DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT OF DOWNDRAFT BIOMASS GASIFIER

USING MIXED BIO FUELS TO PRODUCE PRODUCER GAS

P.VIJAY KUMAR1, K.SAKTHIVEL2 & S.SIVAKUMAR3

1
Student ME Thermal Engg, Muthayammal college of Engg, Rasipuram
2
Asst Professor, Dept of Mechanical Engg, Muthayammal college of Engg, Rasipuram
3
Professor, Dept of Mechanical Engg, Kumaraguru college of Technology,Coimbatore

ABSTRACT that are inexhaustible, cheap, absolutely

The gasification technology pollution free and specially suited to deserts
is now considered to be in an advanced stage and isolated places [1-8].
of development. Hence there is huge
expectation from the user industry for its Biomass is a potential renewable energy
application. Biomass gasification means source for developing countries. It provides
partial combustion of biomass resulting in more than 300 GW of energy for domestic
production of combustible gases consisting cooking [2]. One of the attractive
of Carbon monoxide (CO), Hydrogen (H2) technologies for alternative fuel from
and traces of Methane (CH4). This mixture biomass is called gasification and the
is called producer gas. The production of equipment used in the gasification process is
producer gas called gasification. The reactor commonly referred to as gasifier.
is called a gasifier. The objective of this
Gasification is a process of converting
paper is to identify the most influential
carbonaceous materials (biomass/coal)
parameters related to Mixed bio fuels
through incomplete combustion at
(coconut shell, saw dust, seemai karuvelam
temperatures of more than 1000to
wood & Bagasse) gasification with a down
combustible gases consisting of carbon
draft gasifier in order to improve the
monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and
gasification processes.
small amounts of methane etc. This gas
mixture is commonly known as a ‘producer
Keywords - Down draft Biomass Gasifier,
gas’ or ‘syngas’. With increasing demand
Gasifier Design, Mixed Bio fuels, Producer
for energy, depleting primary energy sources
gas
(coal and oil) and detoriating environment, it
has become essential not only to use the
I. INTRODUCTION
existing energy sources efficiently and thus
One of the greatest
conserve them, and also to develop alternate
achievement of man since the beginning of
or renewable sources of energy. Although
civilization has been the discovery and
India produces about 35 million tons of
control of various forms of energy. Energy
crude oil, its import of crude oil is
is a strategic input necessary for socio-
increasing about 24 million tones as a result
economic development. Worldwide, 80% of
of increase in energy demand. In terms of
all energy used by human comes from fossil
money, it amount to about 9000 crores of
fuels [1]. Such immense exploitation could
rupees (about 30 billion us dollars) in
exhaust theses resources within few decades
foreign exchange. So in order to alleviate
and imposes a real threat to the environment
India’s dependence on import of oil, it is
mainly it would seem through global
becoming increasingly clear that there is no
warming. Therefore scientists all over the
option except to develop alternate or
world are trying to tap the sources of energy
renewable sources of energy. Of the various
renewable energy sources available, biomass
appears to be a promising solution to tackle
the ever increasing energy demand.
India, being a tropical country with
agriculture as major profession, generates
around 300 million tones of non-woody
biomass every year with a hidden energy II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP FOR
potential of 200 million tons of coal. The GASIFIER SYSTEM
availability of different types of biomass in The gasifier system
India and their coal equivalent are shown in developed in the project is a Downdraft
Fig.1.1. To effectively use this enormous fixed grate gasifier having a capacity of 5
amount of wastes for energy generation kW as shown in Figure.2. It is developed by
purposes, new technologies are being burning the gas, thus this mass flow rate has
developed world over and one such to be calculated. Also the time between two
technology, which has been developed successive refilling, is the time for which the
during Second World War, and presently on continues operation of the gasifier is desired
the threshold of commercialization is is also to be taken into consideration. This
gasification technology. factor is determined by the hopper size. It
has been proved that the hopper size is the
The resulting producer gases have the main factor that
advantage of being easy to handle. The decides the cost of
entire gasification process is made up of the Blower
gasifier. Also
various chemical and physical processes the size of the
such as drying, pyrolysis and partial gasifier depends on
oxidation, reduction and condensation. the hopper size; we
Burner
Some of the processes have been described have to
and modelled. However, gasification still optimize the
requires significant research and refinement hopper Air
sizeinlet
in such a manner considering
to suit higher energy demands and utilize Hopper and also the size of
the economic feasibility
available biomass. the unit. We observed that duration of 4 to 6
hours is considered as the most efficient
periods of continuous operation.
 velocity, diameter of nozzles and number of
nozzles etc.

