Efficiency improvement of biomass gasifier using porous media heat recuperator

Abstract

Nowadays, energy crisis and environmental problems become the important issues affect all lives on the earth. All fossil-based energy will be depleted within the next few-ten years, if it is used at this current rate. Utilizations of renewable energy via efficient system poses an opportunity to address both fossil fuel depletion and environmental issues simultaneously. Among all renewable energies, biomass is one of the best forms of energy, in term of it can be actually managed by the curtain plan, e.g.: energy crop strategy. Gasification is one of the best thermal processes that converts liquid and solid hydrocarbon feedstocks into gas fuel, called syngas or producer gas (mainly comprises CO and H2). This research aims to improve the efficiency of the gasification reactor using Porous Media Heat Recuperator (PMHR). With the expectation that using this heat exchanger not only improve the gasification processes, but the producer gas temperature can be also reduced as the requirement for running the internal combustion engine (ICE). Charcoal, the carbonized product of wood or biomass, was selected as feedstock for this proposed system as it would produce a producer gas suitable for the ICE with low or free of tars uniform properties and low moisture content. The gasifier system was tested in a forced draught method using air as the gasifying agent. The experimental results shown that the efficiency of the proposed system with PMHR can be increased about 77% and the temperature of output producer gas can be increased for approximately 58%, compared with the conventional system.