Design and Development of a 500 M3/h Capacity Biomass Gasifier - Based

Biomass is an important type of renewable energy fuel source for electrical or thermal power production. Gasification is a thermo-chemical process, which converts the solid biomass in oxygen deficient environment into combustible producer gas. The updraft gasifier reactor was designed for 4-10 kg/h fuel consumption rates with thermal capacity of 10000-25000 kcal/h by considering maize cobs, Prosopis Juliflora and saw dust briquettes as biomass fuel. Combustion chamber of producer gas and shell and tube type heat exchanger was designed and developed. Updraft gasifier based combustor system consists of a gasifier reactor, producer gas burner, shell and tube type heat exchanger and dryer. The performance of designed updraft gasifier based combustor was conducted at different fuel consumption rates (4, 6, 8 and 10 kg/h) and air flow rates (200, 300, 400 and 500 m3/h) by maize cobs, Prosopis Juliflora and saw dust briquettes as biomass fuel. The updraft gasifier based combustor developed by standardized performance parameters (gasifier efficiency and heat transfer effectiveness) was used for optimization of ginger drying. The maximum heat exchanger effectiveness was found as 70.45.