PROJECT METHODOLOGY
The downdraught gasifier makes it
possible to use coconut shell as fuel and
produce a gas with sufficiently low tar
Water Tank content. There are other means of handling
the tar problem but these may create their
Fig.2 Experimental setup of the gasifier own problems.
Reactor: Conventional downdraft gasifier
has a throat or restriction in the oxidation OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT
zone. The temperature of oxidation zone is METHOLOGY
required to be maintained between, 900 to
l2000C to achieve efficient thermal cracking The objective of this study was to
of the tar and maintaining adequate identify the most influential parameters
temperatures in the other zones. Design and related to coconut shell gasification with a
configuration of oxidation zone therefore is down draft gasifier in order to improve the
a critical facet of successful gasified design. gasification processes.
In case of low ash biomass materials A downdraft gasifier of 5 KW
especially those like wood, which undergo electrical capacity was used to study the
substantial size reduction, usually a reaction effect of equivalent ratio (Actual air fuel
cone is provided with appropriate number, ratio to Stoicheometric air fuel ratio: ER) on
size and location of air inlets. the specific gas production, the heating
value of gas produced and the cold gas
efficiency using throat diameter of 100mm.
CHAPTER III
Down-draught gasifiers being
DESIGN OF DOWNDRAFT GASIFIER comparatively easy to build and operate are
likely to be the most appropriate for
DESIGN METHODOLOGY developing countries as a source of
decentralized power supply to rural
Design of gasifier essentially means communities and industries. The conversion
obtaining the dimensions of the various of solid fuel to gas in a down-draught
components of it. Design of gasifier is gasifier and the design basis for such
largely empirical. Design of gasifier is gasifiers will therefore be examined in more
carried out partly through computations and detail.
partly using empirical relations and using
some experimental data. The principal The maximum intensity of gas
design parameters are specific gasification takes place because of presence of
rate (SGR), gas resistance time (GRT) and nitrogen. Almost 50-60% of gas is
area of air nozzles. The derived parameters composed of noncombustible nitrogen.
are diameter of hearth and throat, total Thus it may be beneficial to use oxygen
length of combustion and reduction zone, air instead of air for gasification. However
the cost and availability of oxygen may be
a limiting factor in this regard. DESIGN CALCULATION
Nevertheless where the end product is
methanol – a high energy quality item, SIZING OF HOPPER / HOPPER
then the cost and use of oxygen can be DESIGN
justified. We design the gasifier that, main
On an average 1 Kg of biomass parameters to be designed are the diameter
produces about 2.5 m3 of producer gas at and the height of the hopper. The main
S.T.P. In this process it consumes about considerations governing the diameter of the
hopper are
1.5 m3 of air for combustion. For
complete combustion of wood about 4.5  Storage requirements
m3 of air is required. Thus biomass  The hearth size (D hearth)
gasification consumes about 33% of
theoretical Stoicheometric ratio for wood  Size of the biomass particle.
burning.
The average energy conversion efficiency Various designed parameters of the
of wood gasifiers is about 60-70% and is gasifiers are determined according to the
defined as recommendations given in the literature of
(Sivakumar et al)
Calorific value of gas/kg of fuel
η = Mass flow rate of wood = 5.5 kg/hr
Gas Velocity of air = 7 m/s
------------------------------------------ Height of reduction zone = 410 mm
Avg. calorific value of 1 kg of fuel Size of hopper = 410mm
Diameter of hopper = 350mm
No. of nozzles = 4
3.4 DESIGN CRITERIA Diameter of nozzle = 0.025 m
The main design criteria considered for Firing nozzle is used start the
well functioning gasifier are combustion process. Ash and gases will pass
 High heating value of the through the grate region .Ash will be
gas, meaning high content of H2 and C02 - collected in the ash pit and producer gas.
5000 kJ/Nm3 seems quite good with 10 - 30 Will leave the gasifier through the gas
% moisture in feedstock. outlet.
 Low content of tar, DESIGN RATING
commonly a value of 0.5 g.Nm-3 dry gas is
given, but values of 0.2 are preferable. The gasifier design is meant for
 Thorough burn-out of the supplying enough coconut shell to drive a
carbon (>95%), which implies a high 5 kW. Engine Since it is reasonably well
efficiency of the process. (70-75% should be known that the amount of diesel that can be
attainable) replaced is about 70-80 %, the amount of
 Unhampered down flow power for which the gas generator is to be
of the feed. designed is about 5 kW. Here
 Low Pressure Drop
1 hp = 0.75 kW
Rating = 6.8hp = 5.1 kW
Amount of power for gas generation The hearth load varies between an
= 6.8 hp x 0.8 = 5.44hp upper limit, GH max, above which the gas
quality is poor because of charcoal dusting
THROAT DIAMETER (dt) in the combustion zone and a lower limit,
GH min below which due to too low a
This is obtained from the maximum
temperature in hearth, the gas will contain
fuel consumption and Bhmax From the
unacceptably large quantities of tar. In
quantity of gas generated is about 2.2 Nm3
Impart gas generators and other similar
for every kg of coconut shell with 20 %
reactors, GH max reaches about 0.9 in
moisture content. Therefore, the
continuous operation and GH min about 0.3
Maximum gas generation = 11.5 Nm3/hr. to 0.35. For the design here, GH max as been
assumed to be 0.9 and the rated power of 3.5
Hence the throat area = 13.27 cm2 hp is assumed to be obtainable at a GH rated
of 0.6 Nm3/h cm2 .
Quantity of gas generated is about 2.2 for Bh max = 0.9 Nm³/cm²-hr
every kg of wood with 20% moisture Bh min = 0.3 Nm³/cm²
content. = 2.20 Bh rated for 10 Rated hp = 0.6 Nm³/cm²-hr
Maximum gas consumption, (Assumption)

