Investigation on the yield of producer gas from tamarind shell (Tamarindus Indica) as feedstock in an Imbert type biomass gasifier

Abstract

Thermochemical gasification technology is given priority in recent years to meet the needs of decentralized power generation, and also to develop alternative energy sources for conventional thermal applications. The continuous operation of a gasifier becomes a challenge when there is scarcity for specific type of biomass in a particular region. To overcome this challenge and to establish gasification technology in rural areas, the suitability of gasifier in making use of commonly available biomasses in a region must be confirmed. Tamarind tree is common in many countries and the shell of its fruit can be a promising feedstock for a gasifier. Therefore, yield and CV of the producer gas during the thermochemical conversion of TS, in an Imbert-type gasifier are studied in this paper. The performance parameters are analysed to check whether the values are in accordance with the specifications of the gasifier. In this study, Species-transport CFD model is used to forecast the reliability of a gasifier, and an experimental study is also conducted to confirm the predictions and to identify operational issues. The result shows that the best equivalence ratio is 0.30. At this condition, the average CV and yield of producer gas are 5.76 MJ/Nm3 and 1.95 Nm3/kg. Moreover, the CO2/CO ratio and the conversion efficiency are 0.69 and 78.23% respectively. The coherence of the predicted values with the specifications of the gasifier, and also the observations noted during experimentation, confirms that TS could be an appropriate feedstock for the tested gasifier.