Performance Evaluation of Downdraft 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 thermal as well as power production applications. Biomass resources are potentially the world’s largest and most sustainable energy sources for power generation in todays’ era. The current availability of biomass in India is estimated about 500 million metric tonnes per year. In this paper, a Downdraft gasifier 10kWe is used to generate “Producer Gas” by gasifying different feedstocks. This producer gas is used in SIPGE (Spark Ignition Producer Gas Engine) for generating power. This paper presents the result of the experimental investigations carried out using different feedstocks like biomass briquettes and wood, and investigates 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 of producer gas and cold gas efficiency of gasifier is highly dependent on feedstocks. 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 husk) briquettes and wood have been selected. It was observed that better calorific value (1108 kcal/m3) and efficiency of gasifier (74.41%) were obtained with biomass (60% Saw dust + 40% Jeera husk) briquettes.