GAS CLEANING AND COOLIING IN FLUIDIZED BED GASIFIER FOR SHAFT POWER APPLICATION

G.CHANDRAMOHAN*, a,S.BASKARA SETHUPATHYb Department of Mechanical Engineering Velammal Engineering College Chennai 600066, India
a

gchandramohan11@gmail.com
b

sethu_lotus@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT Biomass gasification presents highly interesting possibilities and promising sustainable energy source. For expanding the utilization of biomass as power generation using internal combustion engines or turbines. Major drawback in using producer gas for shaft power application is the presence of significant amount of tar particles which are formed during the gasification. The producer gas if used for power generation using internal combustion engines tar level should be less than 50mg Nm-3 and in case of using in gas turbines a minimum particulate matter requirement of 10 ppm (weight) is only allowable. So need to reduce the tar in the producer gas is very important. If tar enters in to the engines or turbines, it fouls the entire system by causing more friction between the moving parts, and engine may cease due to its higher viscous property. It also reduces the engine performance and emission characteristics of the engine when it enters the engine. The majority of the tar

components are aromatic compounds, paraffin with conjugated bonds and olefin. In this project Nickel and dolomite catalysts are employed to reduce tar composites n the producer gas and the results are plotted in a graph and compare the tar reduction efficiency of the catalysts. The experiment is conducted and it has been found that the optimum temperature for gasification of rice husk and tar reduction is found to be between 750 to 800o C and the optimum equivalence ratio is found to be 0.3 to 0.4 for efficient gasification and tar reduction. The producer gas thus derived could be inducted into an engine and used for shaft power applications or for the purpose of power generation. Keywords: Biomass; Gasification; Tar 1.INTRODUCTION However the world energy demand is increasing rapidly due to excessive use of the fuels but because of limited reservoirs and instabilities in petrol supplier countries makes difficult to always provide oil. Also, world is presently confronted with the crisis of fossil

fuel depletion. And also due to increase in pollution level in the planet push us to find alternate source for the vehicles and power generation process. Modern agriculture is an extremely energy intensive process. However high agricultural productivities and subsequently the growth of green revolution have been made possible only by large amount of energy inputs, especially those from fossil fuels. With recent price rise and scarcity of these fuels there has been a trend towards use of alternative energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal etc. However these energy resources have not been able to provide an economically viable solution for agricultural applications. Gasification is also a best way to meet out world fuel crisis. Gasification is a process that converts organic or fossil based carbonaceous materials into, methane, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. This is achieved by reacting the material at high temperatures (>700C), without combustion, with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam. The resulting gas mixture is called flue gas or producer gas and is itself a fuel. The power derived from gasification of biomass and combustion of the resultant gas is considered to be a source of renewable energy, the gasification of fossil fuel derived materials such as plastic is not considered to be renewable energy Major drawback is the presence of tar in producer gas during gasification. So the need of reducing the tar concentration in the producer gas becomes vital. If tar enters in to the engine or turbine, it fouls the entire system

by causing more friction between the moving parts, and engine may cease due to its higher viscous property and it also reduce the engines performance and emission characteristics of the engine. And it cause severe operational problems in IC engines Gas Quality Requirements[1]

particles Mg/nm3 particle m size tar Mg/nm3 <100

2. METHODOLOGY

Ic engine Gas turbines <10 <30 <50 <5

The project work is done using the fluidized bed gasifier and tar measuring instrument and also using the different catalysts blend in bed material. An experimental set up was configured with necessary instruments to evaluate the tar concentration in the producer tar and to measure the dust concentration in the producer gas. 2.1 Product description It consist of fluidised bed gratifier setup and, it consist of wash tower type gas cooling system to cool the fuel gas and, it consist of cyclone separator and filter arrangement to filter the dust particles from the fuel gas and, it consist of air blower to blow the required air for gasification and suction blower to suck the fuel gas after the gasification and, it consist of gas analyser set up to analyse the compositions in the fuel gas and, it consist

of tar analyser to analyse the tar content in the fuel gas.

gas by varying the equivalent ratio 0.1 to 0.8. 4. Producer gas is allowed to the gas analyser and tar analyser by opening the shut off valve. 5. Values from the analysers are noted down and procedure continued for the entire equivalent ratio. 6. Now equivalent ratio is kept constant at .4 and measure the tar , methane and hydrogen values for varying temperature from750c to900c 7. Values from the analysers are noted down and procedure continued for all the temperature range.

Figure 1. Gratifier Set Up 2.2 Experimentation Gratifier is pre heated up to 650c before feeding the gasifier with bio mass and allow to run the gasifier idle with constant air and mass flow of bio mass. Then the following observations were made. The water flow to the cooling tower was maintained constant throughout the experiment. 1. Temperature switched on. indicators were

3. RESULT AND DISCUSION The experimental results for different analysis of tar and gas composition with comparison of both Nickel and dolomite catalyst are shown in the form of graphs. And the gas composition values also plotted in graph.

2. Mass flow of bio mass was kept constant for entire experiment. 3. Temperature is at 750c to measure tar concentration and methane in the

oxide are increasing due to increase in oxygen level in the reaction chamber for the combustion. And carbon-mono-oxide and methane are reducing correspondingly due to complete combustion of the raw materials.

Figure2. Hydrogen and methane concentrations for various amounts of catalyst (gasification temperature = 850 C, equivalent ratio= 0.6). This graph shows that the amount of CH4 and H2 generation through gasification and according to amount of catalyst added methane generation is reducing correspondingly and the hydrogen production is improved corresponds to the amount of catalyst added.

Figure 4. Tar content as a function of gasification temperature and amount of catalyst This graph shows the tar concentration value with both nickel and dolomite catalyst. Dolomite catalysts crack the tar effectively up to 90%. Tar content is reducing with corresponds to the gasification temperature, at higher gasification temperature tar crack thermally, at higher gasification temperature due to complete combustion methane production reduces so optimisation of gasification temperature is required.

Figure 3. Dry gas composition (gasification temperature=850C) This graph shows the gas compositions in the fuel gas. And according to the increase in equivalent ratio hydrogen and carbon-di-

equivalent ratio, due to increase in equivalent ratio complete combustion will occur so the tar content will reduce.

Figure 5. Tar content as a function of amount of catalyst. This graph shows the tar concentration value with both nickel and dolomite catalyst. It shows that the amount of tar content is reducing corresponds to the increase in % of catalyst in bed material, due to increase in catalyst in bed material amount of tae cracking also increase so tar content in fuel gas also will reduce. Figure 7. Out let gas temperature function of time and gas temperature coolant flow kept constant. This graph shows that the out let gas temperature is increasing corresponds to time and stabilise constantly after a period of time 4. CONCLUTION The rate of tar formation and methane generation is depends on the combustion temperature and equivalent ratio, amount of tar content in the fuel gas can be controlled by using nickel and dolomite as catalyst. Amount of tar content in the fuel gas vary corresponding to amount of catalyst in the bed, gasification temperature and equivalent ratio. Dolomite cracks the tar efficiently up to 90%. Nickel catalyst efficiency is slightly below the dolomite.

Figure 6 . Tar content as a function of equivalent ratio and amount of catalyst (gasification temperature = 850 C) This graph shows the tar concentration value with both nickel and dolomite catalyst. It shows that the amount of tar content is increasing corresponds to the increase

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