Modeling and simulation of a downdraft biomass gasier 1.

Model development
and validation
Avdhesh Kr. Sharma

Mech. Engg. Dept., D.C.R. University of Science & Technology, Murthal, Sonepat 131 039, Haryana, India
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 29 December 2009
Received in revised form 27 September
2010
Accepted 3 October 2010
Available online 29 October 2010
Keywords:
Modeling
Simulation
Biomass gasication
Equilibrium
Kinetics
Suction gasier
a b s t r a c t
An EQB computer program for a downdraft gasier has been developed to predict steady state perfor-
mance. Moving porous bed of suction gasier is modeled as one-dimensional (1-D) with nite control
volumes (CVs), where conservation of mass, momentum and energy is represented by uid ow, heat
transfer analysis, drying, pyrolysis, oxidation and reduction reaction modules; which have solved in inte-
gral form using tri-diagonal matrix algorithm (TDMA) for reaction temperatures, pressure drop, energet-
ics and product composition. Fluid ow module relates the ow rate with pressure drop, while biomass
drying is described by mass transfer 1-D diffusion equation coupled with vapourliquid-equilibrium rela-
tion. When chemical equilibrium is used in oxidation zone, the empirically predicted pyrolysis products
(volatiles and char) and kinetic modeling approach for reduction zone constitutes an efcient algorithm
allowing rapid convergence with adequate delity. Predictions for pressure drop and power output (gas-
ier) are found to be very sensitive, while gas composition or caloric value, temperature prole and gas-
ication efciency are less sensitive within the encountered range of gas ow rate.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Thermochemical conversion of woody biomass under restricted
supply of oxidant is among the most promising non-nuclear forms
of future energy. Besides utilizing a renewable energy sources, the
technology also offers an eco-efcient and self sustainable way of
obtaining gaseous fuel usually called producer gas. It can be used
in either premixed burners (dryers, kilns, furnaces or boilers) for
thermal applications or in direct feeding of high efciency internal
combustion engines/gas turbines for mechanical applications.
After adequate cleaning up and reforming, the generated gas can
also be used for feed high temperature fuel cells or for production
of hydrogen fuel [1]. For electric power generation applications, the
motive power from prime mover such as IC engine or gas turbine
can be connected to an electric generator to produce electric en-
ergy. Applications of IC engines have proved to be the most ef-
cient and least expensive decentralized-power-generation
systems at lower power range. Research efforts have been ex-
panded worldwide to develop this technology cost-effective and
efcient in lower power range.
Recent progression in numerical simulation techniques and
computer efcacy become the effective means to develop more ad-
vanced and sophisticated models in order to provide more accurate
qualitative and quantitative information on biomass gasication.
In the present work, the objective is not merely to develop a theo-
retical model of a downdraft gasier system, but also to develop an
efcient algorithm that allow rapid convergence and adequate
accuracy of predictions. Presently, the gasication modeling tech-
niques include the application of thermodynamic equilibrium,
chemical kinetics, diffusion controlled, diffusionkinetic approach
and CFD tools. None of approaches have clear advantage over the
others. Pure equilibrium approach has thermodynamic limitations,
instead of its inherent advantage of being generic, relatively easy to
implement and rapid convergence, even though, researchers have
successfully demonstrated the application of equilibrium chemis-
try in downdraft gasiers. Zainal et al. [2] reported an interesting
model for biomass gasier describing the equilibrium calculations
considering watergas shift and methanechar reactions. Melgar
et al. [3] combine chemical and thermal equilibrium in order to
predict gas composition and Baratieri et al. [1] presented an
equilibrium model based on minimization of Gibbs energy using
VillarsCruiseSmith (VCS) algorithm. They validated the predic-
tions successfully. Later, Sharma [4] has compared the theoretical
predictions of reduction zone using equilibrium, kinetic modeling
and experimental data. For optimum performance, Sharma has
identied a critical length for the reduction zone (where all char
gets converted). At a more sophisticated level, Ratnadhariya and
Channiwala [5], suggested that separate thermodynamic modeling
can be approached to different zones of a downdraft gasier. On
the other hand, non-equilibrium formulations such as kinetic rate
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2010.10.001

Tel.: +91 09416722212; fax: +91 01302484004.

