Biomass Gasification in a Pilot-Scale Gasifier

A study of the gasification of corn kernels has been performed on an experimental, pilot-scale (50-100 lbs/hour) gasification unit. Analysis was made on the performance of the gasifier in terms of producer gas generation and composition, char production and process mass balance. In these experiments corn kernels was used so that the shapes and sized of the materials did not influence the results. Experiments were conducted with varying temperature of fuel bed. For each experimental condition, the permanent gas composition was measured continuously by gas chromatography (GC). Tar was collected according to CEN Standard. Bio-char were weighted for mass balance. The results from the study indicate that there were differences between various operational parameters in terms of producer gas concentration and char percentage.