Real-time experimental investigation of a multi-flow biomass gasifier by using various locally available wood biomass

Abstract

Biomass gasification is one of the prominent technologies for thermal applications, electricity generation through engines. The present investigation was carried out to obtain behavior of multi-flow gasifier by using locally available wood biomass chips (i.e., Acacia Nilotica & Eucalyptus biomass). Experiments were conducted to examine the variation of gas composition, LHV, cold gasification efficiency, equivalence ratio at different flow rates, and pressure drop with the time in complete operation of gasifier. Result shows that producer gas obtained from this gasifier has maximum lower heating value of 4.39 MJ/kg with hydrogen gas (13.61% vol/vol) and carbon monoxide (15.61% vol/vol). The composition of CH4 in producer gas was less than 2%. The maximum cold gas efficiency of 72.2% was obtained at optimal equivalence ratio of 0.309 with gas flow rate of 5 g s−1 with moisture content of 7.51%. These locally available wood can be appropriate feedstock for gasifiers. The clean and cooled gas can be utilized in internal combustion engines or turbines for clean power production.