E-mail address: avdhesh_sharma35@yahoo.co.in
Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Energy Conversion and Management
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ enconman
and/or diffusion controlled model including CFD tools are more
accurate, no doubt, but are detailed and computationally more
intensive. It takes time for convergence by a few orders of magni-
tudes [6]. Non-equilibrium approaches use char conversion as a
surface phenomena describing by char reactivity and global reac-
tions of chargas and gasgas reactions. An effective global rate
constant may be dened to account for both diffusion and kinetics
of these reactions. Wang and Kinoshita [7] modeled the kinetics of
the heterogeneous and homogeneous reactions of char conversion
in reduction zone for a given residence time and bed temperature,
while Giltrap et al. [8] used the reaction kinetics parameters re-
ported by Wang and Kinoshita in order to develop a model of the
gas composition and temperature for char reduction zone of a
downdraft gasier. Babu and Sheth [9] further modied these reac-
tion rates using a variable char reactivity factor to predict the re-
sults agreeing with experimental data. Later, Gao and Li [10]
presented the downdraft gasier model by combining a pyrolysis
model (based on Koufopanos scheme) and reduction model follow-
ing [79] to simulate the temperature eld and gas concentration
eld in time and space.
The overall pressure drop across the gasier systemis an impor-
tant parameter. It monitors not only the health of a suction gasier
but also the volumetric efciency of engine and hence the engine
power output. The pressure drop across the conventional packed
bed depends on system geometry, medium porosity, permeability
and physical properties of working medium. Unlike, in gasiers
the bed maintains widely varying temperature specications, par-
ticle size distribution and bed porosity. Such study on pressure
drop through a downdraft biomass gasier bed is limited in open
literature. Sharma [11], measured the pressure drops across the
gasier bed at various particle size arrangements in cold and hot
ow, and at various locations of a 20 kWe open top downdraft gas-
ier in addition to temperature prole, gas composition, caloric
value. These data has been used in this work.
In fact, the selection of level and modeling approach (viz. chem-
ical equilibrium, chemical kinetics or diffusion controlled) depends
on statement of the problem and therefore may vary considerably
fromone case to another. Since, the objective of the present work is
not to invoke the highest level or most sophisticated gasier mod-
el, yet it is an attempt to develop an efcient algorithm that enable
rapid convergence without affecting the validity. Such comprehen-
sive work, in fact, is missing in the archival literature. This compre-
hensive work, therefore, presents the modular treatment (allowing
scope of further improvement at module level) to uid ow, heat
transfer, biomass drying, pyrolysis, and oxidation and reduction
reactions processes to form a powerful tool for simulation of suc-
tion (downdraft) gasier. Here biomass drying has been described
via thermal equilibrium, where mass transfer determines the rate
of moisture removal from wet biomass particles. Devolatilization
rate and pyrolysis products is described by single pseudo-rst or-
der reaction and empirical model, chemical equilibrium for rapid
convergence in oxidation zone (>800 C), and kinetic scheme for
reduction zone (<800 C), constitutes an efcient algorithmfor suc-
tion biomass gasier allowing considerable saving in iterative time
without degradation in accuracy of predictions. Such gasier algo-
rithms are desired when combining a gasier model with a gas
engine model towards simulation/optimization of gasierengine
system. Predictions of model and its subroutines have been
Nomenclature
A area (m
2
)
d particle diameter (m)
f friction factor
k thermal conductivity/rate constant
M mass
D _ m solid mass conversion
R thermal resistance
T temperature (K)
V volume/velocity
[C] species concentration
D diffusion coefcient/diameter
h enthalpy (kJ/kg)
L/l length (m)
_ m=_ n mass/molar ow rate
DP pressure drop
Ru universal gas constant
Dt
res
residence time in CV
r
_
diameter ratio of annulus
CV control volume
Dh hydraulic diameter (m)
hhv high heating value (kJ/kg)
dL length of CV
ME methane-equivalent
_
Q heat ow or release/absorbed
Re Reynolds number
Y mass fraction or ratio
Sg specic gravity
Greek letters
l dynamic viscosity (kg m
1
s
1
)
e
rad
radiative emissivity
q density
r StefanBoltzmann constant
x humidity
e
b
bed porosity
n correction factor for annulus
Subscripts/superscripts
i number of CVs
A/a ambient
cel cellulose
DB dry biomass
dev developing ow
mfd modied fully developed
preheat preheating zone
tuy tuyer
sat saturated vapour
j reaction number
an annular region
hc hemicellulose
dry drying zone
f uid (gas/air)
p particle
pg producer gas
vol/v volatile
w moisture
k species
ash ash
lg lignin
eff effective
fd fully developed ow
pyr pyrolysis
s solid (biomass, char, ash)
red reduction zone
DBp mass percentage in dry biomass
A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396 1387
validated, which are showing realistic performance including pres-
sure drop trends in cold and hot ow condition.
2. Mathematical formulation
The packed bed of the biomass gasier has been modeled as a
porous medium in which uid ow rate increases in the direction
of ow due to thermo-chemical conversion of solid particles con-
stituting the bed. The ow of air and biomass consumption in
the gasier is related by the phenomena of uid ow, heat transfer,
and thermo-chemical processes, viz., preheating, drying, pyrolysis,
combustion and reduction reactions. For simplication, these ther-
mo-chemical processes are described by ve separate zones in
addition to annular jacket zone as shown in Fig. 1, however, the ac-
tual dividing lines between these zones evolve as solution pro-
ceeds. The upper end of the oxidation zone starts at the elevation
of the tuyers, and all the other zones are determined by their
respective temperatures as the solution evolves.
For modeling, these zones are further subdivided into a number
of CVs for analysis, where each CV has been characterized by the
average values of parameters such as temperature, particle size,
uid ow rate, reactor diameter, etc. In all CVs, the solid particles
are considered spherical, with uniform diameters. In the drying
and preheating zones, there is no shrinkage in particle size due
to drying and preheating process. However in pyrolysis, oxidation
and reduction zones, feedstock undergoes chemical reactions lead-
ing to change in the particle size, thus, the diameter is allowed to
vary from one CV to another. The revised particle size is computed
from the assumption of constant intrinsic density;
m
p
m
p;initial

d
3
p
d
3
b
1
Here, m
p
and m
p,initial
are the mass of particle in the current CV and
mass of particle at the start of pyrolysis process. Bulk porosity in the
gasier bed varies with particle diameter and thus can be deter-
mined from the correlation of Chen and Gunkel [12] as
e
b
0:5 0:21 d
p
=d
b
2
2.1. Fluid ow
Initial phase for gasier model development is uid ow mod-
eling, which is used to quantify the apportionment of air inow
from the open top and through the air tuyers, and the pressure
drop through the gasier bed as a function of ow rate. The tuyres
are straight pipes of circular cross-section, the pressure drop can be
computed from the DarcyWeisbach equation. The entrance and
developing ow effect through the tuyers has been modeled in
terms of average entry length pressure drop parameter K
dev
, tted
to the data of Schmidt and Zeldin in Ref. [13] as given in Table 1.
The pressure drop through the gasier bed (maintaining widely
varying temperature specications, particle size distribution and
bed porosity) has been obtained using Ergun correlation [14] for
complete ow regime. Pressure drop through concentric annulus
is modeled from modied DarcyWeisbach friction-factor in terms
of effective Reynolds number and effective (annulus) diameter as
reported in [15]. The details of equations describing the ow resis-
tance across the tuyers, porous bed and annulus are given in
Table 1.
2.2. Heat transfer
For heat transfer analysis, the approach of Sharma et al. [16] has
been followed in the present work. Here, fuel bed is assumed to be
isotropic; solid and gases are considered to be in local thermal
equilibrium. These assumptions are justied for xed bed gasiers
operating under steady state conditions, since residence time of
solids in the CV is two to three order magnitude higher than that
of gases. This module describes the formulation of energy interac-
tion for the heat inows and outows due to advection of uid and
solids, heat loss through insulated wall, internal thermal interac-
tion between adjacent CVs and the quantity of heat generated or
consumed in each CV in order to compute the reaction tempera-
ture of each CV. In developing heat transfer module, the heat gen-
erated/absorbed during drying, pyrolysis, oxidation or reduction is
prescribed as input. These would subsequently be determined by
the modules of the respective sub-processes (cf. Eq. (6) in Table 2) Preheating zone
Drying zone
Pyrolysis zone
Oxidation zone
Reduction zone
Air (Top) Biomass
Ash
Producer gas
Annular Jacket regeneration zone
Air (Tuyers)
Gas
Fig. 1. Zonal description of the gasier.
Table 1
Fluid ow: pressure drop equations.
Tuyers
DPtuy Patm P
in;tuy
P
in;tuy
P
exit;tuy

qV
2
in
2
f
L
D
K
dev

qV
2
in
2
1 f
L
D
K
dev

qV
2
2
(3)
Pressure drop parameter [13]
K
dev
exp 0:3 2:9 10
3
=
Ldev
ReD

1:43 10
6
=
Ldev
ReD

2

(3a)
Ldev
D
0:06Re; for Re < 2300
(3b)
4.4Re
1/6
; for Re > 4000 (3c)
Porous Bed: Ergun equation [14]
DP
i

1501eb;i
2
lTi li
qTi e
3
b;i
d
2
p;i
AT
_ m
f

i

1:751eb;i li
qTi e
3
b;i
dp;i A
2
T
_ m
f

2
i
(4)
Concentric annulus [15]
DPan K
dev
f
mfd
dL1
Deff

_ m
2
pg
2q
pg
A
2
an
(5)
Re
eff
= Re
Dh
/n; D
eff
= D
h
/n (5a)
n
1r
_

2
1r
_
2

1r
_
4
1r
_
2

2
= ln r
_

where r
_
ro=r
i
(5b)
Table 2
Heat transfer equations.
Energy equation

solid
_ m
i
Cp
i

in

gases
_ m
i
Cp
i

in

T
in

_
Qvap
_
Qpyr
_
Q
oxid

_
Q
red

jk
_
Q
dif ;jk


solid
_ m
i
Cp
i

out

gases
_ m
i
Cp
i

out

Tout
(6)
Effective thermal conductivity [16]
k
eff

2ks kf C1lnC2C1
kg lnC2C1ks C1

ks d
2
ct
d
2
p
4rXdpT
3
and X e
b
=1
eb1erad
2erad1eb
(7)
Thermal resistance for ith zone
_
Q
dif ; jk

