspects, that make combustion and combustion products attractive in the context of future sustainable energy systems. Carbon capture and recycling can bridge...

Biochar is attracting attention as an alternative carbon/fuel source to coal in the process industry and energy sector. However, it is prone to self-heating and often leads to spontaneous ignition and thermal runaway during storage, resulting in production loss and health risks. This study investigates biochar self-heating upon its contact with O2...

Explore a thorough overview of the current knowledge, developments and outstanding challenges in turbulent combustion and application.

Biomass char produced from pyrolysis processes is of great interest to be utilized as renewable solid fuels or materials. Forest byproducts and agricultural wastes are low-cost and sustainable biomass feedstocks. These biomasses generally contain high amounts of ash-forming elements, generally leading to high char reactivity. This study elaborates...

Biomass is a complex material mainly composed of the three lignocellulosic components: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The different molecular structures of the individual components result in various decomposition mechanisms during the pyrolysis process. To understand the underlying reactions in more detail, the individual components can be e...

The effect of pyrolysis reactors on the properties of biochars (with a focus on flammability and mechanical characteristics) were investigated by keeping factors such as feedstock, carbonisation temperature, heating rate and residence time constant. The reactors employed were hydrothermal, fixed-bed batch vertical and fixed-bed batch horizontal-tub...

Despite a small proportion of mineral in coal, inherent alkali and alkaline earth metals (AAEM) catalytically affected thermal conversion of coal. The gasification of raw and leached coal char was investigated by using an operando microscopic Raman spectroscopy to explore the effect of content and chemical form of the inherent AAEM on morphology an...

In Nordic countries, biomass gasification in a cyclone gasifier combined with a gas engine has been employed to generate small scale heat and power. Numerical simulations were carried out to analyze the effect of different operating conditions on the functioning of the gasifier. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved together with the...

Explore a thorough and up to date overview of the current knowledge, developments and outstanding challenges in turbulent combustion and application. The balance among various renewable and combustion technologies are surveyed, and numerical and experimental tools are discussed along with recent advances. Covers combustion of gaseous, liquid and so...

The present study aims to present a comprehensive characterization of the surface of ash-layered olivine bed particles from dual fluidized bed gasification. It is well known from operation experience at industrial gasification plants that the bed material is activated during operation concerning its positive influence on gasification reactions. Thi...

This work demonstrated that supercritical carbon dioxide extraction is effective as a pre-treatment technology to generate soot particles with the fullerene-like structure and increase syngas yield from extracted residues during coupled microwave activation with gasification. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction removes over half of the fatty an...

Particle size, aspect ratio (AR, defined here as major over minor dimension), orientation and volume fraction have been measured for a stream of pulverized biomass particles undergoing devolatilization. Milling of raw biomass for thermochemical conversion yields elongated particles with high AR. Particle shape affects the heat and mass transfers an...

A drag force model for spheroids, referred as the spheroid model, was implemented in OpenFOAM, in order to better predict the thermochemical conversion of pulverized biomass. Our previous work has found that the spheroid model predicts more dispersed results in terms of particle velocities and local concentrations comparing to other conventional pa...

Pyrolysis conditions in charcoal production affect yields, properties, and further use of charcoal. Reactivity is a critical property when using charcoal as an alternative to fossil coal and coke, as fuel or reductant, in different industrial processes. This work aimed to obtain a holistic understanding of the effects of pyrolysis conditions on the...

The effects of lignocellulosic biomass composition on product yields and distributions were studied under high-temperature pyrolysis conditions (800–1250 C) in a drop tube reactor. Several types of biomass were studied along with xylan, cellulose, and two types of lignin as model feeds. Among the model feeds, soot yields obtained from lignin pyroly...

Keyword: Soot Potassium Biomass Fast pyrolysis CO 2 reactivity A B S T R A C T This study aims to investigate the interaction between potassium and carbonaceous matrix of soot produced from wood and herbaceous biomass pyrolysis at high heating rates at 1250°C in a drop tube reactor. The influence of soot carbon chemistry and potassium content in th...

Biomass soot samples were generated at fast pyrolysis conditions in a DTF at 1250 °C. • The reactivity of soot was determined in 40 vol.% CO 2 gasification by TGA. • The most reactive was cellulose soot with the largest separation distance. • The least reactive CH 3 OH extracted lignin soot had the smallest separation distance. • The particle size...

In most industrial applications, combustion and gasification of char progresses under regime II conditions. Unlike in other regimes, both particle size and density change simultaneously in regime II due to non-uniform consumption of carbon inside the particles. In this work, mathematical predictions of diameter changes in regime II are done by a 1D...

