Applied Energy 88 (2011) 899908

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Downdraft gasication of pellets made of wood, palm-oil residues respective bagasse: Experimental study
Catharina Erlich , Torsten H. Fransson 1
Department of Energy Technology, School of Industrial Technology and Management (ITM), Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The downdraft gasication technology has an increased interest among researchers worldwide due to the possibility to produce mechanical and electrical power from biomass in small-scale to an affordable price. The research is generally focused on improvement of the performance and optimizing of a certain gasier, on testing different fuels, on increasing the user-friendliness of the gasier and on nding other uses for the product gas than in an IC-engine, for example liquid fuel production. The main objective with the gasication tests presented here is to further contribute in the eld by studying the impact of the char bed properties such as char bed porosity and pressure drop on the gasication performance as well as the impact of fuel particle size and composition on the gasication process in one and the same gasier. In addition, there is very little gasication data available in literature of before disregarded fuels such as sugar cane bagasse from sugar/alcohol production and empty fruit bunch (EFB) from the palm-oil production. By pelletizing these residues, it is possible to introduce them into downdraft gasication technology which has been done in this study. The results show that one and the same reactor can be used for a variety of fuels in pellet form, but at varying airfuel ratios, temperature levels, gas compositions and lower heating values. Gasication of wood pellets results in a richer producer gas while EFB pellets give a poorer one with higher contents of non-combustible compounds. In this gasication study, there is almost linear relation between the airfuel ratio and the cold-gas efciency for the studied fuels: Higher airfuel ratios result in better efciency. The pressure drop in the char bed is higher for more reactive fuels, which in turn is caused by low porosity char beds. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 21 September 2009 Received in revised form 30 July 2010 Accepted 26 August 2010 Available online 29 September 2010 Keywords: Downdraft gasication Pellets Agricultural residues Palm-oil Cane sugar Bagasse

1. Introduction Downdraft gasication of biomass connected to an IC-engine unit for power production has an increased interest worldwide during the past decade. Historically, the technology already was commercialized during World War II to provide the transportation sector in Europe, but the technology nowadays is considered for decentralized power plants, mostly in developing countries. In the 1980s, and beginning of 1990s some important projects on small-scale gasication were performed, both to evaluate the downdraft reactor technology [1] and the success factor of electrication programs in developing countries, which is the primary market for the technology [2,3]. The systems studied were all in high need of service and maintenance and the resulting success of a gasication-IC engine power plant program showed to be dependent on the motivation and education of operational staff.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 8 790 74 68; fax: +46 8 20 41 61.
E-mail addresses: erlich@energy.kth.se (C. Erlich), fransson@energy.kth.se (T.H. Fransson). 1 Tel.: +46 8 790 74 75; fax: +46 8 20 41 61. 0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.08.028

In India nowadays, rural electrication programs, with small-scale gasication technology, are growing in extension with aim to increase the energy services in the country. The most used reactor technology here is the open-top model because of the easy access to the reactor core and to manually feed the reactor [4]. The research in the downdraft gasication area has been intensied during the passed years in order to improve the performance, to test different fuels, to increase the user-friendliness and also to nd other uses for the gas than in an IC-engine, for example liquid fuel production. Most downdraft gasication studies include wood as fuel, for example, the inuence of pressure drop in the gasier system on the gas ow rate [4] and the increased hydrogen yield from air to steam gasication in comparison to pure air gasication [5]. The aim of the latter is to produce a synthesis gas for possible liquid fuel production. Several studies, both modelling and experimental include the effect of the equivalence ratio (or airfuel ratio) on the gas composition. Di Blasi [6] made a transient onedimensional model of an open-top gasier fuelled on wood chips and found relations for the effect of the airfuel ratio on the gas composition and char conversion. Sheth and Babu [7] used wood waste from carpentry in a downdraft gasier to determine the

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Nomenclature AF-ratio CGE ER LHV _ V air fuel ratio, m3 air/kg fuel cold-gas efciency, % equivalence ratio, lower heating value, MJ/m3 (gas) or MJ/kg (solid) n volumetric ow of gas, m3/s V volume, m3 _ m mass ow, kg/s P pressure, Pa L length of reactor bed, m U 1 qbed =qchar porosity of reactor bed, diameter, m equivalent diameter, m q density, kg/m3 l dynamic viscosity of gas, kg/(m s) gc = 1, kg m/(N s2) gravitational conversion factor G = qu supercial mass velocity of gas, kg/m2 s _ u = V/A supercial velocity of gas, m/s A cross sectional area of reactor, m2 D DE

