Evaluation of the energetic potential of urban wood waste through gasification

Abstract

This article evaluates the energetic potential of the urban residual wood (MRU for its initials in Spanish) of the Capital District, that comes from furniture, wagons, wooden crates and stowages, through the process of gasification in the generation
of electric energy using the Power Pallet ® system of the Botanical Garden of Bogota. Therefore, the MRU was classified into two categories with wood agglomerate MDF and without agglomerate, analyzing the physical-chemical characteristics of the two types of biomass, the system performance, operational variables such as temperature, power, etc. An economic analysis of the Production of electric energy was made by the use of this type of waste. According to the technical evaluation it is concluded that the power pallet technology is not the most suitable for the exploitation of MRU, due to the restrictions of the particle size and the synthesis gas cleaning. According to the estimated amount of annual urban residual wood of 144,667 tons for the city, the maximum power that the District could install will be around 20 kW. Although this potential is low compared to other types of biomass, it is an alternative that allows the recovery and reuse of the MRU.