Preworkshop Tutorial: Fundamentals of Gasification

Preworkshop Tutorial panelists

Gasification is a thermochemical approach to converting solid fuels to the basic feedstock chemicals required for many synthetic processing technologies. Investors, commercial developers, research scientists, academia, and government agencies are currently investigating gasification as a pathway for converting biomass to electricity, ethanol green diesel, and other products. This course was geared toward helping developers understand the wide range of gasification technologies and how they can be applied

Tutorial Agenda

8:30 a.m.	Tutorial Registration Open
9:00 a.m.	Introduction to Gasification: History and Theory This session will include a general introduction to gasification principals, theory, and a historical perspective of the technology.
10:00 a.m.	End-Product Applications and Gas Cleanup This session will examine end-product uses, syngas cleanup technologies, and associated end products (i.e., electricity, heat, chemicals, fuels, and hydrogen).
10:30 a.m.	Large-Scale Commercial Gasification Systems This session will provide a current look at large-scale commercial gasification systems worldwide that utilize fossil and biomass feedstocks.
11:00 a.m.	The Next Frontier: Biomass Gasification This session will provide an overview of current and future developments in smaller distributed-scale biomass gasification, including issues, challenges, and opportunities.

Tutorial Coordinator
Chris Zygarlicke is a Deputy Associate Director for Research at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) with over 20 years of experience working in power and fuels. He currently oversees renewable energy and gasification programs at the EERC related to biomass conversion to power, heat, transportation fuels, and green chemicals.

Tutorial Instructors
Bruce Folkedahl is a Senior Research Manager at the EERC, where his work focuses on the use of biomass for the production of fuels, chemicals, and power, including work on biorefineries and lignocellulosic ethanol. Dr. Folkedahl currently has several projects involving Fischer-Tropsch conversion of syngas to products including distillate fuels and alcohols. He is also involved with the study of conventional combustion for electricity generation, fundamental mechanisms of ash deposition and fouling during cofiring of biomass fuels with coal, and corrosion and development of high-temperature materials to withstand aggressive combustion environments.

Phillip Hutton is a Research Manager at the EERC, where he leads an interdisciplinary team to develop distributed power systems and hydrogen-related technologies and applications, with an emphasis on integrating biomass and coal conversion technologies for use in high-temperature fuel cells and microturbines. At the EERC, he led a multimillion-dollar effort to build an integrated solid oxide fuel cell-gasification power system that resulted in the patent of a thermally integrated gasifier as well as a variety of projects related to fuel cell testing and biofuel production.

Paul Pansegrau is a Research Scientist at the EERC, where his work focuses on process chemistry and chemical synthesis related to developing advanced catalytic technology and thermochemical conversion technologies for coal and other hydrocarbons such as biomass to fuels and chemicals. Dr. Pansegrau's principal areas of expertise include gasification of lignite and other low-rank fuels and flue gas desulfurization and related environmental technologies. Prior to joining the EERC, he served as a Senior Research and Development Chemist at Dakota Gasification Company for 13 years.

Nikhil Patel is a Research Scientist at the EERC with over 13 years of experience working on the combustion and gasification of biomass, coal, and difficult-to-burn liquid and solid industrial wastes. His work focuses on designing, developing, and integrating enabling technologies for the conversion of carbonaceous fuels to heat, electricity, hydrogen, liquid fuel, and chemicals, including a mobile truck-mounted biomass-to-liquids production system. Dr. Patel is developing innovative next-generation gasifiers that can achieve seamless integration with technologies for the production of electricity and liquid fuels.

Michael Swanson is a Senior Research Manager at the EERC, where he is currently involved in the demonstration of advanced power systems such as pressurized fluidized-bed combustion (PFBC) and integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) systems, with an emphasis on hot-gas cleanup issues. Dr. Swanson has over 25 years of experience in developing new concepts for systems related to PFBC, IGCC, hot-gas cleanup, coal reactivity in low-rank coal (LRC) combustion, supercritical solvent extraction, and liquefaction of LRCs.