dependency of the moisture content in fuel on the airfuel ratio and the impact of airfuel ratio on the reaction zone temperatures. Zainal et al. [8] performed a large series of experiments in a complete gasier-IC engine plant and reports the performance of the system for different airfuel ratios and different fuels used (wood chips, furniture wood and charcoal). For their specic gasier, the lower mass consumption resulted in overall better system efciency (15%). There are also research projects on different fuels in downdraft gasication. Dogru et al. [9] performed gasication tests with hazelnut shells. The study showed that optimal airfuel ratio is about 1.441.47 m3 /kg fuel; and the authors have here dened n the optimum as highest LHV-gas. Skoulou et al. [10] tested olive kernels and tree cuttings and compared the performance. They found that for both fuels the amount of H2 in the product gas increases with higher gasication temperature. Wander et al. [11] evaluated sawdust as fuel in a downdraft gasier with gas recirculation. The authors report operational problems due to the bed mechanics characteristics of sawdust, but concluded that gas recirculation improves the overall gasication performance. GarciaBacaicoa et al. [12] studied the gasication performance of high density polyethylene and wood mixtures and found that the gasication temperature increases with higher ratios of polyethylene in the wood feed. A recent and promising downdraft gasication installation is the Viking gasier, which can be operated unattended at a very low tar production ratio and high overall system efciency (25%) [13]. This plant is operated with wood chips as fuel, and has a high degree of automation and many heat transfer surfaces for energy recovery. The studies mentioned above are all important and contribute to increased knowledge in the gasication eld, as well as the development of different gasication systems for different fuels, with wood chips/blocks as the dominantly tested fuel. One aspect, which has not yet been reported in xed-bed gasication, is the impact of the char bed properties such as porosity and pressure drop on the overall gasication performance. Sharma [4] studied the impact of the pressure drop only on the gas ow rate. In addition, it is important to study the impact of fuel particle size and composition on the gasication process in one and the same gasier in order to draw conclusions regarding performance differences in between different fuels. Presently, no global conclusions can be drawn in between the gasication studies already performed by other researchers since each gasier setup differs from one another, as well as the experimental procedure and conditions. Another interesting contribution which neither has been reported is the analysis of before disregarded fuels such as sugar cane bagasse from sugar/alcohol production and empty fruit bunch (EFB) from the palm-oil production. By pelletizing these residues, it is possible to introduce them in xed-bed gasication.

Both these residues come in wet and bulky forms and would not be possible to use directly in xed-bed gasication. Bagasse is to a large extent utilized as fuel into the process connected cogeneration plant, but still many relatively new mills produce excess bagasse [14]. The residue EFB is presently not used as fuel in most of the palm-oil mills, both due to its bulky appearance and also due to that the palm-oil processing is not in need of this additional energy, since the heat and power need is provided by the two other residues coming from the process: bers and shells [15]. EFB is commonly used in the palm elds for nutrition without energy recovery [16]. There is however more EFB produced than the need of organic nutrient. Transforming these biomass resources in pellets would bring along several advantages, both for the industry and for the people living in villages nearby the mills [17]. One advantage would be, without reconstructing the mill, to enable discarded and/or excess residues for stand-alone power generation via small-scale gasication, either in the mill itself or in the nearby located villages. Yet, there is no pellet production in these industries but technical information on how to perform it has been reported [17]. Kjellstrm et al. [18] dened that one problem with downdraft gasication is the fuel inexibility, and another the need of active staff during operation of the gasier. Introducing pellets as fuel would enable a variety of fuels to be used in one and the same gasier, less need of service during operation is needed since a commercial automatic pellet feeder (for residential heaters) is not costly to introduce (about 300 Euro [19]). Since pellets have very high density, the common problem of bridging in the bed will be reduced, and thus manual dispersion of bed during operation will not be needed. By simplifying the feeding and remove maintenance need during operation, there is no reason to work with open parts in the gasier system, thus the health risks for the operators would signicantly become reduced. The main objective in this paper is, by utilizing a simple constructed pellet-red downdraft gasier of about 20 kWth, to compare gasication data for pellets of wood, bagasse respectively EFB. The pellets differ in chemical composition, but have similar form and densities. It is thus possible to judge gasication data dependence. The study also approaches the reactor bed dynamics and its impact on the gasication parameters. This study brings up many new issues in downdraft gasication of importance for the technology development:  Introduction of before discarded residues, due to the pellet form. EFB has not been reported in literature as fuel for downdraft gasication.  Comparison of several pellet sorts in one and the same gasier.  Comparison of typical gasication data for same shape, size and density fuels but of very different chemical composition and reactivity levels.