This study presents how the yields of different tar compounds from pure lignocellulosic compounds respond to the change in temperature and residence time. Experiments were carried out with a drop tube furnace in the temperature range from 800 to 1250 C. The tar composition was characterized by gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector and...

Particle laden flows with reactive particles are common in industrial applications. Chemical reactions inside the particle can generate a Stefan flow that affects heat, mass and momentum transfer between the particle and the bulk flow. This study aims at investigating the effect of Stefan flow on the drag coefficient of a spherical particle immerse...

The amount of plastic-containing materials, such as shredder residue material, which is generated after the processing of electronic equipment waste, is increasing. One interesting option for the sustainable management of these materials, instead of incineration or landfilling, is recycling through injection in a bath smelting process, such as zinc...

Entrained flow gasification of biomass has the potential to generate synthesis gas as a source of renewable chemicals, electricity, and heat. Nonetheless, formation of tar and soot is a major challenge for continuous operation due to the problems they cause at downstream of the gasifier. Our previous studies showed the addition of alkali in the fue...

This study presents the effect of biomass origin on the yield, nanostructure and reactivity of soot. Soot was produced from wood and herbaceous biomass pyrolysis at high heating rates and at temperatures of 1250 and 1400C in a drop tube furnace. The structure of solid residues was characterized by electron microscopy techniques, X-ray diffraction a...

Charcoal from biomass is a promising alternative for fossil coal. Although its quality increases at high pyrolysis temperature, charcoal yield decreases, meaning lower economic performances of charcoal production processes. This work aims at demonstrating potential methods to increase charcoal yield while keeping its quality at satisfying levels. W...

Slow pyrolysis as a method of producing a high-quality energy carrier from lignin recovered from wood-based ethanol production has not been studied for co-firing or blast furnace (BF) applications up to now. This paper investigates fuel characteristics, grindability, moisture uptake and the flow properties of lignin chars derived from the slow pyro...

The introduction of alkali catalyst during hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) improves conversion and allows the aqueous liquid product to be used as gasification feedstock. This study investigates the effect of reaction temperature (240–300°C), sawdust mass fraction (9.1–25%) and reaction time (0–60 min) during K2CO3-catalytic HTL of pine sawdust. Th...

The integration between K2CO3-catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and gasification is explored to improve the gasification process. In this study, the CO2 gasification characteristics and the activation energies of the chars derived from four kinds of HTL products, black liquor (BL) and virgin pine sawdust (PS) are investigated non-isothermal...

This paper provides a fundamental and critical review of biomass application as a reducing agent and fuel in integrated steelmaking. The basis for the review is derived from the current process and product quality requirements that also biomass-derived fuels should fulfill. The availability and characteristics of different sources of biomass are di...

Particle properties such as size, shape and density play significant roles on particle flow and flame propagation in pulverized fuel combustion and gasification. A drop tube furnace allows for experiments at high heating rates similar to those found in large-scale appliances, and was used in this study to carry out experiments on pulverized biomass...

The catalytic activity of alkali compounds in black liquor (BL) enables gasification at low temperatures with high carbon conversion and low tar and soot formation. The efficiency and flexibility of the BL gasification process may be improved by mixing BL with fuels with higher energy content such as pyrolysis oil (PO). The fate of alkali elements...

The efficiency and flexibility of the BL gasification process may improve by mixing BL with more energy-rich fuels such as pyrolysis oil (PO). To improve understanding of the fuel conversion process, blends of BL and PO were studied in an atmospheric drop tube furnace. Experiments were performed in varying atmosphere (5% and 0% CO2, balanced by N2)...

Pyrolysis conditions and the presence of ash forming elements significantly influence char properties and its oxidation or gasification reactivity. In this study, intrinsic gasification rates of char from high heating rate pyrolysis were analyzed with isothermal thermogravimetry. The char particles were prepared from two biomasses at three size ran...

Tar and soot in product gas have been a major technical challenge toward the large scale industrial installation of biomass gasification. This study aims at demonstrating that the formation of tar and soot can be reduced simultaneously by utilizing the catalytic activity of alkali metal species. Pine sawdust was impregnated with aqueous K2CO3 solut...

Spruce chips of three different thicknesses were pyrolyzed isothermally in a vertical furnace macro-TGA at 574 to 676K, which is the temperature range relevant for char production. The measured mass loss data was analyzed in terms of mass loss rate, thermal lag and char yield as a function of chip size and pyrolysis temperature. The char yield decr...

This paper describes the development of a multiscale equivalent reactor network model for pressurized entrained flow biomass gasification to quantify the effect of operational parameters on the gasification process, including carbon conversion, cold gas efficiency, and syngas methane content. The model, implemented in the commercial software Aspen...

