Experimental study of wood downdraft gasification for an improved producer gas quality through an innovative two-stage air and premixed air/gas supply approach

This study conducted experiments on three different downdraft gasification approaches: single stage, conventional two-stage, and an innovative two-stage air and premixed air/gas supply approach. The innovative two-stage approach has two nozzle locations, one for air supply at combustion zone and the other located at the pyrolysis zone for supplying the premixed gas (air and producer gas). The producer gas is partially bypassed to mix with air and supplied to burn at the pyrolysis zone. The result shows that producer gas quality generated by the innovative two-stage approach improved as compared to conventional two-stage. The higher heating value (HHV) increased from 5.4 to 6.5 MJ/Nm(3). Tar content in producer gas reduced to less than 45 mg/Nm(3). With this approach, gas can be fed directly to an internal combustion engine. Furthermore, the gasification thermal efficiency also improved by approximately 14%. The approach gave double benefits on gas qualities and energy savings. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.