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 Investigation of the impact of the fuel bed ow mechanics on the overall gasication performance by introducing a pressure drop equation with inserted measured data, such as reactor bed porosity. The pressure drop data presented is of dimensional type (Pa per char bed length unit) and can thereby be generalized for choosing right size blower for gasication. 2. Experimental procedure 2.1. Raw material Pellets made of wood, sugar cane bagasse respective EFB were used in the experiments. The chemical composition and heating values of the raw materials are listed in Table 1. Here it is seen that wood has the highest LHV and lowest ash-content, while EFB has relatively much ash. In addition, EFB also has higher sulphur and chlorine contents which could cause corrosion in long-term operation. This issue is not considered in this study. The wood pellets used are commercially available in Sweden, while the pellets of bagasse and EFB were produced in Sweden solely for this gasication study from imported raw material of respective biomass type from Colombia [17]. The bagasse and EFB pellets were produced in a laboratory pellet mill (California CL3) with a capacity of maximum 20 kg/h from pulverized biomass of respective type [17]. The diameter of the die was 6 mm with an efcient press length of 36 mm. EFB pellets were also produced in 8 mm die with an efcient press length of 50 mm meanwhile no pellets from bagasse powder could be obtained for this diameter. The biomass powder was produced from raw material of each biomass type through both rapid granulation (coarse grinding) and hammer milling (ne grinding). In the hammer mill the sieve size was 1 mm. The EFB powder feed had 20 22% moisture content and the bagasse feed 1719% prior to pelletizing. The resulting pellets and their physical properties are presented in Table 2. For EFB, pellets of both 8 mm and 6 mm were evaluated in the gasication tests presented here while for wood and bagasse only 6 mm pellets were available. It is observed that all materials studied have high particle density, where EFB 6 mm is the denser material. The initial moisture contents differ somewhat in between the pellet sorts with wood pellets having the lowest moisture content. 2.2. Equipment Fig. 1 presents the downdraft gasier system used for the experiments. The reactor itself is built in sections to enable geoTable 1 Chemical composition and heating values of the biomass sorts used in the experiments with the uncertainty inserted. Composition Analysis method LECO-1 LECO-1 LECO-1 Calculated SS 18 71 71:1 SS 18 71 77:1 SS 18 71 54:1 SS-ISO 1928:1 SS-ISO 1928:1 Biomass sort Bagasse 48.2 2.9 6.1 0.5 0.3 0.1 44.3 1.1 0.1 0.03 0.007 0.05 0.01 19.26 0.39 17.93 0.36 EFB 47.2 2.8 6 0.5 0.6 0.2 38.2 7.9 0.4 0.12 0.01 0.46 0.1 19.35 0.39 18.05 0.36 Wood 50.4 3.0 5.9 0.5 <0.1 0.03 43.3 0.3 0.1 <0.01 0.002 <0.01 0.002 20.27 0.41 18.99 0.38

Table 2 Geometry, moisture content and densities of the pellets used in the experiments. Biomass pellet sort EFB (8 mm) Diameter (mm) Length (mm) Mass (g) Moisture content (%) (8 h, 105 C) Particle density (kg/ m3) Bulk density (kg/m3) 7.89 0.36 11.0 0.96 0.56 0.08 11.3% 1040 62 ca 580 EFB (6 mm) 6.05 0.09 12.0 2.3 0.40 0.11 11.0% 1152 154 ca 630 Bagasse (6 mm) 6.16 0.1 11.7 2.6 0.37 0.1 9.7% 1049 143 ca 590 Wood (6 mm) 6.29 0.2 13.3 5.8 0.42 0.2 7.5% 1013 74 ca 600

C (wt.% dry) H2 (wt.% dry) N2 (wt.% dry) O2 (wt.% dry) Ash (wt.% dry) S (wt.% dry) Cl (wt.% dry) HHV (MJ/kg dry substance) LHV (MJ/kg dry substance)

metrical variations of the reaction zones. Each section has a diameter of 150 mm. In this study, only one reactor conguration is considered. The gasier works with suction from a frequency regulated centrifugal blower (max 0.25 kW), which enables air to enter the reactor through three diametrically adjustable air nozzles via an air ow meter. In this study, an equal position of the air nozzles was used in the experiments. The combustion zone is placed directly by the air intake. The gases are forced through a constriction (90 mm) to the char zone, where the gasication reactions take place. The constriction concentrates the high temperature and thus favours tar cracking. The reactor is covered with high temperature resistant insulation (Isofrax), to properly keep the heat inside the gasier. To enable high ash-content fuels to be utilized, the gasier has no grate to support the bed; this to avoid ash-sintering blockage and thereby obstruction for gases to pass. Instead the porous bed rests on the bottom of the gasier, the gases pass through this bed and turn direction via a 30 mm circumferential passage. Most of the dust created is carried out with the gas stream and trapped in the lters and thus the ash-lid was only opened in between the runs for ash-removal. Many gasiers reported in literature for example Garcia-Bacaicoa et al. [12], have grid/bed shaking devices to avoid bridging. The gasier used here is not equipped with such a device since pellets have much higher density than the commonly used wood chips and thus better bed dynamics can be achieved. The gas is cleaned in three steps, one cyclone and two packed bed lters, before passing the blower and ared off. Passing through the cleaning steps, the gas is also cooled to avoid temperature related problems in the blower. A small gas stream after the blower is brought via a small clean-up unit to a gas chromatograph (Varian 4900 Micro GC) for gas composition analysis. The gases included in the analysis are N2, CO2, CO, H2 and CH4. Oxygen is also possible to be indicated and this is used during the security check before each run. The temperature distribution in the reactor is measured by type N thermocouples. There are four thermocouples in central positions (Fig. 1) and two measuring wall temperatures. In the highest temperature region (T4 in Fig. 4) the measuring tolerance of the thermocouple is in the range of 10 C [20] but due to the process dynamics the temperature here uctuates heavily. The temperatures presented within this study are given as average or in intervals where the uctuation is large. Nitrogen gas is utilized both for security check before each run as well as for closing down the gasier.