Pulverized fuel (PF) burners play a key role for the performance of PF fired gasification and combustion plants, by minimizing pollutant emission, fuel consumption and hence fuel costs. However, fuel diversity in power generation plants imposes limitations on the performance of existing PF burners, especially when burning solid fuel particles with...

Different concentrations (0.1 and 1 M K⁺/Na⁺) of salt solutions (K2CO3, Na2CO3, NaOH and NaCl) were used to impregnate alkali in sawdust. After devolatilization, char samples were gasified at different temperatures (750–900 °C) under CO2 in a macro-thermogravimetric analyzer for gasification kinetics. Morphologically, three classes of chars could b...

This study assesses the feasibility of black liquor/glycerol blends as potential gasification feedstock. The char gasification reactivity and kinetics were studied at T = 750 °C, 800 °C, 850 °C and 900 °C for 20% and 40% blends of glycerol with black liquor. Three qualities of glycerol were used including two industrial grade crude glycerols. Gasif...

Soot is an undesired by-product of entrained flow biomass gasification since it has a detrimental effect on operation of the gasifier, e.g. clogging of flow passages and system components and reduction of efficiency. This study investigated how active flow manipulation by adding synthetic jet (i.e. oscillating flow through orifice) in feeding line...

Based on char gasification experiments in an isothermal thermogravimetric analyzer, a suitable concentration of alkali salt (K 2 CO 3) was chosen for impregnation due to almost five-fold increase in gasification reactivity and relatively low amount of carbon leaching during impregnation. Furthermore, an optimum method for wet alkali impregnation wa...

This study presents the effect of biomass origin on the yield, nanostructure and reactivity of soot. Soot was produced from wood and herbaceous biomass pyrolysis at high heating rates and at temperatures of 1250 and 1400 °C in a drop tube furnace. The structure of solid residues was characterized by electron microscopy techniques, X-ray diffraction...

Advanced biomass-based motor fuels and chemicals are becoming increasingly important to replace fossil energy sources within the coming decades. It is likely that the new biorefineries will evolve mainly from existing forest industry sites, as they already have the required biomass handling infrastructure in place. The main objective of this work i...

Fast pyrolysis of wood and straw was conducted in a drop tube furnace (DTF) and compared with corresponding data from a wire mesh reactor (WMR) to study the influence of temperature (1000-1400)°C, biomass origin (pinewood, beechwood, wheat straw, alfalfa straw), and heating rate (10^3°C/s, 10^4°C/s) on the char yield and morphology. Scanning electr...

Fast pyrolysis of wood and straw was conducted in a drop tube furnace (DTF) and compared with corresponding data from a wire mesh reactor (WMR) to study the influence of temperature (1000-1400)°C, biomass origin (pinewood, beechwood, wheat straw, alfalfa straw), and heating rate (10 3 °C/s, 10 4 °C/s) on the char yield and morphology. Scanning elec...

This study explored the feasibility of biomass CO2 gasification as an effective method for implementing the concept of a carbon-negative power system through bioenergy with carbon capturing and storage. A CO2-recycling biomass gasification system was developed and examined using the thermal equilibrium model. Sensitivity analysis was performed by v...

A biomass gasification system with CO2-recycling was developed and examined using the thermal equilibrium model. Performance comparison was conducted against the conventional air gasification system. Sensitivity analyses were performed by varying the gasifier temperature from 750 °C to 950 °C and testing three kinds of rice husk as feedstock: As ha...

This paper explored the feasibility and benefit of CO2 utilization as gasifying agent in the autothermal gasification process. The effects of CO2 injection on reaction temperature and producer gas composition were examined in a pilot scale downdraft gasifier by varying the CO2/C ratio from 0.6 to 1.6. O2 was injected at an equivalence ratio of appr...

Many phenomena affects devolatilization of relatively large wood particles, e.g. wood pellets and logs, including mass and heat transfer, chemical reactions and physical transformation such as shrinkage. Many studies investigated the importance of these phenomena through detailed mathematical models at particle scale, but the models need to be simp...

Soot creates technical challenges in entrained flow biomass gasification processes, e.g. clogging of flow passages, fouling on system components and reduced efficiency of gasification. This paper demonstrates a novel soot reduction method in a laboratory-scale entrained flow reactor by forced dispersion of biomass particles. Gasification of small b...

This paper describes the investigation of a hybrid power production system from biomass and solar energy. This paper suggests integration through heat exchanger network as a useful approach to obtain the synergy between biomass and solar. Biomass is first gasified in a bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) gasifier, and then syngas is used in a gas turbine....

