Panagiotis Kladisios and Athina Stegov Sagia
Supercritical water gasification is a promising and environmentally friendly biomass conversion method. Compared to conventional gasification, it is capable of handling biomass with high moisture and displays higher conversion efficiency and decreased tar formation. Through supercritical gasification, organic feedstock in the presence of supercritical water is converted into a mixture of H2 , CO2 , CO, CH4 and traces of other gases over shorts periods of time. The composition and yield of the final gas mixture depends highly on reaction temperature, feed concentration and nature of catalyst in use. Reaction pressure and residence time play a less important role. Despite being appealing for the production of hydrogen from an inexpensive source, hydrothermal gasification suffers from decisive technical challenges, with corrosion and efficiency being the most critical.