2.3. Procedure For each pellet sort a primary char bed was rst created in the gasier in order to enable quick start in the subsequent gasication

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Biomass
Screwfeeder
Insulation

N2

Air Flare

Air flow meter

T2

GC

T3 T7

T4 T8 T10
Frequency regulator

Ash
T11

Fig. 1. The downdraft gasier system setup used in the experiments.

runs. No fuels have been mixed with one another and each run was done solely with one pellet sort and char of the same. When changing the fuel, the gasier was scraped inside and lter materials were changed. Before each run, both the char bed and fresh pellets were weighed carefully before added in the gasier. The char bed reached up to the constriction, while fresh pellets were added from air-inlets to the top of the gasier. All experiments started with a cold fuel bed, i.e. no external heating has been used. The different runs presented in this study have been performed with batch feeding in order to make a mass balance with higher precision. However, there is also a possibility to feed the gasier with a screw feeder from a pellet-storage at semi-continuous conditions. A mass balance in this case cannot be precise since some pellets always will stay inside the feeder screw. The adaption of the feeder for the different fuels is to be elaborated, since knowledge about the behaviour and consumption of each fuel is needed in order to set the proper feeding rate. The results of this adaption will be presented in a future study. For security reasons, the system was checked for being air-tight before each run. After this check and possible adjustments in system, the gasier could be started. Combustible gases could be seen in the are in less than a minute after start-up for some of the pellet sorts meanwhile other sorts had a longer run-up. During the run, temperature development inside the reactor was recorded, gas samples taken and air ow measured. The shut down was performed with N2 gas in order to quickly stop the thermo-chemical processes inside the gasier. Different aspects of gasication have been studied:  The composition and lower heating value of the product gas as function of temperature distribution in the gasier and pellet sort and size.  The impact of airfuel ratio (AF-ratio) and pellet sort and size on the gasier efciency.  The impact of pellet sort and size on mass consumption rate, volumetric gas production rate and equivalence ratio.  Impact of pellet sort and size on particle shrinking during gasication.  Density and porosity of the reactor char beds from the different pellets used.

 Calculation of pressure drop in respective char bed and its inuence on airfuel ratio and gasier cold-gas efciency depending on pellet sort used.  Investigation of pressure drop source. 2.4. Equations The equivalence ratio is calculated according to:

ER

AF-ratiomeasured AF-ratiostoichiometric

Cold-gas efciency is the ratio of energy in the product gas divided with the energy content in the pellets:

CGE

_ V gas LHVgas 100% _ mfuel LHVfuel

The dry gas ow was determined by a molar balance on nitrogen from knowledge of the nitrogen contents in the fuel, in the air ow and in the dry product gas. The pressure drop in the reactor is modelled utilizing Ergun equation [21]:

  dP G 1/ 3 dL qgas g c DE;char /   150 l 1 / 1:75 G DE;char

In order to solve Eq. (3) following assumptions have been made:  The supercial gas velocity is based on the dry volumetric gas ow corrected for the average temperature in the char bed (taken as T10, Fig. 1).  The density of gas has been assumed to be similar to that of air, and corrected for the average temperature in the char bed (taken as T10, Fig. 1).  The dynamic viscosity for gas has been assumed to be similar to that of air, and corrected for the average bed temperature in the char bed (taken as T10, Fig. 1).  The pressure drop calculation has only been applied in the reactor bed below the constriction.

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Since the char bed consists of cylindrical particles without special direction and not spherical particles from which Eq. (3) has been derived, an equivalent diameter has been introduced based on assumed particle volume equivalence between cylinder and sphere (Eq. (4)):

DE;char 2

r 3 3 V char 4p

3. Results and discussion All pellet sorts and sizes tested here functioned relatively satisfactory, though at different temperature levels and with different efciency. The start-up phase for the fuels was also affected by different fuels. Stable combustible gas production was achieved within 34 min after ignition for wood pellets, 57 min for bagasse; meanwhile the EFB pellets were more difcult in the start with slow temperature increase in the reactor and little gas production. The 6 mm EFB pellets did however react somewhat faster than the 8 mm sized, for which 15 min could pass from the point of ignition until stable combustible gas production was achieved. The following sections present the different gasication data and analysis of these. The impact of the bed dynamics on the gasication process is also reviewed and analysed in detail. 3.1. Impact of pellet sort and reactor temperature on the gas composition and lower heating value Table 3 presents the average gas composition and lower heating values (LHV) of the dry product gas of respective biomass type and pellet size. It is observed that wood as material produces the richest gas, while EFB produce the poorest gas, comparing the LHV of respective product gas. There is also a difference between pellet sizes: gas produced by EFB pellets with 8 mm has a slightly lower LHV than gas produced of the same material with smaller diameter

