Study on Characteristics of Syngas Derived From Various Biomasses

Gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous materials, such as coal, petroleum,
biofuel, or biomass, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reaction of the raw material
at high temperatures with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam. Presently, there
are many biomass sources available for gasification. Although there is an abundant
choice of biomass, the challenge that we are currently facing is that there is not one
single universal gasifier that is capable of producing syngas from different types of
biomass. In present technology, the design of gasifier is very fuel-specific which means
each gasifier utilizes one type of primary biomass source. Should there is an interruption
or inconsistency of the primary biomass source; it would be beneficial if the option of
replacing it with another alternative existed. Thus, this project aims to identify which
different types of biomass sources can be gasified in one single gasifier. The downdraft
gasifier was designed to have oil palm fronds as its primary feedstock. The objective
was to see what feedstock is compatible to oil palm fronds using the same downdraft
gasifier. This study was conducted using locally available biomass sources which are oil
palm fronds, woods, coconut husks and sugarcane bagasse. Prior to the experiment,
three chemical analysis were being carried out, proximate, ultimate and energy analysis
for each feedstock. Afterwards, gasification experiment would be conducted for each
feedstock individually. The resulting temperature profile, syngas analysis and problems
occurred during gasification were recorded. Besides that, a simulation to determine the
syngas composition was carried out using Engineering Equation Solver (EES). Looking
at the results, in a nutshell, woods were the most promising replacement for oil palm
fronds. It has the highest energy content at 22292J/g and at 11% moisture content (wet
basis), the gasification experiment produced syngas with no gasification problem and
little tar formation. The syngas produced contained 13.87% carbon monoxide, 51.69%
hydrogen, 31.99% carbon dioxide and 2.46% methane.