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 materialat 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.