Particle modelling of drying and pyrolysis zones in fixed-bed down-draft rice husk gasification

Abstract

There is a lot of energy potential in biomass wastes in Indonesia, and one of those is rice husk. This research will create a suitable model for drying and pyrolysis zones in rice husk gasification. The single particle model is chosen as the model since it can help to observe conversion happened within a particle in detail. This is important because with that, we can understand the compositions of pyrolysis gas, char, and primary tar in drying and pyrolysis zones in rice husk gasification. To validate the model, air flow rate is chosen as the variable that would be varied. The objectives of this research are to check whether the model is suitable for modelling drying and pyrolysis zones in rice husk gasification as well as to understand the effects of air flow rate in the product compositions using the simulation. The results show that the primary tar content is increasing by the increase of air flow rate, while the pyrolysis gas content is decreasing, and the char content is constant. The results show that the numerical model is considerably suitable for modelling drying and pyrolysis zones in rice husk gasification.