Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies

Although much advancement has been made in the analysis of producer gas, none have yielded a system that allows for online measurement of gas, tar and particulate matter as they leave a gasifier or fast pyrolyzer.  Producer gas streams present a particularly challenging substance to measure due to the presence of multiple, interacting phases and complex constituents.  Both tar condensation and high particulate counts are very hazardous to current instrumentation, requiring both to be removed before analysis is performed.  The objective of this project is to develop a system capable of real-time analysis in the harsh producer gas environment with the ability to measure gas, tar and particulate found in gasification streams. 

Reliable online gas measurement is critical to analyzing the effects of parameter changes on the products of thermo chemical conversion.  Temperature, for example, has an extreme influence over how much particulate or gas is produced in a reactor.  Real-time measurement feedback would allow for adjustments to be made during experimentation, based on reaction products, in order to obtain desired results.