Abstract
Biomass utilization technologies are demanded as effective means of greenhouse gas emission reduction. Over a long term, we evaluated gasification methanol synthesis technologies that use wood biomass, such as scrap wood, for the purpose of demonstrating its technical reliability and stability in operation. The demonstration produced approximately 5,000L of methanol during a total of 2,500 hours operation, including 1-month of continuous operation. Operation was stable and could produce approximately 40-50L of methanol per day during the 1-month of continuous operation. We were able to confirm the stability and reliability of the facilities. The methanol produced was as clear as water and no contaminants were seen. The purity was stable at approximately 95% and other than methanol was mainly water. In the methanol synthesis reaction, even with the same H2/CO ratio, the higher the CO concentration the more the rate of methanol transformation from CO increased. The partial pressure of H2 was also important for increasing the rate of methanol transformation from CO.
