%0 Journal Article %T Effect of Operating Conditions on Catalytic Gasification of Bamboo in a Fluidized Bed %A Thanasit Wongsiriamnuay %A Nattakarn Kannang %A Nakorn Tippayawong %J International Journal of Chemical Engineering %D 2013 %I Hindawi Publishing Corporation %R 10.1155/2013/297941 %X Catalytic gasification of bamboo in a laboratory-scale, fluidized bed reactor was investigated. Experiments were performed to determine the effects of reactor temperature (400, 500, and 600¡ãC), gasifying medium (air and air/steam), and catalyst to biomass ratio (0£¿:£¿1, 1£¿:£¿1, and 1.5£¿:£¿1) on product gas composition, H2/CO ratio, carbon conversion efficiency, heating value, and tar conversion. From the results obtained, it was shown that at 400¡ãC with air/steam gasification, maximum hydrogen content of 16.5%£¿v/v, carbon conversion efficiency of 98.5%, and tar conversion of 80% were obtained. The presence of catalyst was found to promote the tar reforming reaction and resulted in improvement of heating value, carbon conversion efficiency, and gas yield due to increases in H2, CO, and CH4. The presence of steam and dolomite had an effect on the increasing of tar conversion. 1. Introduction Energy demand has been growing for the past several decades due to rapid industrial and urban development in industry, but fossil fuel reserves have been in decline [1]. Renewable energy has been very popular as an obvious candidate to substitute fossil fuels. Biomass is one of the renewable fuel sources that can claim to have significant environmental benefits with regards to neutral carbon emissions and reduction in global warming [2, 3]. There are many biomass materials that can be utilized for energy [4]. Fast growing plants, which do not compete with food crops, may be used as sustainable energy resources [5, 6] for developed and developing countries. Biomass can be converted to biofuels via several pathways such as biochemical or thermochemical conversion. Gasification process is one of the promising technologies to produce syngas from solid feedstock [2, 7¨C9]. Producer gas containing simple molecular gas can be used, instead of fossil fuels, in combustion engines. Gas production is dependent on input streams, operating conditions, and gas output conditioning. Input of gasification process is referred to by type and components of feedstock materials and type and flow of gasifying agent. Gas output conditioning is a process involved in cooling and disposing particulate matter and tar in the gas product. Gasification reactions are controlled by operation conditions such as temperature, pressure, and residence time. Reaction temperature is one of the most influential parameters for the gasification operation. Gasification temperature is normally classified into three ranges; low (400¨C600¡ãC), medium (600¨C900¡ãC), and high (>900¡ãC). Increasing temperature tends to result %U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijce/2013/297941/