The updraft gasifier is a simple type of reactor for the gasification of biomass that is easy to operate and has high conversion efficiency, although it produces high levels of tar. This study attempts to observe the performance of a modified updraft gasifier. A modified updraft gasifier that recirculates the pyrolysis gases from drying zone back to the combustion zone and gas outlet at reduction zone was used. In this study, the level of pyrolysis gases that returned to the combustion zone was varied, and as well as measurements of gas composition, lower heating value and tar content. The results showed that an increase in the amount of pyrolysis gases that returned to the combustion zone resulted in a decrease in the amount of tar produced. An increase in the amount of recirculated gases tended to increase the concentrations of H2and CH4and reduce the concentration of CO with the primary (gasification) air flow held constant. Increasing the primary air flow tended to increase the amount of CO and decrease the amount of H2. The maximum of lower heating value was 4.9 MJ/m3.

The solid fuel must be converted to gas fuel or liquid fuel for application to internal combustion engine or gas turbine. Gasification is a technology to convert solid fuel into combustible gas. Gasification system generally consists of a gasifier, cyclone, spray tower and filter. This study is purposed to design, construction, and experiment of gasification system. The imbert downdraft gasifier was designed with 42 kg/h for the maximum capacity of fuel consumption, 90 cm for height, 26.8 cm for main diameter and 12 cm for throat diameter. The gasifier was constructed from stainless steel material of SUS 304. Biomass and low rank coal from South Sumatera, Indonesia was used as fuel. The result of the experiment showed that combustible gas was produced after 15 minutes operation in average. The air fuel ratio of low rank coal was 1.7 which was higher than biomass (1.1). Combustible gas stopped producing when the fuel went down below the throat of gasifier.

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Leaf waste has the potential to be converted into energy because of its high availability both in the world and Indonesia. Gasification is a conversion technology that can be used to convert leaves into producer gas. This gas can be used for various applications, one of which is using it as fuel for gas turbines, including ultra-micro gas ones, which are among the most popular micro generators of electric power at the time. To minimize the risk of failure in the experiment and cost, simulation is used. To simulate the performance of gas turbines, the thermodynamic analysis tool called Cycle-Tempo is used. In this study, Cycle-Tempo was used for the zero-dimensional thermodynamic simulation of an ultra-micro gas turbine operated using producer gas as fuel. Our research contributions are the simulation of an ultra-micro gas turbine at a lower power output of about 1 kWe and the use of producer gas from leaf waste gasification as fuel in a gas turbine. The aim of the simulation is to determine the influence of air-fuel ratio on compressor power, turbine power, generator power, thermal efficiency, turbine inlet temperature and turbine outlet temperature. The simulation was carried out on condition that the fuel flow rate of 0.005 kg/s is constant, the maximum air flow rate is 0.02705 kg/s, and the air-fuel ratio is in the range of 1.55 to 5.41. The leaf waste gasification was simulated before, by using an equilibrium constant to get the composition of producer gas. The producer gas that was used as fuel had the following molar fractions: about 22.62% of CO, 18.98% of H2, 3.28% of CH4, 10.67% of CO2 and 44.4% of N2. The simulation results show that an increase in air-fuel ratio resulted in turbine power increase from 1.23 kW to 1.94 kW. The generator power, thermal efficiency, turbine inlet temperature and turbine outlet temperature decreased respectively from 0.89 kWe to 0.77 kWe; 3.17% to 2.76%; 782 °C to 379 °C and 705°C to 304 °C. The maximums of the generator power and thermal efficiency of 0.89 kWe and 3.17%, respectively, were obtained at the 1.55 air-fuel ratio. The generator power and thermal efficiency are 0.8 kWe and 2.88%, respectively, with the 4.64 air-fuel ratio or 200% excess air. The result of the simulation matches that of the experiment described in the literature.