DTjk
Rsi
; where R
si
= R
t(i,bed)
+ R
t(i,ins)
+ R
t(i,o)
(8)
where jk = up, down, side
1388 A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396
using enthalpy of formation of reactants and products. The transfer
of energy between adjacent CVs due to uid and solid particles mo-
tion is accounted for by the mass ow rate, temperature of the uid
and solid ows and all heat transfer interactions including the ra-
dial outward (heat loss) from the bed to surroundings have been
modeled using thermal resistance as shown in Fig. 2. The details
of equations representing the heat transfer module for each CV
are given in Table 2.
The total resistance to radial heat loss to the surroundings in the
ith zone of the gasier bed is given as the sum of resistances due to
granular bed, insulation and the outer surface of the reactor (cf. Eq.
(8)). In the preheating zone, there is an additional resistance due to
the annular jacket. The axial heat transfer of the porous gasier bed
has been modeled by considering advection of solid (biomass/char)
and uid (air/gas) streams, while conductive and radiative heat
uxes at boundaries of each CV have been modeled in terms of
effective thermal conductivity, K
eff,
following Sharma et al. [16].
The k
eff
model needs inputs in terms of bed temperature, particle
size and bed porosity at current location. Here, bed porosity varies
with current particle size and modeled using Eq. (2), while emissiv-
ity of char particles is xed at 0.75.
2.3. Thermochemical processes
Modeling of the biomass thermo-chemical conversion phenom-
ena: preheating, drying and pyrolysis, and chemical reactions: oxi-
dation and reduction in a downdraft gasier has been presented to
predict the rate of heat generation/absorption in each CV and out-
ow products.
2.3.1. Biomass drying
The mechanism of moisture transfer to woody biomass includes
diffusion through the uid lm around the solid particles and dif-
fusion through the pores to internal adsorption sites. The actual
process of physical adsorption is practically instantaneous, and
equilibrium can be assumed to exist between the surface and the
uid envelope. As moist biomass particles came into contact with
air having low humidity level, the particles tend to lose moisture
to the surrounding air until equilibrium is attained. For modeling,
following assumptions are made:
1. No shrinkage in particle due to moisture evaporation.
2. Temperature gradient in moist biomass particles is neglected.
3. Equilibrium can be assumed to exist between the surface and
the uid envelope.
4. Drying is allowed to continue through pyrolysis zone as well as
oxidation and reduction zones as well.
The local thermal equilibrium between the gaseous and solid
media is assumed in each control volume, which makes it implicit
that heat transfer between the solid and gases is much faster than
the mass transfer. Thus, mass transfer determines the rate of mois-
ture removal from the biomass particles to the gases/air owing
around them. The analytical solution for one-dimensional mass
diffusion in a spherical particle of wood [17] is used in this work.
Equations representing the drying process with coefcients are
listed in Tables 3 and 4.
2.3.2. Pyrolysis of biomass
In downdraft gasier, the pyrolysis process is modeled at slow
heating rate to predict pyrolytic yields (viz., volatile composition
and char) and devolatilization rate as a function of temperature
and residence time. The biomass particles shrink on pyrolysis giv-
ing char and ash. Following assumptions are invoked:
Char and biomass particles are non porous.
Char yields from cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin considered
to be pure carbon.
Char yield in the gasier is insensitive to pyrolysis temperatures
encountered in the pyrolysis zone.
The complex constituents of volatiles are assumed to be decom-
posed into CO, H
2
, CO
2
, H
2
O, tar (heavy hydrocarbons) and light
hydrocarbons (mixture of methane and ethylene).
The whole process of thermal decomposition of dry biomass can
be represented by a single equation as:
Dry biomass DB !
kdry
Char
Volatiles CO; H
2
; CO
2
; H
2
O; Methane-Equivalent & Tar
14
Fig. 2. Single CV used in heat transfer module with all thermal interactions.
Table 3
Equations representing to moisture evaporation.
Diffusion equation [17]
XinXeqb
Xout Xeqb

8
p
2
e
p=2
2
b

1
9
e
9p=2
2
b
. . .
(9)
where b
4Ddif tres
d
2
p
; tres
Mb;CV
_ mb
Simpson [18] relationship
X
eqb

1800
W
Kh
1Kh

K1Kh2K1K2K
2
h
2
1K1Kh2K1K2K
2
h
2

(10)
where
W = 349 + 1.29 (T 273) + 0.0135 (T 273)
2
K = 0.805 + 0.000736 (T 273) 0.00000273 (T 273)
2
K
1
= 6.27 0.00938 (T 273) 0.000303 (T 273)
2
(11)
K
2
= 1.91 + 0.0407 (T 273) 0.000293 (T 273)
2
Relative humidity ratio
h
xair
xair;sat

xair
p
v;sat
mww=p
a
mwair
(12)
Antoine equation [19]
log
10
p
v;sat
A
B
TC

(13)
Table 4
Coefcients for Antoine equation for saturation vapour pressure [19].
Temperature range (K) A B C
255.8373 4.6543 1435.264 64.848
379573 3.55959 643.748 198.043
A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396 1389
On heating, these constituents become unstable and decompose
into char and volatiles. Furthermore, the volatiles break-up into
various lighter hydrocarbons. For describing the volatile composi-
tion and char yield during slow pyrolysis of the biomass, the pres-
ent work follows the approach of Sharma et al. [20], where the
thermal degradation of biomass constituents has been described
by individual decomposition scheme of cellulose, hemicellulose
and lignin. Model uses mass fractions of cellulose (Y
cel
), hemicellu-
lose (Y
hc
) and lignin (Y
lg
) in biomass as input information given in
Table 5. The chemical composition can be obtained from the ele-
mental balance knowing the mass fractions, chemical formulas
and molecular masses of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The
rate of devolatlization of biomass during slow pyrolysis process
can be described by a single pseudo-rst order reaction as given
by Eq. (15) in Table 6.
Each of the three constituents of dry and ash-free biomass, viz.,
cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are considered to break up into
a xed fraction of char and volatiles as described by Eqs. (16) and
(17) in Table 6. These fractions of char from these three constitu-
ents along with their chemical formula are presented in Table 7.
Six species are considered to be part of the volatiles, viz., CO,
CO
2
, H
2
, H
2
O, C
1.16
H
4
(ME) and C
6
H
6.2
O
0.2
(tar) following [24]. Thus,
the process of pyrolytic decomposition of dry and ash free biomass
C
6
H
HB
O
OB
can be represented as:
C
6
H
HB
O
OB
C
1
H
char
O
char
_ n
v
1
CO _ n
v
2
CO
2
_ n
v
3
H
2
_ n
v
4
H
2
O _ n
v
5
C
1:16
H
4
_ n
v
6
C
6
H
6:2
O
0:2
23
2.3.3. Oxidation chemistry in gasier bed
The pyrolysis products get oxidized in short supply of oxygen in
the oxidation zone (near air tuyers) of a gasier. Owing to the
widely varying reaction equilibrium constants and the reaction
time scales, some of the reactions might not be attaining equilib-
rium in the oxidation zone, and hence the solution of full equilib-
rium equations to compute oxidation process in the gasier would
both be erroneous and numerically difcult. In the present work,
therefore, a heuristic approach is adopted. Oxidation of the pyroly-
sis products is allowed to consume the available oxygen in a se-
quence of descending order of reaction rates as described below:
1. Oxidation of hydrogen (Reaction (R1) in Table 8) completes
itself rst.
2. If oxygen remains, light hydrocarbons are oxidized to H
2
O and
CO (R3).
3. Oxidation is fast, and is assumed to happen instantaneously
whenever oxygen is available.
4. Products of oxygen are assumed to attain equilibrium in each
CV.
5. If more oxygen remains, tar (R4) and char (R5) share the oxygen
in the proportion of their reaction rate constants at the temper-
ature of the CV under consideration to get oxidized to CO.
The principal chemical reactions taking place in the oxidation
zone along with their rate expressions are listed in Table 8.
Although these expressions are not used in the present computa-
tions, they have been used only to guide the sequence of oxidation
reactions described above.
If _ n
V
k
stands for the molar ow rate (mol/s) of species k, then
after completely consuming all the H
2
in the gaseous phase (Reac-
tion (R1) in Table 8), the O
2
that would remain _ n
V
O2;1
_ n
V
O2
_ n
V
H2
=2.
If oxygen remains _ n
V
O2;1
> 0, light hydrocarbon or methane-equiv-
alent gets oxidized to CO and H
2
O, therefore, _ n
V
O2;2

