The effect of temperature and biomass pre-treatment on non-catalytic gasification of Indonesian sugarcane bagasse

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) gasification is a promising method that used in energy generation field. The impurities of SCB such as moisture content, ash and volatile maters will disturb the gasification process and decrease yield and quality of syngas. Pre-treatment, such as pelleting and torrefaction, can be applied on SCB to improve gasification performance in a gasifier. The aims of this experiment were to study non-catalytic gasification of Indonesian SCB for syngas production in a downdraft gasifier. This experimental investigation was focused on gasification temperature effect (800, 950 and 1050°C) and pre-treatment methods (pelleting and torrefaction) of Indonesian SCB on carbon conversion efficiency (CCE), syngas volumetric percentage and lower heating value (LHV). The result showed that the highest CCE was 88.16%, obtained at 1050°C of torrefied SCB gasification. Meanwhile, the highest LHV of syngas was 4.48 MJ/Nm3, obtained at 1050°C of pelletized SCB gasification.