To increase the efficiency of biomass integrated gasification fuel cell (B­IGFC) systems, hot gas cleaning technologies are essential. Hot gas filters operating at temperatures higher than 800°C enable not only the application of high temperature sorption materials to eliminate contaminants but also the use of tar reformers downstream of the filtration unit at high temperatures without the need of reheating the product gas. In the progress of the hot gas filter (HGF) development, two long term tests of 450 and 1150 hours were conducted with a HGF unit operating at 450°C at ambient pressure. Ceramic filter candles installed in horizontal position were used to filter fuel gas with sticky particles produced by an updraft gasifier operated with wood pellets. The ceramic filter elements were recleaned with a coupled pressure pulse (CPP) method instead of a conventional jet pulse system. The results are very promising showing that for various process modes, stable operation of the HGF is possible.

Proceedings of the 19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-10 June 2011, Berlin, Germany, pp. 991-995