_ n
V
O2;1
1:58_ n
V
CO
. If more oxygen remains _ n
V
O2;2
> 0, simultaneous
consumption of tar (Reaction (R4)) and char (Reaction (R5) in Ta-
ble 8) start taking place. The relative proportions of O
2
consumed
by these reactions has been accounted for by considering the ratio
of the two reaction rates r* = k
char
/k
tar
, where the reaction rates are
obtained fromTable 8. Two cases can be discussed: one, when there
is enough oxygen to oxidize all the tar and a proportionate quantity
of char; and second, there is less oxygen than what is required to
oxidize tar completely. Oxygen remains after tar oxidation if
_ n
V
O2;2
> 1 r

4:45_ n
Vtar
. Here, 4:45_ n
Vtar
mol/s of O
2
is used up to
oxidize tar and the remainder for char: thus, for every mole of char
oxidized, r
*
moles of char are also oxidized (cf Reaction (R5)). In case
_ n
V
O2;2
< 1 r

4:45_ n
Vtar
, all oxygen is consumed. In this case, the
molar rate of tar oxidation is _ n
V
O2;2
=4:451 r

, and the tar that

exits the zone is thus _ n
Vtar
_ n
V
O2;2
=4:451 r

. Correspondingly,
rate of char oxidation is _ n
V
O2;2
r

=4:451 r

mol=s. This gives the

moles of char oxidized in the current CV. If oxygen remains all of
it is then used to oxidize CO in a likewise fashion.
Turns [27] quoted that for fuel-rich combustion, the water
shift equilibrium equation can be safely applied, therefore we
can write
_ n
V
CO2
_ n
V
H2
= _ n
V
CO
: _ n
V
H2O
KpT
i
expDG
0
T
i
=R
u
T
i
24
where DG
0
T
i
g
0
CO
T
i
g
0
H
2
O
T
i
g
0
CO2
T
i
g
0
H2
T
i

Here, DG
0
(T
i
) is the standard-state Gibbs function changes at
atmospheric pressure. The Gibbs function g
0
for each species can
be calculated using Eq. (42).
2.3.4. Modeling reduction chemistry in gasier bed
Reduction of the oxidation zone products are primarily domi-
nated by heterogeneous reactions of solidchar (R6)(R8) and
homogeneous reactions of gasgas (R9) in complete absence of
Table 5
Proportion of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in hardwood [21].
Type of wood Cellulose (Y
cl
) Hemicellulose (Y
hc
) Lignin (Y
lg
)
Hardwood 0.43 0.35 0.22
Table 6
Equations representing to pyrolysis model.
Rate of devolatilization [22]
dMvol
dt
kpyr M
vol
7:0 10
7
s
1
exp1560=TM
DB
Y
vol
(15)
D _ m
vol;i

dMvol
dt

i
Dtres
i
dmvol
dt

i
Char yield [20]
Y
char,ash-free
= Y
cl
Y
char
+ Y
hc
f
char
+ Y
lg
c
char
(16)
Y
vol
= 1 Y
char,ash-free
(17)
Empirical mass ratios [20]
Y
CO=CO2
e
1:8447896
7730:317
T

