Numerical simulation of imbert biomass gasifier to select the feedstock available in remote areas

The performance of a gasifier which is designed for a particular feedstock varies whenever the feedstock is changed. Moreover, to implement the biomass gasification technology in remote places, the performance of existing gasifier should be analysed for its dimensional suitability to work with different feedstock which are available in such locations. Even though, the species transport approach is more appropriate to model the gasification processes, it was not used to analyse all the zones of a gasifier. Hence, in this work, a numerical study was carried out with species transport model by considering all the four zones of a gasifier. This model uses gasification reactions with the corresponding pre‐exponential factor and activation energy to check the performance of a biomass gasifier. Different feedstocks such as coconut shell, rice husk, cow dung, rubber wood and rubber seed kernel shell that are commonly available in the selected region were used in this study. The influences of equivalence ratio on the composition and higher heating value of producer gas, and the temperature distribution inside the gasifier were been studied. Both the experimental and numerical studies demonstrate the best performance when the equivalence ratio is close to 0.25. Among the locally available biomasses, the producer gas from rubber seed kernel shell has the calorific value of 6.08 MJ/Nm3 and therefore it can be used as feedstock in gasifier which is designed for woody biomass. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 708–716, 2017