Experimental study on effect of temperature and equivalence ratio on biomass syngas generation for fluidized bed gasifier techniques

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a comparative study of selected woody biomass for the potential of fuel gas generation that can be used for heat and power generation using a Fluidized Bed Gasifier (FBG). The characteristics of produced energy gas using the thermochemical Bubbling Fluidized Gasification Technique for selected woody biomass feedstock materials were studied for selected temperatures. Initially, the CFD analysis has been implemented to determine the feasible equivalence ratio (ER) for the selected biomasses. Using CFD ANSYS solver studied gas-solid interaction and gasification process inside a fluidized bed biomass gasifier. Experimental investigations were conducted on the FBG reactor for a feeding rate of 10 kg/hr of biomass materials. Experimental investigations were conducted on the FBG reactor for a feeding rate of 10 kg/hr of biomass materials. The work characteristics of produced gas were investigated by the experimental process for bagasse, groundnut shell, and wooden shavings as feedstock biomass materials for the gasification bed temperature at 500ºC, 550ºC, and 600ºC and Equivalence Ratio (ER) ratio of 0.30. Air was employed as a gasifying agent, and sand with limestone was used as the fluidized bed material. The results show that the fluidized bed has higher temperatures of 600ºC and above, generating higher Calorific Value (CV) syngas. Among all three feedstocks, groundnut shells produced gas HHV of 4.21 MJ/m3. The lowest HHV for bagasse at 500ºC of 3.01 MJ/m3. The effect of bed temperature on Carbon Conversion Efficiency (CCE) shows maximum CCE for bagasse is 60.86%, noted at 550ºC, and the minimum for wooden shaving at 550ºC is 57.69%.