5019898
T
2 (18)
Y
H2O=CO2
= 1 (19)
Y
ME=CO2
= 5 10
16
T
5.06
(20)
Heat of pyrolysis [20]
Dh
o
pyr
h
o
f

DB
Y
char
h
o
f

char
Y
vol

k6
k1
Y
k
h
o
f

k
(21)
Table 7
Fractional char yields from biomass constituents.
Biomass
constituents
Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignin Reference
Fractional
char
yield
0.05 0.10 0.55 Tillman
et al. [21]
Chemical
formula
C
6
H
10
O
5
C
6
H
10
O
5
C
9
H
7.95
O
2.4
(OCH
3
)
0.92
Grobski
et al. [23]
1390 A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396
oxidants. These reduction reactions are inherently slower than the
oxidation reactions by several orders of magnitude, thus, equilib-
rium may not be established in the reduction region. At moderately
high temperatures (<800 C), the equilibrium products may deviate
from reality, thus, kinetic or non-equilibrium models are more
suitable and accurate[28]. In the present work, therefore, a steady
state kinetic model for reduction reactions has been employed fol-
lowing [4,6]. Kinetic model predicts the un-reacted char and nal
gas composition. For modeling of reduction chemistry in reduction
zone, following assumptions were made:
1 Reduction reactions are slow reactions, and are treated using
the kinetics of these reactions.
2 All char is consumed by the end of reduction zone
3 The average diameter of the ash particle is 5 mm.
The reaction rates of global reduction reactions (R6)(R9) can
be described by the departure of the reactant concentrations from
their equilibriumvalues and their values of pre-exponential factors
A
j
and activation energies E
j
for reactions j = 1. . . 4 are given by
Wang and Kinoshita [7]. C
RF
is the char reactivity factor, which rep-
resents the reactivity of char (or number of active sites on the char
surface) and is a key parameter in simulation of xed bed gasica-
tion. As char burn-off proceeds, the char size decreases and char
porosity increases, the gas would encounter more active sites.
The higher C
RF
, the process becomes more fast. Giltrap et al. [8] rec-
ommended a constant value of 1000 for the char reactivity factor
(C
RF
). In the present work, the same value of char reactivity factor
has been included in order to account for the active sites present
on char surface (cf. Table 9). The symbol P
k
is the partial pressure
of gaseous species k of the reduction zone. K
eq,j
is the equilibrium
constant for reaction j.
The net rate of production of the kth species (Rt
k
) thus can be
evaluated in terms of the above reaction rates: for instance,
Rt
CO
= 2r
1
+ r
2
+ r
4
; Rt
H2
= r
2
2r
3
+ 3r
4
, etc. These Rt
k
values of
kth species can be used to compute outow species concentration
for known inow concentration of each species and volume of each
CV (V
CV
) as:
_ n
k;i
_ n
k;i1
V
CV;i
Rt
k;i
25
3. Solution procedure
For uid ow module, assuming suitable guess of biomass con-
sumption rate, the airow rate can be calculated using global mass
balance of produced gas, total air, wet biomass and ash. For a given
input of gas ow rate at gasier exit and airow rate, Eq. (3) for the
pressure drop through the tuyers and Eq. (4) for pressure drop in
gasier bed are related in terms of air/gas ow rates through each
CV. Fluid ow rates through these CVs are also related to consump-
tion of solid substrate (e.g. dry biomass, moisture in biomass, char
and ash) by the intrinsic mass balance for each CV. Thus, the sumof
pressure drops across the preheating, drying, and pyrolysis zones
in terms of uid ow rate through them can be related to pressure
drop across the tuyers as:
DP
preheat
DP
dry
DP
pyro
DP
tuy
26
Above Eq. (26) in conjunction with Eqs. (3) and (4), gives ratio of air
coming from the open top and through the tuyers. This ratio inu-
ences the reaction temperature prole in the bed and thus the
chemistry of gasication. In the second stage, which corresponds
to heat transfer module, here the energy Eq. (6) in conjunction with
Eqs. (7)(8), was solved for temperatures in each CVs simulta-
neously using tri diagonal matrix algorithm (TDMA) with known
values of heat generation/absorption in different zones. When tem-
perature specications in each CV are known, the actual mass con-
version and heat released or absorbed in each CV has been obtained
using thermochemical phenomena sub-models.
For preheat and drying zone, equilibrium mass fraction of mois-
ture in wood, X
eqb
, in each CV is computed using vapourliquid
equilibrium relationship, while the knowledge of residence time
and diffusivity gives X
out
, the moisture mass fraction of the biomass
leaving the CV is calculated using mass transfer one-dimensional
diffusion Eq. (9) in conjunction with Eqs. (10) and (13), the quan-
tity of moisture evaporated from the wood particles and heat of
vapourization can be quantied. The pyrolysis products including
char and volatile components are obtained using elemental bal-
ances for C, H and O and empirical mass ratios as a function of tem-
perature as written by Eqs. (18) and (20) in Table 6. Once outlet
products is known this gives heat of pyrolysis, which serves input
to heat transfer module.
Table 8
Chemical reactions in oxidation zone.
Reac. no. Oxidation reactions Rate expressions A
j
E
j
/Ru Ref.
R1 H
2
+ 0.5O
2
?H
2
O k
H2
= A
CO
T
1.5
exp(E
CO
/R
u
T)[C
CO2
][C
H2
]
1.5
1.63 10
9
3420 [25]
R2 CO + 0.5O
2
?CO
2
k
CO
= A
CO
exp(E
CO
/R
u
T)[C
CO
][C
O2
]
0.25
[C
H2O
]
0.5
1.3 10
8
15,106 [25]
R3
a
C
1.16
H
4
+1.58O
2
?1.16CO +2H
2
O k
ME
= A
CH4
exp(E
CH4
/R
u
T)[C
O2
]
0.8
[C
CH4
]
0.7
1.585 10
9
24,157 [25]
R4
b
C
6
H
6:2
o
0:2 +4. 45O
2
?6CO + 3.1H
2
O
k
tar
k
HC
= A
tar
TP
0:3
A
exp(E
tar
/R
u
T)[C
O2
]
1
[C
HC
]
0.5
2.07 10
4
41,646 [26]
R5 C + 1/2O
2
?CO k
char
= A
char
exp(E
char
/R
u
T) [C
O2
] 0.554 10,824 [25]
R6 CO + H
2
O MCO
2
+H
2

a
C
1.16
H
4
(light hydrocarbon or methane-equivalent).
b
C
6
H
6:2
o
0:2 (heavy hydrocarbon) represents the methane and tar respectively.
Table 9
Reduction reactions, their reaction rates and constants.
Reac. no. Reaction Rate expression Aj [8] Ej (kJ/mol)[7]
R6 C + CO
2
M2 CO
r
1
A
1
exp
E1
RuT

P
CO2

PCO
Keq;1

3.616 10
4
77.39
R7 C + H
2
O MCO + H
2
r
2
A
2
exp
E2
RuT

P
H2O

PCOPH
2
Keq;2

1.517 10
7
121.62
R8 C + 2H
2
MCH
4
r
3
A
3
exp
E3
RuT

P
2
H2

PCH
4
Keq;3

4.189 19.21
R9 CH
4
+H
2
O MCO+3H
2
r
4
A
4
exp
E4
RuT

P
CH4
P
H2O

PCOP
3
H
2
Keq;4

7.301 10
1
36.15
A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396 1391
For oxidation zone, using temperature specications from heat
transfer module, the value of Kp determined in terms of standard
state of Gibbs function change for water gas shift reaction. Using
Kp value in Eq. (24) and the atomic balances, the nal composition
of gases leaving the oxidation zone can be determined. The heat re-
leased in the oxidation zone has been computed from the enthalpy
of formation of the reactants and products. Finally, the char con-
sumption and gas composition through the reduction zone can
be obtained solving kinetic rate Eqs. (R6)(R9) for known reaction
temperature prole. In reduction zone each CV has been subdi-
vided into 100 subdivisions to ensure adequate accuracy of ele-
mental balances.
The equilibrium constants K
eq,j
for jth reaction are evaluated at
the temperature of the CV from standard state Gibbs functions of
the gaseous species k, g
o
k
from Eq. (42). The polynomial ts for stan-
dard state enthalpy and entropy used to compute the Gibbs func-
tions as a function of temperature are obtained from NASA ts
on JANAF Tables data [27]. Similarly, heat absorption in reduction
zone has been obtained using heats of formation of the reactants
and products. The thermo-physical properties of working sub-
stances in terms of temperature are listed in Table 10, the values
of constants used in Table 10 are obtained from their respective
references. The consumption of char in reduction zone depends
mainly on feedstock composition and equivalence ratio of the gas-
ier, the temperature of reduction zone. The equivalence ratio of
the gasier was controlled by the airow rate. The ratio of air to
biomass was adjusted so that the char ow rate at gasier exit be-
comes zero.
4. Model predictions and validation
A 20 kWe open top downdraft biomass gasier developed in In-
dian Institute of Technology, Bangalore has been chosen. The
experimental data of Sharma [11], generated on the same congu-
ration has been used in the present work for validation or testing of
various modules and overall gasier model.
4.1. Validation or testing of modules constituting the gasier model
The modules that constitute the gasier model have been vali-
dated against the experimental data or tested for qualitative
trends. The predictions of uid ow module for pressure drop in
cold ow have been validated against the experimental data of
Sharma [11] for given particle size distribution and ow rate at
the gasier exit. Since the pressure drop is a strong function of par-
ticle size, the two sets of experimental data has been used in the
present work; one set for freshly charged gasier with nearly uni-
form sized particles, while second set for extinguished gasier (bed
with decreasing particle size downwards in the direction of gas
ow). Simulations are performed: (i) for uniform distribution of
particle diameter (ii) for spatially varying particle size distribution,
as given by Eqs. (1) and (2). Results from the simulations are com-
pared with those fromthe experiments in Figs. 3 and 4 for an initial
particle size in the range between 34 and 42 mm. The predictions,
for same range of particle sizes are in reasonable agreement with
measured values of pressure drop for the case of extinguished gas-
ier, while for freshly charged gasier, the predictions deviate
Table 10
Property data.
Thermal conductivity
k
b
= Sg
b
(0.1941 + 0.4064Y
w
) + .1864 + .002 (T T
A
) [26] (27)
k
char
= 1.4 10
6
T
2
6.4 10
4
T + 0.211 [29]
k
k
= A
k
+ B
k
T + C
k
T
2
+ D
k
T
3
[30] (29)
k
mixture

