A detailed experimental analysis of air–steam gasification in a dual fired downdraft biomass gasifier enabling hydrogen enrichment in the producer gas

Narasimhan Kodanda Ram, Nameirakpam Rajesh Singh, Perumal Raman, Atul Kumar and Priyanka Kaushal

Energy, 2019, vol. 187, issue C

Abstract: The use of ambient air as an oxidizing agent in the biomass gasification process is well understood. Ambient air contains 79% nitrogen (N2) and 21% Oxygen (O2) by volume. Consequently, producer gas generated through air gasification comprises of non-combustible gases around 62% (on a volume basis). As a result, the heating value of the producer gas is low, which results in low adiabatic flame temperature (AFT), low AFT results in reduced efficiency and higher specific fuel consumption (SFC) when the producer gas (PG) is used in internal combustion (IC) engines. This study is focused on the reduction of the non-combustible fraction in producer gas, thereby to increase the heating value of the producer gas through the air- steam gasification. The results of the experimental study are presented in details. A detailed mass and energy balance analysis conducted. A maximum of 27.24% (by volume) hydrogen achieved at equivalence number (EN) 1.54 suitable for bio-hydrogen production. Whereas EN 1.5–2.2 is more suitable for power generation applications since maximum higher heating value (HHV) occurs in this range, i.e., 6.33 MJ Nm−3. The enrichment of producer gas resulted in an increase of HHV by 44%. The cold gas efficiency is 86–87%.

Keywords: Biomass; Air–steam gasification; Producer gas; Hydrogen enrichment; Syngas; Steam to biomass ratio; Equivalence ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544219316214
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:187:y:2019:i:c:s0360544219316214

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.115937

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().