Co-gasification of Cassava Rhizome and Woody Biomass in the 1 MW_el Prototype Dual Fluidised Bed Gasifier by Gussing Renewable Energy

Abstract

In the current research, the effect of the mixture ratio by weight of wood chips to cassava rhizome (100%:0%, 75%:25%, and 50%:50%) was investigated on the properties of the product gas produced from the Dual Fluidised Bed gasifier power plant. The DFB gasifier power plant is located in Nongbua district, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand. The results from this study show that the use of 100% wood chips as a fuel generates high quality product gas as designed. The mixture of wood chips and cassava rhizome in the weight ratio of 75%:25% and 50%:50% also gives satisfactory results: steady operation conditions of the whole power plant process, good quality and quantity of product gas, however, the tar content in the product gas was slightly higher than that of using wood chips alone. The researchers found that cassava rhizome can be used as a fuel mixture together with wood chips in the current DFB gasifier at site to generate heat and electricity. The outcome of this research will create the use of waste cassava rhizome, enormously available around the power plant, as well as the broad application of gasification technology using various biomass feedstock types available in Thailand.

Influence of bed materials on the performance of the Nong Bua dual fluidized bed gasification power plant in Thailand

“…After this, the evaporate bottle was put in an oven at 105 C for drying before weighing. Further detail is described by Hongrapipat et al [46].…”

“…Biomass feedstock is fed into the gasifier via a fuel handling system. Then the produced product gas from the gasifier flows into two product gas coolers, a product gas bag filter and a scrubber before entering the gas engine for further electricity and heat production [46]. The first product gas cooler reduces the product gas temperature from about 820 C to 280 C.…”

“…The scrubber completely removes all heavy tars and particulates from the product gas using biodiesel, which is rapeseed methyl ester (RME). The product gas temperature is also reduced by the scrubber from 200-220 C to approximately 40 C and compressed to 300 mbar as required for the gas engine [46]. The saturated biodiesel flows into the scrubber basin, where the used biodiesel and water are separated.…”

“…For the flue gas, which is generated from the combustor, its sensible heat is used to superheat the steam and preheat air for the gasifier and combustor, respectively. The flue gas then flows to the flue gas cooler, which reduces the temperature of the flue gas to approximately 160-170 C, before flowing into the flue gas filter and stack, sequentially [46]. The fly ash is collected from the flue gas bag filter for further use in other industries.…”

“…The fly ash is collected from the flue gas bag filter for further use in other industries. Thailand [46].…”