k
k1
v
k
kkmwk
0:333

k
k1
v
k
mwk
0:333
[31] (30)
Specic heat
Cp
DB
= 0.1031 + 0.003867T [26] (31)
Cp
b
= [Cp
DB
+ 4.19Y
w
]/(1 + Y
w
) + (0.02355T 1.32Y
w
6.191)Y
w
[26] (32)
Cp
char
= 1.39 + 0.00036T [26] (33)
Cp
k
= a
k
+ b
k
T + c
k
T
2
+ d
k
T
3
+ e
k
T
4
[24] (34)
Cp
mixture

k
k1
Y
k
Cp
k
(35)
Viscosity [30], [32]
l
k
(T) = l
k
(T
a
)(T/T
a
)
n
(36)
l
H2O
= 7 10
12
T
2
+ 5.1 10
8
T 6.04 10
6
(37)
l
Tar
% l
Benzene
= 1.3404 10
11
T
2
+ 3.5844 10
8
T 2.2588 10
6
(38)
l
mixture
T

k
k1
v
k
l
k

I
I1
v
k
u
kI
(39)
where u
kI

1l
k
=l
I

0:5
mwI =mwk
0:25

2
2:8281mwk=mwI
0:5
Enthalpy
h
0
f ;mixture


k
Y
k
h
0
f ;k
(40)
Heating value [33]
hhv
DB
= 341C
DBp
+ 1323H
DBp
+ 68S
DBp
15.3ash
DBp
120(O
DBp
+ N
DBp
) (41)
Gibbs function [6]
g
0
k
T Ag
k
Bg
k
T Cg
k
T
2
Dg
k
T
3
Eg
k
T
4
Fg
k
=T Gg
k
lnT
(42)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Air flow rate (g/s)
G
a
s
i
f
i
e
r

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

d
r
o
p

(
m
m
w
c
)
Experimental data
db=34mm
db=42mm
Fig. 3. Comparison with experimental data(freshly charged gasier) for uniformly
distribution of particle size, T
bed
= 300 K, cold ow.
1392 A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396
slightly at higher ow rates. This may be due to the fact that the
particles are not perfectly spherical and due to uncertainty associ-
ated with particles (size) constituting the freshly charged bed.
The heat transfer module uses the heat released/absorbed in
each zone as the input to predict the temperatures in each zone.
Since the heat released/absorbed in an actual gasier is closely
coupled with all other parameters, it was not possible to validate
the heat transfer part in isolation against experiments. Therefore,
well tested model (tested for qualitative trends) of Sharma for heat
transfer [16], has been followed in the present work. The drying
model is tested in the preheat zone (of length 1 m) in the gasier
for the effects of zone temperature and particle diameter for qual-
itative trends as shown by Figs. 5 and 6. Fig. 5 shows the trends for
moisture loss distribution along the testing bed for four isothermal
temperatures i.e., 350, 400, 500 and 600 K. The results show that as
temperature increases, the biomass dries up quickly within the
short length along the testing bed, as expected. In order to study
the effect of particle size on moisture evaporation; ve levels of
average particle size i.e. 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mm are considered
in this analysis (Fig. 6). Predicted results shows faster biomass dry-
ing with decrease in particle diameter, as expected.
A well tested pyrolysis sub-model of Sharma et al. [20] is used
to predict the species concentration in volatile matter and char
yield at known pyrolysis temperature. It uses input of the percent-
ages of three major constituents cellulose, hemicellulose and lig-
nin in biomass and fraction of char due to the breakup of each of
these three constituents from Tables 5 and 7. For validation of
the oxidation module, the oxidation of volatiles alone has been
considered. The products of oxidation of volatiles predicted by
the present model have been compared with equilibrium code of
Olikara and Borman as given in Ref. [27], which uses input in the
form of C
N
H
M
O
L
N
K
and equivalence ratio U. Volatiles are consid-
ered to have the chemical formula of C
1.3
H
3
O
1.4
. Char oxidation
has been excluded from the validation part since the code of Olika-
ra and Borman is meant only for those reactions which are ex-
pected to reach equilibrium. Fig. 7 shows the comparison of CO,
H
2
and CO
2
contents in the products of oxidation as predicted by
the present model with the predictions of the code of Olikara
and Borman, for an equivalence ratio U= 1.85. The comparison is
found to be quite good. These gures also show the variation in
the content of these species with the reaction temperature. With
increase in temperature, the CO content increases while H
2
and
CO
2
decrease, as expected. For reduction environment, a well
tested kinetic model for reduction reactions has been used [4,6].
4.2. Validation of gasier model
After the validation and testing of above modules individually,
it is also essential to validate the overall gasier model after cou-
pling of these modules. The gasier model predicts the pressure
drops, biomass consumption rate, airow rates, gas composition
and its caloric value for a given value of producer gas ow rate
and size of the feedstock particles being fed from the top.
For validation, the experimental data of Sharma [11] on the
20 kWe downdraft gasier has been used at wide range of pro-
ducer gas ow rate. In his experiments, Sharma used sun dried
Kikar wood (Acacia), chopped in cubic shape with average size
36 mm having average moisture content in the range of 1113%
on dry basis. Simulations are also performed for the similar operat-
ing condition for gasication of hardwood feedstock. However,
0
5
10
15
20
25
10 15 20 25 30
Air flow rate (g/s)
G
a
s
i
f
i
e
r

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

d
r
o
p

(
m
m
w
c
)
Experiments
db=34mm
db=42mm
Fig. 4. Comparison with experimental data (extinguished gasier) for spatially
varying of particle size distribution of, T
bed
= 300 K, cold ow.
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0 20 40 60 80 100
Distance along preheating zone (cm)
M
o
i
s
t
u
r
e

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

i
n

b
i
o
m
a
s
s
T=350K
T=400K
T=500K
T=600K
Fig. 5. Effect of drying zone temperature on moisture loss prole, d
p
= 4 cm.
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
0 20 40 60 80 100
Distance along preheating zone (cm)
M
o
i
s
t
u
r
e

