Investigating the thermochemical conversion of biomass in a downdraft gasifier with a volatile break-up approach. (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kumar, Umesh; Salem, Ahmed M.; Paul, Manosh C.
• Is Part Of: Energy procedia. Volume 142(2017)
• Page Start: 822
• Page End: 828
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Biomass gasification -- CFD -- Downdraft gasifier -- DPM model; Power resources -- Congresses; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power resources; Conference proceedings; Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2017.12.132
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1876-6102

Abstract

Abstract: An affordable, reliable and clean energy supply is the major challenge facing by the modern world. Biomass energy is playing a promising role to that, but gasification technology able to convert biomass efficiently to valuable gases for power and heat generation is a vital need. The aim of this study is to develop a robust computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to better understand the gasification thermochemical processes of a selected biomass (rubber wood) in a 20 kW downdraft gasifier, which includes all the four zones, drying, pyrolysis, oxidation and reduction. A step-by-step approach is proposed to evaluate the composition of different species as a result of volatile break-up during gasification. Effect of the equivalence ratio on the synthesis gas composition is studied with results validated against a kinetic model. Further, in this study temperature profile in the gasifier at different equivalence ratio (ER) has been studied.