Gasification of Peanut Shell Biomass Using Downdraft Gasifier: Equilibrium Modeling and Experimental Study

Abstract

Biomass energy is abundant, clean, and carbon dioxide neutral, making it a viable alternative to fossil fuels in the near future.  The release of syngas from biomass thermochemical treatments is particularly appealing since it may be used in a variety of heat and power generation systems. When a syngas with low tar and contaminants is required, downdraft gasifiers are usually one of the first gasification devices deployed. It is time-consuming and impractical to evaluate a gasification system's performance under multiple parameters, using every type of biomass currently available, which makes rapid simulation techniques with well-developed mathematical models necessary for the efficient and economical use of energy resources. This work attempts to examine, through model and experimentation, how well a throated downdraft gasification system performs when using pretreatment biomass feedstock that has been characterized.

For the analyses, peanut shell (PS), a biomass waste easily obtained locally, was used. The producer gas generated with 9 mm PS pellets had a composition of 17.93% H₂, 24.43 % CO, 12.47 % CO₂, and 1.22 % CH₄ on a wet basis at the value of 0.3 equivalency ratio and 800 °C gasification temperature. The calorific value was found to be 4.96 MJ/Nm³. The biomass feedstock PS is found to be suitable for biomass gasification in order to produce syngas.