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

i
n

b
i
o
m
a
s
s
dp=1cm
dp=2cm
dp=3cm
dp=4cm
dp=5cm
Fig. 6. Effect of particle size on moisture loss in drying zone, T = 400 K.
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
Temperature in oxidation zone (K)
C
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
o
l
)
CO: Present work CO: PER model
H2: Present work H2: PER model
CO2: Present work CO2: PER model
Fig. 7. Comparison of predicted product composition of oxidation model with those
obtained using Olikara and Borman code [27].
A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396 1393
since in experiments, the particle size even at the gasier inlet var-
ies considerably, the choice of a constant particle size at gasier in-
let can have a strong bearing on comparison of simulation with the
experimental values. Thus, for comparison with experimental data,
the simulation results have been plotted in particle size range from
36 to 50 mm. The pressure drop across the gasier predicted by the
model for various producer gas ow rates is compared with the
experimental values in Fig. 8. This deviation could be owing to
the uncertainty in the particle size of the feedstock. It is observed
that the predicted pressure drops are in agreement with the mea-
sured data within the experimental uncertainty. Predicted temper-
ature prole in the gasier bed at gas ow rate of 7 g/s has been
compared with experimental data as shown in Fig. 9. As expected,
the maximum temperature in oxidation zone predicted by the
model is 1217 K at the gas ow rate of 7 g/s. A good agreement
of predicted and measured temperature prole across the bed
can be clearly observed.
In Fig. 10, predicted gas composition has been compared with
experimental data of Sharma. Predictions for CO and H
2
percentage
in gas increase gently with gas ow rate. The theoretical trends for
CO and H
2
composition are in good agreement with experimental
measurements of Sharma[11]. The caloric value of the gas from
prediction and experiments is compared in Fig. 11, and good agree-
ment is obtained. Since the experimental data is limited to a little
range of gas ow rate, the predictions have been extended to 30 g/
s, in order to demonstrate the predictable capability of the above
model at higher ow rates. Model predicts a very small percentage
of CH
4
below 0.4%, water vapour varies from 10% to 12% and tar
content was theoretically absent in the resulting gas for the wide
range of gas ow.
4.3. Gas ow rate
Some trends of pressure drop, temperature prole, dry gas com-
position and caloric value against gas ow rate have been dis-
cussed in previous section (cf. Figs. 811). In this section, the
trends of temperature proles across gasier bed for different val-
ues of gas ow rates; cold gasication efciency and gasier power
output for wide range of gas ow rate are studied as shown in
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Producer gas flow rate (g/s)
G
a
s
i
f
i
e
r

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

d
r
o
p

(
m
m
w
c
)
dp=36mm
dp=50mm
Experiments
Fig. 8. Comparison of the predicted pressure drop with experimental data, spatially
varying particle size, hot ow.
250
450
650
850
1050
1250
1450
Distance from open top (cm)
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
K
)

Experiments
Predictions
0 50 100 150 200
Fig. 9. Comparison of predicted temperature prole with experimental data,
d
b
= 36 mm, mpg = 7.0 g/s, Hardwood.
5
10
15
20
25
30
Gas flow rate (g/s)
G
a
s

c
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
o
l
)
Experiments (H2) Predictions(H2)
Experiments (CO) Predictions (CO)
4 9 14 19 24 29
Fig. 10. Comparison of predicted CO and H
2
composition in producer gas with
experiments.
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
4 9 14 19 24 29
Gas flow rate (g/s)
C
a
l
o
r
i
f
i
c

v
a
l
u
e

o
f

g
a
s

(
k
J
/
m
3
)
Experiments
Predictions
Fig. 11. Comparison of predicted caloric value of gas with experiments.
250
450
650
850
1050
1250
0 50 100 150 200
Distance from open top (cm)
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
K
)
mpg=6g/s
mpg=9g/s
mpg=12g/s
mpg=17g/s
mpg=21g/s
Fig. 12. Effect of producer gas ow rate on temperature prole in the gasier.
1394 A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396
Figs. 12 and 13. The variations in temperature proles for ve dif-
ferent gas ow rates viz., 6, 9, 12, 17 and 21 g/s have been com-
pared in Fig. 12. As expected, the maximum temperatures
(predicted) can be observed in oxidation zone. The overall temper-
ature proles at increasing gas ow rates are found to be improv-
ing. A maximum temperature is found to be increasing from
1141 K to 1354 K for typical gas ow rate variation of 621 g/s.
The gasication efciency on cold basis can be described in terms
of the ratio of net heating value of gas at ambient (neglecting the
sensible heat) to the input energy intake by biomass feedstock.
The heating values of biomass and product gas at the gasier exit
can be obtained from literature [26,27,31] in terms of heating val-
ues of individual components. With these heating values, the gas-
ication efciency (cold basis) and gasier power output can be
computed and results of cold gasication efciency and gasier
power output (kW) are plotted in Fig. 13. The cold gasication ef-
ciency is observed to be increasing from 72% to 74% with gas ow
rate variation from 6 to 25 g/s. A steep increase in gasier power
output (2192 kW) can be observed (almost linear trend) for above
gas ow rate variation.
Increase in gas ow rate improves the temperature prole lead-
ing transformation of the non-combustibles components (i.e. CO
2
,
H
2
O) into combustibles (i.e. CO, H
2
) and thus improving the calo-
ric value of the product gas, the cold gasication efciency and
gasier power output as well. However, the temperatures in drying
and pyrolysis zone are lower at higher ow rates, and thus the
pressure drop in these regions may be less at higher ow rate.
But in reduction zone, where maximum char conversion takes
place, the particle sizes are the smallest, has higher temperature
at higher gas ow rates. This would add signicantly to the pres-
sure drop. The predicted trends agree with this expected
behaviour.
5. Conclusions
A mathematical model EQB for a downdraft biomass gasier has
been developed to predict the pressure drop, airow rate from
open top and through the tuyers, biomass consumption, tempera-
ture prole and gas composition for given gas ow rate. Model was
developed in three stages: rst stage, uid ow module is carried
out, where isothermal ow of air was considered through the gas-
ier bed; second stage corresponds to heat transfer module, here
energy equation was solved to obtain the temperatures in each
CV with heat generation/absorption in different zones considered
as known; third stage, the physical and chemical phenomena take
place due to biomass drying, pyrolysis, oxidation and reduction
reaction sub-process, and their energetics decide the heat genera-
tion or absorption in each CVs. The subroutines constituting the
gasier model have been validated or tested. The uid ow module
has been validated in cold ow for constant particle size (freshly
charged gasier) as well as for variable (decreasing) particle size
distribution in gasier bed (due to thermochemical conversion).
Mass transfer model for biomass drying have been tested in pre-
heating zone and found working well for right trends of response
to particle size, rate of drying and prevailing temperature. Equilib-
rium based oxidation model is validated with the equilibrium code
of Olikara and Borman and found to be robust and adequate for
prediction of product composition, but predicts a steep tempera-
ture rise within a single control volume where oxidation completes
itself. Finally, the gasier model was validated against the experi-
mental data with good agreement.
For the range of gas ow rate encountered in this work, any
improvement in the reaction temperature leads to better thermo-
chemical transformation of biomass material into combustibles
(i.e., CO, H
2
), thus, improving the gasier performance in terms
of energy efciency and power output. The rise in gasier temper-
ature due to chemical reactions specially at high gas ow rate also
strongly inuences the gasier pressure drop. Furthermore, reduc-
tion zone is recognized as the most sensitive region for remarkably
high pressure drop, where highest char conversion leads to small-
est particle sizes and high reaction temperatures as well specially
at higher gas ow rate.
Chemical equilibrium for oxidation zone (where reaction tem-
peratures proceeds beyond 800 C establishing equilibrium) and
empirically predicted pyrolysis products (volatiles and char) allow-
ing faster convergence, while implementing kinetic modeling for
reduction zone is helpful in restoring the accuracy of predictions
(where reaction temperatures less than 800 C and thus equilib-
rium is far away from reality). This combination constitutes an ef-
cient algorithm allowing rapid convergence with adequate delity.
When, objective is to couple a gasier model with a gas engine
model for predicting the performance of a gasierengine system
model, the above algorithm of gasier simulation may be a prefer-
able choice.
Acknowledgements
Author is grateful to Prof. M.R. Ravi and Prof. S. Kohli, Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi for their valuable contribution in car-
rying out of mathematical modeling and computational work.
References
[1] Baratieri M, Baggio P, Fiori L, Grigiante M. Biomass as an energy source:
thermodynamic constraints on the performance of the conversion process.
Bioresour Technol 2008;99:706373.
[2] Zainal ZA, Ali R, Lean CH, Seetharamu KN. Prediction of performance of a
downdraft gasier using equilibrium modeling for different biomass materials.
Energy Convers Manage 2001;42:1499515.
[3] Malgar A, Prez JF, Laget H, Horillo A. Thermochemical equilibrium modelling
of a gasifying process. Energy Convers Manage 2007;48(1):5967.
[4] Sharma AK. Equilibrium & kinetic modeling of reduction reactions in the char
bed of a downdraft (biomass) gasier: a comparison. Int J Solar Energy
2008;82:91828.
[5] Ratnadhariya JK, Channiwala SA. Three zone equilibrium and kinetic free
modeling of biomass gasier a novel approach. Renew Energy
2009;34:10508.
[6] Sharma AK. Simulation of a biomass gasierengine system. PhD thesis, Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi, India; 2006.
[7] Wang Y, Kinoshita CM. Kinetic model of biomass gasication. Solar Energy
1993;51(1):1925.
[8] Giltrap DL, McKibbin R, Barnes GRG. A steady state model of gaschar reactions
in a downdraft biomass gasier. Solar Energy 2003;74:8591.
[9] Babu BV, Sheth PN. Modeling and simulation of reduction zone of downdraft
biomass gasier: effect of char reactivity factor. Energy Convers Manage
2006;47(15-16):260211.
65
67
69
71
73
75
77
79
5 10 15 20
Gas flow rate (g/s)
G
a
s
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
o
n

