Absorptive removal of biomass tar using water and oily materials

Water is the most common choice of absorption medium selected in many gasification systems. Because of poor solubility of tar in water, hydrophobic absorbents (diesel fuel, biodiesel fuel, vegetable oil, and engine oil) were studied on their absorption efficiency of biomass tar and compared with water. The results showed that only 31.8% of gravimetric tar was removed by the water scrubber, whereas the highest removal of gravimetric tar was obtained by a vegetable oil scrubber with a removal efficiency of 60.4%. When focusing on light PAH tar removal, the absorption efficiency can be ranked in the following order; diesel fuel > vegetable oil > biodiesel fuel > engine oil > water. On the other hand, an increase in gravimetric tar was observed for diesel fuel and biodiesel fuel scrubbers because of their easy evaporation. Therefore, the vegetable oil is recommended as the best absorbent to be used in gasification systems.