**3. Experimental Installation**

The experimental set-up utilized for this research was localized in the Center for Clean Coal Technologies in Zabrze, Poland. The installation was based on a pilot GazEla reactor. The gasifier is a fixed-bed, mixed-flow reactor, where fuel is fed from the top and an air/steam mixture is introduced into three characteristic zones of the bed. The innovative part of the reactor is a method for the recovery of hot syngas directly from the gasification zone. For the gasification of biomass, the reactor is characterized by 60 kWth input and a cold gas efficiency (CGE) of ca. 67%. More results regarding the gasification of various fuels and a detailed description of its operation can be found in the literature [1,2].

The pilot installation was also devised for conducting research on different configurations of gas cleaning methods and, thus, the reactor was simultaneously connected to both dry and wet gas cleaning installations. As the main goal of this research was to develop a method for HT filtration and sorption of syngas, results presented here were obtained from one configuration of the dry gas cleaning route. Downstream of the GazEla reactor, raw syngas, at 450–550 ◦C, is directed toward the inlet of a ceramic filter. Before the filter, sorbents were injected into the syngas.

Because the sorbent plays here a double role, its particle size distribution was set such that it produces a well-structured filter cake of uniform porosity while creating a uniform, stable aerosol of the sorbent at every point of the filter. Thus, the largest particle size of sorbent was set such that, in the largest cross-section of the filter, the sorbent should not settle from the gas, but rather be entrained with the flow of syngas until its separation on the filter cake.

The filter is conventionally separated into two zones by a horizontal plate that supports the filter candles. Gas enters the dirty zone. When it travels through ceramic candle filters, it is dedusted and cleaned. For the pilot installation, the filter is composed of 10 ceramic filters (1 m long, 60 mm in outer diameter) divided into two cleaning sections. After passing through the candles, the dedusted gas enters a clean zone of the filter and passes to a next cleaning unit. During this research, the dedusted gas subsequently underwent cooling down from ca. 450 ◦C down to 40 ◦C for condensation of water and organic matter. After cooling, cold syngas contains a lot of water–tar mist which needs to be separated. In the gas cleaning set-up, this process can be done with demisting pads, as well as a coalescing filter, depending on the level of purity that is demanded by the final application of the syngas. In the research, cleaned syngas was combusted in a dual-fuel piston engine.

Figure 2 presented below represents a schematic diagram of the pilot gasification installation utilized during the research.

**Figure 2.** Schematic diagram of the pilot gasification installation with the fixed-bed GazEla reactor and the dry gas cleaning unit.
