PERFORMANCE STUDIES ON DOWNDRAFT GASIFIER WITH BIOMASS ENERGY SOURCES AVAILABLE IN REMOTE VILLAGES

Increasing global concern over the environmental issues and depletion of fossil fuels, significant interest has been shown by the researchers to develop alternate energy technologies like biomass, biogas, solar to meet the future energy demand. The prediction of the performance of different biomass energy sources in gasifiers is needed for the implementation of this technology to fulfil the need of decentralized heat and power applications, relevant to remote villages. This study presents the theoretical and experimental studies conducted on a 50 kW downdraft biomass gasifier with various biomass materials such as wood, coconut shell, rubber seed kernel and coir pith which are generally available in villages. Two-zone kinetic equilibrium model approach is used to predict the composition and temperature of the producer gas. The influence of equivalence ratio on the reaction temperature, quality of producer gas and gasifier conversion efficiency are discussed. The experimental and theoretical studies show that the rubber seed kernel can be effectively used as a feedstock of the biomass gasifier to meet the rural energy demand.