(6 mm). Regarding the difference in distribution of the gas components, gas of bagasse and wood shows similar composition with high levels of CO and CH4 and lower level of CO2 but also H2. Bagasse produces a gas with lower LHV than wood because of higher contents of the incombustible gases N2 and CO2. EFB pellets show even higher contents of N2 and CO2, but on the other hand more H2 is produced from these fuels. It is suggested that the gas composition is directly related to the reactivity of the biomass sorts, which in turn affects the temperature levels in the gasication reactor: A more reactive fuel gives higher temperature levels and a richer gas, meanwhile a less reactive fuel results in more N2 diluted product gas and lower temperature levels in the reactor. Fig. 2 illustrates the approximate vertical temperature distribution in the core of the reactor from air inlet down to lower part of the reactive char zone (temperatures T4-T10 in Fig. 1) after the gasication process was established for the different fuels for one run per fuel. Also the average gas composition for that temperature prole is shown. In Fig. 2 it is observed that the temperature prole seem to have a large impact on the gas composition. While the bagasse and wood temperature proles are relative similar, their respective gas composition also are relative close. The EFB pellets show different behaviour: Here the combustion zone cannot clearly be identied as one high temperature region. Instead the vertical temperature gradient is almost constant. The gas composition difference in between the fuels is suggested to be explained to a large extent by the homogeneous and reverse water gas shift reaction, which is commonly used in gasication modelling [6]:

CO H2 O $ CO2 H2
This reaction contains the important elements in the product gas, and can be used for a simplied prediction of the gas composition in different types of gasication models. The concentration of each compound in the product gas can be calculated from the knowledge about the equilibrium constant according to Eq. (5) [21]:

Table 3 Average composition and lower heating value of product gas with respective root mean square distribution. Pellet sort and diameter Volumetric gas composition (%) on dry gas N2 Bagasse, 6 mm Wood, 6 mm EFB, 6 mm EFB, 8 mm 52.6 0.9 50.4 1.7 53.3 2.2 55.0 1.0 CO 23.3 1.2 25.7 1.7 17.0 0.9 17.4 1.5 H2 9.9 0.6 11.9 1.1 13.5 0.8 12.9 0.3 CH4 2.8 0.3 2.6 0.2 1.9 0.4 1.5 0.2 CO2 11.4 0.9 9.9 1.0 14.5 1.2 13.7 0.6 Energy content LHV (MJ/m3 dry gas) n 5.0 0.1 5.4 0.3 4.3 0.2 4.1 0.2

Fig. 2. Typical vertical gasier temperature proles for the different fuels and respective dry gas composition.

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CO2 H2 CO H2 O

At about 800 C, K = 1, [21], and the compounds are at equimolar concentrations. In Fig. 2 it is observed that for gasication of 6 mm EFB pellets, this temperature is reached close to the air-inlets and thereafter the temperature drops. By simultaneously studying the concentrations of CO, CO2 and H2, it is seen that these are in the same order of magnitude and relatively close to an equimolar state. For higher temperatures, K < 1, and the reaction is dominant in the reverse direction [21] i.e. more CO and H2O is produced than CO2 and H2. In Fig. 2, gasication of 8 mm EFB pellets causes somewhat higher vertical temperature levels than the 6 mm ones, and following the theory of the water gas shift reaction, it is also seen that the CO level increases, while both CO2 and H2 decrease in concentration in the product gas. The exemplied bagasse gasication takes place in a higher temperature window than EFB resulting in further increase in CO and decrease in both CO2 and H2 contents in the product gas. Completing with wood, the theory of the water gas shift reaction almost match here as well, with further increase in CO and even less CO2 in the product gas than bagasse. However, though gasication of wood takes place at higher temperature levels in the char zone than bagasse, slightly higher content of H2 is found in the product gas than for bagasse, which does not match the gas shift reaction theory. On the other hand, bagasse reaches higher temperature in the combustion zone in the two compared runs in between wood and bagasse, and this may have an effect on the H2 content. As an approximation, the experimental results presented here suggest that the water gas shift reaction can be used to predict the gas composition in a downdraft gasier, but needs to be accompanied with models for the expected gasication temperature of a certain fuel, where the fuel reactivity for both combustion and gasication plays an important role. For more precise predictions of the gas composition, other reactions should as well be incorporated in such a model. 3.2. Impact of the AF-ratio and pellet sort on the cold-gas efciency, fuel consumption-and gas production rates The impact of AF-ratio, pellet sort and size on the cold-gas efciency, CGE, is shown in Fig. 3. It is observed that the gasier efciency for one and the same fuel sort has an almost linear dependence on the AF-ratio in the studied interval. The impact of the AF-ratio on the gas composition has been studied previously
80 75 70 65

