Performance Evaluation of Down Draft Gasifier on Multi Fuels

Abstract

Gasification is a thermo-chemical process which converts solid biomass into a mixture of combustible gases that can be used in various applications. Biomass resources are potentially the world’s largest and most sustainable energy sources for power generation in the 21st century. Over the one third of total fuel energy in India is contributed by biomass. The current availability of biomass in India is estimated about 500 million metric tonnes per year. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has estimated surplus biomass availability at about 120-150 million metric tonnes per annum to a potential of about 17,000 MW. In this project, a Downdraft gasifier 10KWe is use to generate “Producer Gas” by gasifing different fuels. This producer gas is used in SIPGE (Spark Ignition Producer Gas Engine) for generating power. This thesis presents the result of the experimental investigations carried out using different fuels like biomass briquettes and wood and investigate the effect of fuel variation on gas generation rate and performance parameter in terms of fuel consumption rate, calorific value of gas and gasifier efficiency in downdraft gasifier. It is observed that calorific value and efficiency is highly dependent on different fuels. The present work also investigates the effect of fuel variation on temperature profile at different zones in gasifier. For this purpose different fuels like biomass (100% Saw dust, 60% Saw dust + 40% Jeera fotri) briquettes and wood has been selected. It was observed that better caloric value (1108 kcal/m3) and efficiency of gasifier (74.41%) were obtained with biomass (60% Saw dust + 40% Jeera fotri) briquettes.