Performance Analysis of Pinewood, Bamboo, and Plywood Gasification in a Fluidized Bed Gasifier

Abstract

In emerging economies such as India, there is an increasing need for energy, leading to an enhanced reliance on fossil fuels. To reduce global warming caused by fossil fuel consumption, gasification must be promoted to generate renewable energy supplies. This research employed a fluidized bed gasifier at a laboratory scale to gasify relatively easy-to-obtain biomass materials including pinewood, bamboo wood, and plywood. The biomass gasification is done utilizing air as a gasification medium, and the feed rate of biomass is at 4 kg/h. In the present work, temperature and equivalence ratio are chosen as critical parameters; the temperature levels are 700 °C, 750 °C, 800 °C, and 850 °C, and the equivalence ratio of 0.2, 0.25, 0.3, and 0.35, to determine the impact of temperature and equivalence ratio on the components of syngas gas (H2, CO, CH4, and CO2). At higher temperature levels, the carbon conversion efficiency, cold gas efficiency, and dry gas yield enhanced whereas beyond 800 °C a marginal difference was observed in the lower heating value. As observed, an increase in equivalence ratio results in a lower value of the lower heating value of the syngas. The study enhances biomass gasification knowledge through advanced insights regarding plywood gasification as well as optimized gasification parameter adjustments for improved system efficiency. This research confirms the feasibility of using plywood instead of pinewood or bamboo as a substitute for producing syngas.