COAL GASIFICATION DESIGN PROJECT

Gasification is a process that converts coal into carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

This is achieved by reacting the material at high temperatures above 700 °C, without
combustion, with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam. The resulting gas mixture is
called syngas or producer gas and is itself a fuel. The power derived from gasification and
combustion of the resultant gas is considered to be a source of renewable energy if the gasified
compounds were obtained from biomass.
Combustion chamber
A dry pulverized solid, fuel slurry is gasified with oxygen in co-current flow. The gasification
reactions take place in a dense cloud of very fine particles (coal) at high temperatures. (1030 °C).
In the combustion chamber, the carbonaceous material undergoes several different processes

The dehydration or drying process occurs at around 100 °C. Typically the resulting steam is
mixed into the gas flow and may be involved with subsequent chemical reactions, notably the
water-gas reaction if the temperature is sufficiently high .

The pyrolysis (or devolatilization) process occurs at around 200–300 °C. Volatiles are released

and char is produced, resulting in up to 70% weight loss for coal. The process is dependent on
the properties of the carbonaceous material and determines the structure and composition of the
char, which will then undergo gasification reactions.

The combustion process occurs as the volatile products and some of the char react with oxygen
to primarily form carbon dioxide and small amounts of carbon monoxide, which provides heat
for the subsequent gasification reactions. 

We designed a combustion chamber the uses an electric furnace as the heat source. An electric
furnace is a furnace that is heated usually to very high temperatures by an electric current.
The combustion chamber equipped with a means of oxygen supply and a means of temperature
control (arduino based thermocouple.)
Oxygen control
The mass air flow rate of oxygen getting into the combustion chamber can be measured and
controlled via a mass air flow (MAF) rate sensor and arduino microcontroller.
The mass air flow (MAF) sensor converts the amount of air drawn into the combustion into a
voltage signal. This is necessary to determine much oxygen to inject, the air flow sensor is
located directly in the intake air stream where it can measure incoming oxygen.
Primary components of a Hot Wire MAF sensor are a thermistor, a platinum hot wire, and an
electronic control circuit. The thermistor measures the temperature of the incoming air. The hot
wire is maintained at a constant temperature in relation to the thermistor by the electronic control
circuit. An increase in air flow will cause the hot wire to lose heat faster and the electronic
control circuitry will compensate by sending more current through the wire. The electronic
control circuit simultaneously measures the current flow and puts out a voltage signal in
proportion to current flow.
The output is received by arduino which in turn actuates the solenoid valve connected the
oxygen cylinder to regulate amount of oxygen entering into the combustion chamber.
The air flow is set to a predetermine value for optimum combustion whose variation instigates
actuation of the solenoid valve by the arduino.
Temperature measurement
Here we used a thermo couple type k which higher range of temperature measurement. It is
connected to arduino uno which is connected to an lcd display.In order to make arduino read the
k-type thermocouple values we used a Thermocouple-to-Digital Converter.( MAX31855).if the
temperatures are beyond optimum the arduino actuates the solenoid the reduce amount of oxygen
entering the combustion chamber
Reaction chamber
The gasification process occurs here as the char reacts with steam and carbon dioxide to produce
carbon monoxide and hydrogen, via the reactions

 
and

 
Steam is introduced to increase hydrogen content in the syngas.
Cooling
Here we used an arduino based fan whose speed was controlled by the temperature in the
reaction chamber to cool the gases exiting from the combustion chamber.
Cooling of the gases is necessary to prevent self-ignition. The optimum temperature for
gasification is 760°C -870°C.
The arduino automatically controls the speed of a DC fan according to the temperature read by a
k type thermo couple sensor.
we used an LCD shield to display the current temperature and speed of the fan, we selected a
BD139 transistor and a 9V battery to provide power to the fan and transistor. The temperature
sensor and red led are powered with 5V from the Arduino board.
How does the circuit works?
The most important part is to set the variables tempMin and tempMax with your desired values.
TempMin is the temperature at which the fan starts to spin and tempMax is the temperature
when the red led lights warning you that the maximum temp was reached. For example if you set
tempMin at 300°C and tempMax at 650°C then the fan will start spinning at 300°C and reach its
maximum speed at 650°C.
We store the temperature value in the temp variable and then use some if() functions to check if
temp is lower than tempMin and if so let the fan OFF (LOW). The next if() is to check if
temperature is higher than the minTemp and lower than the tempMax and if so then use
the map() function to re-map the temp value from one value to another.
The fanLCD re-maps the temp to allow the display of fanSpeed in a 0 to 100% range so you can
say that the speed of the fan is directly dependent of the thermocouple type k’s temperature.
When the temperature reaches the value set in tempMax the fan will be at its maximum spinning
velocity and the LCD will display FANS: 100%
Cyclonic chamber
This is where the is purification of the syngas.
An so2 sensor is used at the outlet, it is used together with arduino which actuates a servo motor
which open a valve to restrict flow and allow return of gases to the cyclonic purification
chamber.