Alkali metals inherent in black liquor (BL) have strong catalytic activity during gasification. A catalytic co-gasification process based on BL with pyrolysis oil (PO) has the potential to be a part of efficient and fuel-flexible biofuel production systems. The objective of the paper is to investigate how adding PO into BL alters fuel conversion un...

Reactive flash volatilisation is an autothermal process to convert biomass into tar-free synthesis gas under steam-rich conditions. This article studies the kinetics of reactive flash volatilisation by using Ni, PtNi, RuNi, ReNi, and RhNi catalysts supported on alumina. The rates of mass loss of cellulose, xylan, and lignin were measured and compar...

Biomass gasifi cation fundamentals to support the development of BTL in forest industry Publishable fi nal scientifi c report of Nordsyngas project The Nordic forest industry creates new concepts and provides solutions to mitigate climate challenge. One of the most interesting concepts is the integrated production of pulp and paper products and tra...

A hybrid power generation system using biomass gasification and concentrated solar thermal processes (CSTP) was proposed. We analysed the system performance of a combined cycle with a bubbling fluidized bed gasifier (BFG) using CO2-H2O-O2 mixture and CSTP using molten salt. BFG was simulated by a semi-kinetic model, applying a continuously stirred...

Gasification of biomass in a fluidized bed (FB) was modeled based on kinetic data obtained from previously conducted thermogravimetric analysis. The thermogravimetric analysis experiments were designed to closely resemble conditions in a real FB gasifier by using high sample heating rates, in situ devolatilization and gas atmospheres of H2O/H2 and...

This paper presents how pelletizing die temperature and moisture content affect combustion behaviour of single wood pellet. Pine wood particles with two different moisture contents (i.e. 1 wt.% and 12 wt.%) were pelletized in a laboratory-scale single pelletizer (single die pellets) at die temperature of 20, 100, 150 and 200 °C. The pellets were co...

This study addresses the change of char morphology and fuel conversion during pyrolysis in a laminar entrained flow reactor by experiments and particle simulation. Three experimental parameters were examined: reaction temperature (1073 and 1273 K); particle size (125–250, 250–500, and 500–1000 μm); and the length of reaction zone (650 and 1885 mm)....

A comprehensive description of catalytic effects during char gasification under various conditions relevant to biomass gasification was made. A three-parallel reaction model was proposed to describe the dynamic change in catalytic activity of ash during gasification of biomass char particles. Three different regimes of conversion were identified by...

High temperature steam gasification (HTSG) is a gasification technology which utilizes super-heated steam at a temperature above 1273 K. This paper addresses the performance analysis of an updraft HTSG gasifier using a numerical model. The experimental data obtained from a demonstration-scale gasifier was successfully simulated by the developed mod...

Steam gasification of biomass can generate hydrogen-rich, medium heating value gas. We investigated pyrolysis and char reaction behavior during biomass gasification in detail to clarify the effect of steam presence. Rice straw was gasified in a laboratory scale, batch-type gasification reactor. Time-series data for the yields and compositions of ga...

Steam explosion (SE) pretreatment has been implemented for the production of wood pellet. This paper investigated changes in biomass structure due to implication of steam explosion process by its pyrolysis behavior/characteristics. Salix wood chip was treated by SE at different pretreatment conditions, and then pyrolysis characteristic was examined...

We have studied a high temperature steam gasification process to generate hydrogen-rich fuel gas from woody biomass. In this study, the performance of the gasification system which employs only high temperature steam exceeding 1200 K as the gasifying agent was evaluated in a 1.2 ton/day-scale demonstration plant. A numerical analysis was also carri...

A simple expression for the apparent reaction rate of large wood char gasification with steam is proposed. Large char samples were gasified under steam atmosphere using a thermo-balance reactor. The apparent reaction rate was expressed as the product of the intrinsic rate and the effective factor. The effective factor was modified to include the ef...

In this paper, basic studies on the high temperature steam gasification system which is named as HyPR-MEET system were carried out using the Japanese cedar and pure polyethylene (PE) particles as feedstocks. First, the characteristic of steam gasification is investigated. With each feedstock, the hydrogen concentration increases as the gasification...

We present a model to simulate the increase in sludge temperature during batch-type thermal pretreatment of sewage sludge. The semi-theoretical model is based on energy balance as a function of operating conditions, including non-ideal factors determined by fitting. The model was verified by comparison with the results of bench-scale runs. It predi...

The thermal (saturated steam) pre-treatment gives an improvement role in dewaterability of sewage sludge, therefore the combination process of the thermal pretreatment and a dewatering is proposed as an alternative to drying processes as pretreatments for incineration. One of the merits is that the energy input of the process proposed is lower than...