Performance – Evaluation of Lignite in a downdraft Gasifier

Abstract

India is a developing country which lacks an adequate supply of electricity. For many of the interior regions of India, gasification is a good way to produce electricity with standalone gasifier. In many regions of India as well as in the world, a large reserve of lignite is available. Lignite could be a fuel for gasification system. This paper presents the result of the experimental investigations carried out using lignite to investigate the effect of fuel size variation on gas generation rate and performance parameter in terms of calorific value of producer gas and gasifier efficiency in downdraft gasifier. Based on the realization, while studying the effect of gas generation rate, the choice of particle size is playing an important role for flowability study and performance of gasifier. The present work investigates the effect of lignite size variation on temperature profile at different zones in gasifier. They were in the range of 16-19 mm, 19-22 mm, 22-25 mm particle sizes of lignite. For comparative studies, experiments were also carried out on uneven size wood and lignite. It was observed from three particle sizes of lignite that better calorific value (629 kcal/m3) and efficiency of gasifier (46.092%) were obtained with 22-25 mm particle size of lignite.