for example by Di Blasi [6], Zainal et al. [8], Dogru et al. [9] and Garcia-Bacaicoa et al. [12]. All these studies show that the LHV for the gas is lower with a higher AF-ratio for but none of these studies have compared this result to the CGE. Pellets of wood reach the highest efciency, and comparison with Table 3 shows that wood pellets also gives the richest gas. Bagasse pellets of same size has lower efciency than wood, both dependent on the LHV but mainly due to somewhat lower AF-ratio and thus lower gas ow (Table 4). The impact of AF-ratio on the efciency for EFB as fuel seems independent on the pellet size, since the trend lines for respectively 6 mm and 8 mm pellets would coincide to a longer straight line. However, as indicated in Fig. 3, the pellet size itself has an impact on the airfuel ratio. For same load series on the blower for 6 mm EFB pellets as for 8 mm EFB pellets, more air per kg fuel is drawn into the gasier for the larger size pellets. The volume ow of gas per kg fuel spent increases, while Table 3 shows only a small impact on the LHV, and thus the gasier works more efcient on the larger size pellets than on the smaller size ones. The low efcient run (38%) on 6 mm EFB pellets was the rst gasication test after char-coal production of this pellet sort, and part of the char bed contained fresh pellets. The higher efcient run on wood pellets (CGE = 75%) took place before the air ow meter was introduced in the setup (thus lower overall pressure drop). The AF-ratio was for this set of runs extrapolated, via nitrogen molar balance, from ow data obtained after the introduction and the N2 content of the gas measured. The reliability of this method is good, since measured data has been the base for the extrapolation. The result is as well logical since the high efcient run both had higher mass conversion rate and better LHV (both measured) than the other runs on wood. With regards to the results Fig. 3, the increment of CGE with increased AF-ratio has certainly an upper limit. Much higher AF-ratios than studied here would result in a decrease in CGE since the process in this case will approach combustion. It can be concluded that the increase in gas ow obtained with the higher AF-ratio is stronger than the effect on the gas composition (and thus the LHV for the gas) in the studied gasier load interval. One explanation suggests that higher AF-ratio leads to higher gasication temperature and thus better fuel conversion which is conrmed in Fig. 4, where the average temperature of gasication (T8 in Fig. 1) is presented as function of AF-ratio for wood and bagasse. EFB pellets cannot be represented by temperature T8 solely since this fuel do not establish specic reaction zones in the reactor (as seen in Fig. 2) and has therefore not been introduced in Fig. 4.

CGE (%)

60 55 50 45 40 35 30 0,80 1,00 1,20 1,40 1,60 1,80

Wood, 6 mm Bagasse, 6 mm EFB, 6 mm EFB, 8 mm Wood, 6mm *

2,00

AF-ratio (m3/kg)

Fig. 3. Gasier efciency as function of airfuel ratio for the different pellets used in the experiments.

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Fig. 4. Gasication temperature T8 (below constriction) as function of AF-ratio for bagasse and wood pellets.

Table 4 Various performance data of the gasier in the studied load interval. Biomass and pellet diameter Wood, 6 mm Bagasse, 6 mm EFB, 6 mm EFB, 8 mm
a

3.3. Reactor bed characteristics

ER ()

Fuel consumption (kg/h) 2.73.2 2.73.5 2.43.3 2.02.7

Dry gas production (m3 /h) n 5.26.8 4.86.1 5.06.2 5.05.6

Dry gasfuel ratio (m3 /kg) n 2.02.1 1.61.8 1.82.1 2.12.5

0.28 0.30 0.27 0.30 0.23a 0.37 0.34 0.43

ER = 0.23, partly fresh pellets in the char bed.

Table 4 presents complementary data for the performance of the gasier in the studied load interval of the blower (all data after introduction of the air ow meter). It is observed that independently of the composition of the pellets, the fuel mass consumption per hour is similar between the different pellets of same size. This might be caused by the size of the blower and the bed mechanics; see Section 3.3. EFB pellets of diameter 8 mm seem to cause both less fuel consumption per hour and higher equivalence ratio than the same material pellets of smaller size (6 mm). The result regarding fuel consumption is logical, since Erlich et al. [22] reported that larger size pellets take longer time to gasify than smaller size of the same material. The higher AF-ratio is also logical since it is rather a result of the bed dynamics (see Section 3.3). Larger pellets give according to Eq. (3) lower pressure drop in the gasier, and thus the blower is able to draw more air into the reactor. In this study it seems thus that the composition of the fuel is of less importance for the mass consumption rate and the particle size is of larger importance for a certain gasier and blower capacity. In general, gasication is able to take place in an ER-interval of 0.20.45 [1]. Comparing Fig. 3 and Table 4 it is observed that 8 mm EFB pellets gasify on almost maximum ER, why it is suggested that CGE = 63% (Fig. 3) is the highest possible efciency for this fuel. For the smaller size pellets, there is still a margin in ER, why an increase in airfuel ratio would, according to Fig. 3, lead to higher efciencies. In practice, a larger blower would accommodate this.

