Sampling of contaminants from product gases of biomass gasifiers

Reliable sampling and analysis of products from biomass gasification are essential for the successful process development and economical operation of commercial gasifiers. One of the most important and most difficult analytical tasks is to characterise the emissions from the gasifiers. This report presents a review of the sampling and analytical systems employed and developed when doing research on coal and biomass gasification. In addition to the sampling systems published in the literature, experiences obtained in various biomass gasification R&D projects of VTT in 1985-1995 are described. The present sampling methods used for different gas contaminants at VTT are also briefly presented. This report focuses mainly on the measurement of tars, nitrogen compounds and sulphur gases. Isokinetic and non-isokinetic sampling train systems are described and, in addition, special sampling apparatus based on liquid-quenched probe and gas dilution is briefly outlined. Sampling of tars with impinger systems and sampling of heavy tars with filter techniques are described in detail. Separate sampling of particulates is briefly discussed. From inorganic compounds the sampling systems used for H₂S and other sulphur gases, NH₃ and HCN and HCl are presented. Proper storage of the samples is also included in the report.