Hydrogen production via synthetic gas by biomass/oil partial oxidation

► Meal rape and hydrocarbons mixture partial oxidation versus process simulation. ► Advantage of bio-waste and hydrocarbon oil co-gasification mixture was confirmed. ► Higher hydrogen production and lower both oxygen and steam process demand. ► Optimum oxygen to feed mass ratio is between 0.6 and 0.8 for good yield of hydrogen. Comparison of pilot plant partial oxidation of meal rape and hydrocarbon oil mixture with process simulation using equilibrium reactor model by process simulator Aspen Plus resulted in a good agreement. The application of representative compounds method for simulation of such complex mixture was found as a useful tool for optimal process conditions prediction. Based on this procedure the ratio feed to both oxygen and steam were proposed for prediction of good experimental parameters for good process yield of hydrogen. It was stated that key parameter lambda (or analogously oxygen to feed ratio) controlling the partial oxidation process in optimal regime should be in the interval 0.6–0.8, i.e. under reduction conditions.