During the gasication tests with the different pellets, bridging was not a large problem. The fuel bed moved downwards thoughout the runtime. In early tests, a constriction of 60 mm in diameter was evaluated, but this diameter was shown to be too small for proper movement of char pellets down in the gasication zone from the air intake. Therefore, a constriction of 90 mm was introduced. The gas ow conditions, however, seem to differ in between the fuels. While EFB (both pellet sizes) produced a steady gas ow throughout the run (observed both on the are and on the air ow), both bagasse and wood behaved differently. These fuels started with a higher ow (a wider are, high air ow), but when steady temperatures were reached in the gasier the gas ow had decreased and the air ow was steady at a lower pace than in the start phase. It is therefore of importance to study the impact of the reactor bed characteristics on the gasication parameters to get information on why pellets of same size but different composition physically behave different in gasication. Investigation of the char particles and the char bed is presented in Table 5. The average ratios of char particle and initial pellet diameter (d/d0), volume (V/V0), respective density (q/q0) are shown. The ratios have been determined from 100 randomly selected char particles in the bed after one run of that pellet sort and size and thereafter compared with the initial pellet measures according to Table 2. Table 5 also presents the density of the porous bed (qbed) as average from all runs of that fuel and average char bed porosity (U). In Table 5, no deviations for diameter-, volume and density ratios are brought up, since the char particles are at different stages

Table 5 Charbed properties which include particle shrinkage, bed density and porosity. Biomass and pellet diameter Char particle/pellet ratios d/d0 (%) Wood, 6 mm Bagasse, 6 mm EFB, 6 mm EFB, 8 mm 75 80 78 74 V/V0 (%) 47 46 44 42 Char bed properties (below constriction)

qchar/q0
(%) 55 47 54 57

qbed (kg/
m3) 354 21 307 35 334 13 333 12

U ()
0.37 0.04 0.38 0.05 0.47 0.02 0.44 0.02

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C. Erlich, T.H. Fransson / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 899908

of gasication. The average values are however of importance for calculation of both the average bed porosity and the pressure drop to make comparisons in between the fuels. Comparing the shrinking behaviour of each pellet sort, there is not a large difference in between the different fuels. With respect to change in diameter and volume, the average values of 100 char particles for each pellet sort are similar independently of the fuel composition. This is also conrmed by Erlich et al. [22], where it was shown that the volume decrease during the gasication step was more dependent on the pellet size than on the composition, with very small differences between 8 mm and 6 mm pellets. Bagasse pellets seem to have lost somewhat more mass than wood and EFB, which may be explained by a difference in volatile content. From packed-bed behaviour viewpoint, it is observed that the porosity for char beds for EFB as fuel is higher than the char beds from that of both bagasse and wood. It means that both bagasse and wood cause a denser char bed. This also affects the pressure drop in the char bed, shown in Fig. 5 (calculated according to Eq. (3)). The trend for both bagasse and wood as fuel is that the runs with lower pressure drop results in higher cold-gas efciency, CGE. In the case of EFB as fuel, the pressure drop in the char bed

is that low so it does not seem to have an impact on the CGE. There is rather a slightly opposite effect: the higher pressure drop the higher efciency is reached. This could be explained by the lower reactivity of EFB: higher pressure drops means longer residence time for air and gases in the bed, and thus better char conversion. The pressure drop built up in the char bed also affects how much air that is brought into the gasier. Fig. 6 shows the AF-ratio as function of the pressure drop (Pa/m) in the char bed for the different pellets. It is observed that for EFB as fuel, the pressure drop is almost constant for all AF-ratios reached. However, for the more reactive bagasse and wood, the trend seems to be that the lower the pressure drop, the higher the AF-ratio which can be reached. Both Figs. 5 and 6 explain why the observed ow decreases to a lower steady state level for wood and bagasse, while EFB has continuously the same ow as from start-up. The parameter in Eq. (3), which affects most on the pressure drop, seems to be the porosity as illustrated in Fig. 7. It is observed the highest pressure drops are caused by the denser beds, and it is seen that only wood and bagasse contribute to lower porosity. This indicates that the high temperature achieved in the combustion zone affects the whole bed dynamics in the

80 75 70 65

CGE (%)

60 55 50 45 40 35 30 0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40

Charbed bagasse, 6mm Charbed EFB, 6mm Charbed EFB, 8mm Charbed wood, 6 mm

0,50

0,60

0,70

Pressure drop in charbed (kPa)

Fig. 5. Cold-gas efciency as function of the pressure drop in the char bed for the different pellets used in the experiments.

1,80 1,70 1,60

AF-ratio (m3/kg)

1,50 1,40 1,30 1,20 1,10

Charbed bagasse, 6mm

1,00 0,90 0,80 0 500 1000 1500

Charbed EFB, 6mm Charbed EFB, 8mm Charbed Wood, 6mm

2000

2500

Pressure drop per length unit of charbed (Pa/m)

Fig. 6. AF-ratio as function of the pressure drop in the char bed per length unit for the different pellets used in the experiments.