Maximum fuel consumption A SOLID MODEL AND TECHNICAL

@ 10.8 hp * quantity of gas generated is SPECIFICATIONS
about 2.2 for every kg wood with 20%
moisture
= (5.44) * (2.20)
= 11.96 Nm3/hr
Throat Diameter = 100mm
HEARTH LOADING (Bh)
The design of an Imbert type
downdraft gasifier is based on specific
gasification rate, also called the hearth load
GH. It is defined as the amount of producer
gas to be obtained per unit cross-sectional
area of the throat, which is the smallest area
of cross-section in the reactor. It is normally
expressed in terms of Nm3/h cm2, where N
indicates that the gas volume is calculated at
normal pressure and temperature conditions.
It is reported that the gasifier can be
operated with GH in the range 0.1–0.9
Nm3/h cm2. Normal Imbert gasifiers show a Fig.3 Solid model of a gasifier
minimum value of GH in the range 0.30–
0.35, resulting in a power turndown ratio of
about 2.5–3. Technical specifications:
Mode Downdraft It was started after loading the fuel chamber
with feedstock and igniting it by a flame
Grate Fixed Grate torch .It usually took about 7-10 minutes for
starting up. The sliding gate was fully open
during the start-up. After 7-8 minutes of
Hopper Capacity 15 kg
starting, combustible gases (producer gas) in
the form of thick yellowish white smoke
Fuel coconut shell,rice evolved, which was ignited using the flame
husk, baggase, karuvelam wood, saw of a candle to check for the combustibility.
dust. RESULT
A downdraft gasifier was
successfully fabricated and operated using
OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE
Coconut shell as feedstock. The key features
A photograph of the complete
of the downdraft gasifier, namely, the hearth
Gasifier is shown in Fig. 4. That is the
diameter, the air entry zone and the
diagram is drawn as a block diagram and its
construction of the reduction zone have been
material thickness is 3mm. Firing nozzle is
identified and the non-optimal performance
used start the combustion process. Ash and
due to the wrong choice of these parameters
gases will pass through the grate region. Ash
has been brought out. The small scale
will be collected in the ash pit and producer
biomass gasifier has a capacity of holding
gas will leave the gasifier through the gas
10kg/hr of Coconut shell. The throat
outlet.
diameter is 100 mm. It had 4 nozzles, 25
mm diameter, for the injection of air.

CONCLUSION
Based on the results obtained during this
study, following conclusions were
drawn.

 The fuel properties of Coconut shell,

rice husk, saw dust, baggase,
karuvelam wood, used in this study
were in acceptable limits.
 There was a clear variation of
performance of the gasifier with
equivalence ratio for the 100 mm
throat diameters. Lower equivalence
ratios gave better performance in
terms of calorific value and cold gas
efficiency.

Fig.4.Operation of the Gasifier. REFERENCES

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biomass in power generation and
combined heat and power schemes.
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57.
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1987. Performance of a Down-Draft
Charcoal Gasifier. Applied Energy, 26:
193-216.
[3] Bridgwater, A.V., 1995. The technical
and economic feasibility of biomass
gasification for power generation. Fuel,
74: 631-653.
[4] Sivakumar.S & Ragunathan.S 2013.
Design & development of downdraft
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