Darshit Upadhyay
In the present work, experiment and modeling work was carried out for different Equivalence Ratio (ER) to investigate the downdraft gasifier performance. A 10kWe atmospheric pressure downdraft gasifier was used for the experimentation purpose. Lignite and sawdust briquette (70:30, %wt.) were used as feedstock. Experiments were carried out with seven different ER (0.24 to 0.386). Fuel consumption, air consumption, and gas yield were calculated and found to be in the range of 0.54 kg h-1 to 11.1 kg h-1, 0.59 kg h-1 to 19.5 kg h-1 and 2.27 Nm3 kg-1 to 2.99 Nm3 kg-1, respectively. ER 0.386 was found optimum with respect to gasifier performance and emission. Lower Heating Value (LHV) and Cold Gas Efficiency were found to be 4.91 MJ Nm-3 and 80.03% respectively at optimum ER. Tar and PM were found in the range of 516 mg Nm-3 to 565.3 mg Nm-3 and 47.86 mg Nm-3 to 57.29 mg Nm-3 respectively for different ER. A thermo-equilibrium model was prepared to investigate the producer gas composition and LHV. Overall Root Mean Square Errors were found to be 2.69 and 2.58 when the results from the model were compared with the results of experiments and literature respectively.