C. Erlich, T.H. Fransson / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 899908

907

0,60
Charbed bagasse, 6mm

0,55

Charbed EFB, 6mm Charbed EFB, 8mm

Char bed porosity (-)

0,50 0,45 0,40 0,35 0,30 0,25 0,20 0,00

Charbed wood, 6mm

0,10

0,20

0,30

0,40

0,50

0,60

0,70

Pressure drop in char bed (kPa)

Fig. 7. Bed porosity as function of the pressure drop in char bed (kPa).

reactor. Possibly more dust is created by the higher temperature levels, thus causing the relatively heavier beds for wood and bagasse. This possibility was also evaluated and the porosity as function of mass% of dust in char bed is shown in Fig. 8. The separation of dust was done by gently shaking the char in a sieve and thereafter weighing the mass left in the sieve. By this treatment possibly additional particles were removed since the chars are more abrasive than non-reacted pellets, why the mass of dust not is representative as the amount of nes in the bed voids. Fig. 8 shows, however, that the mass of dust that was separated (in the studied range) is not affecting the bed porosity in a negative manner, i.e. causing a higher pressure drop and thereby a lower AF-ratio. Fig. 8 shows instead that char from EFB as fuel seems more dusty than the char of both bagasse and wood, which may be caused by the higher ash-content (compare Table 1). One option which still exists to explain the denser beds created by wood and bagasse pellets gasication goes back to the high temperature in the combustion zone. The higher temperature in the combustion zone is created by more intensive reactions and thus results in higher volume ow/speed of gas from wood and bagasse pellets in comparison to EFB pellets. The ow carries down char pellets from above in a faster rate and thus the bed below becomes more packed for wood and bagasse than for EFB. Again, a larger blower would probably compensate better for this pressure drop.

4. Conclusions  One and the same reactor can be utilized for a variety of fuels in pellet form, but at varying airfuel ratios, temperature levels, gas compositions and lower heating values.  The mass consumption rate in a gasier with a certain geometry seems to be a function of pellet geometry and not of the chemical composition, with similar rate for all pellets of same size, but smaller rate for one size larger pellet of same material.  Similarly, the equivalence ratio seems to be in the same order of magnitude for the same size pellets in the same reactor geometry, but higher for the one size larger pellets. This result may rather an effect of the bed characteristics and ow conditions.  The water gas shift reaction seems to relatively well approximate gas composition modelling but needs to be accompanied with a proper prediction of the temperature evolution for a certain fuel during gasication, which in turn depends on the fuel reactivity.  For gasication of pellets in the studied load interval there seem to be an almost linear relation between airfuel ratio and coldgas efciency: The higher the airfuel ratio, the higher is the efciency.  All pellet sorts show similar shrinking characteristics on individual pellets, however, different bed dynamics. Higher reactive pellets create denser char beds.  The char bed porosity is the dominating factor in pressure drop estimation.  The amount of dust collected in respective char bed did not affect negatively on the pressure drop. Acknowledgements The nancial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is greatly appreciated. The study presented here is part of the Sida Project SWE-2005-386. Many thanks to all of the M.Sc. and B.Sc. Thesis students that in several ways have contributed in the work with the gasier: Maximilian Bernitz from Germany, Karl Folkerman, Johan Dillman and Johan Karln from Sweden, Charles Arquin from France and Christoph Zindel from Switzerland. The PhD student Nur Farizan is acknowledged for assisting in some of the experiments. Also many thanks to Stellan Hedberg for system construction assistance. Finally, Markus Almroth at Almroth Motorteknik AB (www.gengas.nu), is acknowledged for all discussions in the reactor design, and for the nal reactor construction.

0,60 0,55 0,50

Porosity

0,45 0,40 0,35 0,30 0,25 0,20 0 5 10 15

Char bagasse 6mm Char, EFB 6mm Char EFB, 8 mm Char wood, 6mm

mass % of dust in the char bed

Fig. 8. Porosity of char bed as function of the mass% of dust separated from the char.

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C. Erlich, T.H. Fransson / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 899908 [13] Henriksen U, Ahrenfeldt J, Gbel B, Hindsgaul C, Jensen TK. The viking gasier. Oral presentation, IEA meeting May 2003 in London. <http://bgg.mek.dtu.dk/ publications/>; 2003. [14] Wolde-Ghiorgis W. Cogeneration for Africa country study: Ethiopia. AFREPREN-UNEP, <http://cogen.unep.org>; September 2005 [accessed 08.07]. [15] Husain Z, Zainal ZA, Abdullah MZ. Analysis of biomass-residue-based cogeneration system in palm oil mills. Biomass Bioenergy 2003;24:11724. [16] Yusoff S. Renewable energy from palm oil innovation on effective utilization of waste. J Clean Product 2006;14:8793. [17] Erlich C. Comparative study of residue pellets from cane sugar and palm-oil industries with commercial wood pellets, applied in downdraft gasication. Doctoral Thesis, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. ISBN: 97891-7415-455-9; 2009. [18] Kjellstrm B., Arvidsson A., Forslund H. and Martinac I. Renewable energy technologies for decentralised rural electricity services. SEI climate and energy programme, Swedish Environment Institute (SEI), Stockholm, Sweden; 2005. [19] VVS on net, <http://www.vvsonnet.se/matarskruv-till-viking-bio-p-6891. html>; 2009. [20] Omega Engineering Inc. Thermocouple tolerances, <http://www.omega.com>; 2009. [21] Fogler S. Elements of chemical reaction engineering, 2nd ed. Prentice-Hall; 1992. ISBN 0-13-263534-8. [22] Erlich C, Bjrnbom E, Bolado D, Giner M, Fransson TH. Pyrolysis and gasication of pellets from sugar cane bagasse and wood. Fuel 2006;85:153540.

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