Feasibility Study of Gasification Oil Palm Fronds in an Updraft Gasifier

An updraft fixed bed gasifier of capacity 60 kW was designed and fabricated in order to investigate the suitability of using oil palm fronds (OPF) as a feedstock to generate a combustible gas. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of air flow rate on the gasification behavior in terms of temperature profile in the reactor and flame temperature of the flared synthesis gas. The synthesis gas produced from this system was fired in three flare points to confirm its combustibility and flare temperature was measured. The results showed that synthesis gas started to be produced when the temperature of the oxidation zone reached 700 degrees C. However the gasification took place in a temperature range of 700 to 1007 degrees C, for different air flow rate (240 - 300 l/min). The results also showed that the fuel consumption rate varied between 9 and 14 kg/h for the same range of air flow rate.