Gasification of cotton stalk in a downdraft gasifier

Demand of energy is ever increasing and sustainable form of energy supply is needed. Fossil fuels utilization causes a lot of environmental pollution. Biomass is a renewable, sustainable, and environment friendly form of energy and can be used to fulfill energy needs. Gasification of biomass can be employed to use it efficiently. In the present work, trials were performed on gasification of biomass in a downdraft gasifier. The specific biomass consumption was reasonably constant with a mean value of 0.462 kg/h for all gas flow rates. The temperature of the various zones increased as the producer gas flow rate increased. The temperature of the oxidation zone rose from 580 to 725 degrees C with increase in the gas flow rate from 7 to 19 Nm(3)/h. The volume percentage of the CO and H-2 rose somewhat with rise in gas flow rate. The producer gas calorific value was higher at higher gas flow rates. Tar content of the producer gas was lower than the permissible limits at all gas flow rates except for very low gasification rate. The particulate matter content in the gas was somewhat higher than the permissible limits. The gasifier efficiency ranged between 69.57% and 74.48% as the gas flow rate varied from 7 to 19 Nm(3)/h.