Abstract:
The use of biomass gasification for conversion of hydrocarbons
to permanent fuel gas mainly composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, dates
back to late 1700. However, the successful design and operation of gasifiers
is not an easy task. No clear cut methods of performance prediction of gasifiers
is yet available as the thermodynamics of gasifier operation is less understood
and highly dependent on the specific biomass feedstock used. In this study,
the performance study of downdraft gasification of oil-palm fronds, is carried
out making use of ASPEN PLUS 0process simulator software, to study the effect
of operating conditions (zone temperature, operating pressure, air fuel ratio
and moisture content) on syngas composition. In this study, the pyrolysis yield
is calculated from the ultimate analysis (CHNS test) values of the oil-palm
fronds, rather than approximating typical yield distribution for pyrolysis products.
The results of the simulation showed better agreement with the syngas composition
results of other authors. From the simulation study it is shown that higher
mass fraction of CO and CH4 can be obtained at lower air-fuel ratio
and lower pressure (below 5 bars). The mass fraction of CO increases sharply
with increase in the oxidation zone temperature, for the temperature range of
500-700°C.
Samson Mekbib Atnaw, Shaharin Anwar Sulaiman and Suzana Yusup, 2011. A Simulation Study of Downdraft Gasification of Oil-Palm Fronds using ASPEN PLUS. Journal of Applied Sciences, 11: 1913-1920.
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