e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
G
a
s
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
o
n

p
o
w
e
r

o
u
t
p
u
t

(
k
W
)
Conversion efficiency
Gasifier power output
Fig. 13. Effect of producer gas ow rate on gasication efciency and gasier power
output (kW).
A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396 1395
[10] Gao N, Li A. Modelling and simulation of combined pyrolysis and reduction
zone for a downdraft biomass gasier. Energy Convers Manage
2008;49:348390.
[11] Sharma AK. Experimental investigation on a 20 kWe, solid biomass gasication
system. Biomass Bioenerg, in press, doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.08.060.
[12] Chen J, Gunkel WW. Modelling and simulation of co-current moving bed
gasication reactors part II: a detailed gasier model. Biomass
1987;14:7598.
[13] White FM. Viscous uid ow. 3rd ed. Singapore: McGraw Hill; 1991.
[14] Kaviany M. Principles of heat transfer in porous media. 2nd ed. New
York: Springer-Verlag; 1995.
[15] White FM. Fluid mechanics. 5th ed. Singapore: McGraw Hill; 2003.
[16] Sharma AK, Ravi MR, Kohli S. Modelling heat transfer in biomass gasier
(paper code HMT-2006-C184). In: Proceedings of 18th national & 7th ISHMT
ASME. Heat transfer conference, 315 (1315), IIT, Guawahati, India; 2006.
[17] McCabe WL, Smith JC, Harriott P. Unit operations of chemical engineering. fth
ed. New York: MGH; 1993.
[18] Simpson WT. Equilibrium moisture content of wood in outdoor locations in
the United States and worldwide. Research note FPL-RN-0268. Forest Products
Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture; 1998.
[19] NIST, NIST Chemistry; 2005. <http://webbook.nist.gov>.
[20] Sharma AK, Ravi MR, Kohli S. Modelling product composition in slow pyrolysis
of wood. SESI J 2006;16(1):111.
[21] Tillman DA, Rossi AM, Kitto WA. Wood combustion. Academic Press Inc.;
1981.
[22] Robert AF. A review of kinetics data for the pyrolysis of wood and related
substances. Combust Flame 1970;14:26372.
[23] Grobski M, Bain R. Properties of biomass relevant to gasication. In: Reed, TB,
editor .Biomass gasication: principles & technology: energy technology, Solar
Energy Research Inst. (SERI); 1981. p. 4170.
[24] Thunman H, Niklasson F, Johnson F, Leckner B. Composition of volatile gases
and thermochemical properties of wood for modeling of xed or uidized
beds. Energy Fuel 2001;15:148897.
[25] Ducrane ED, Dolignier JC, Marty E, Martin G, Delfosse L. Modelling of gaseous
pollutants emissions in circulating uidized bed combustion of municipal
refuse. Fuel 1998;77(13):1399410.
[26] Ragland KW, Arts DJ, Baker AJ. Properties of wood for combustion analysis.
Bioresour Technol 1901;37:1618.
[27] Turns SR. Introduction to combustion. 2nd ed. McGraw Hill; 2000.
[28] Altani CR, Wander PR, Barreto RM. Prediction of the working parameters of a
wood waste gasier through an equilibrium model. Energy Convers Manage
2003;44:276377.
[29] Petersen SB, Pedersen LTh, Henriksen U. Theoretical and experimental
investigation on heat transfer in xed char beds. In: Bridgewater AV,
Boocock DGB, editors. Developments in thermochemical biomass conversion,
vol. 1. Blackie Academic and Professional; 1997.
[30] Reid RC, Prausnitz JM, Poling BE. The properties of gases and liquids. Fourth
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Company; 1988.
[31] Perry RH, Green DW. Perrys chemical engineers handbook. Seventh ed. New
York: MGH; 1998.
[32] Vargaftik NB. Handbook of physical properties of liquids and
gases. NY: Hemisphere; 1975.
[33] Dogru M, Howarth CR, Akay G, Keskinler B, Malik AA. Gasication of hazelnut
shells in a downdraft gasier. Energy 2002;27:41527.
1396 A.Kr. Sharma / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 13861396