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Advances in Fluid Mechanics and Heat & Mass Transfer

The effect of excess air ratio on syngas produced by gasification of


agricultural residues briquettes
DANIELA TASMA, KRISZTINA UZUNEANU, TNASE PANAIT
Thermal Systems and Environmental Engineering Department
Dunrea de Jos University of Galati
47 Domneasca St., 800008, Galati
ROMANIA
dtasma@ugal.ro, kuzuneanu@ugal.ro, tpanait@ugal.ro
Abstract: - In this paper were investigated the effects of the excess air ratio on the syngas obtained by
gasification of agricultural residues briquettes. The syngas composition and syngas heating value are strongly
influenced by the excess air ratio. The results indicate that the concentrations of H2 and CO decrease
with the increase in excess air ratio, while the concentrations of N2, CO2 and CH4 increase. At a lower
excess air ratio, a syngas with a high heating value was obtained. The optimum excess air ratio for gasification
of briquettes made from agricultural residues was evaluated to be an approximately 0.170.20.
Key-Words: - gasification, syngas, excess air ratio, agricultural residues
concentration of H2 and CO in the gas produced.
Doherty [3] observed that H2 and CO reach a
maximum concentration at an excess air ratio of
0.35, and syngas heating value decreases with
increasing excess air ratio.
With an increase of the excess air ratio from 0.19
to 0.27, Lv [5] observed that hydrogen content
varied little while the lower heating value first
increased and then decreased. The optimal value of
the excess air ratio was found to be 0.23.
On increasing the excess air ratio from 0.20 to
0.45, Narvaez [4] found that the heating value of the
syngas decreases, the gas yield increases and the
amount of syngas (H2, CO, CH4, and C2H2)
decreases.
In this paper is presented the effect of excess air
ratio on the syngas composition resulted from the
gasification of the briquettes made from agricultural
residues. Agricultural residues have acquired
considerable importance as biofuels for domestic
cooking, industrial process heating, electrical power
generation, and are used directly as well as in
briquetted form for a variety of energy end uses [6].

1 Introduction
Biomass, as a source of renewable energy which has
sustainable and mitigating global warming
characteristics is getting greater attention. The
thermochemical gasification is one of the effective
methods for obtaining energy from biomass [1].
Gasification of solid biomass converts it to gas
often referred to as producer gas or syngas which is
mainly composed of CO, CO2, CH4, H2 and N2 (if
the gasification agent is air). The useful gas or
combustible gas components are CO, CH4 and H2
[2].Stoichiometric combustion occurs when all the
carbon in the fuel is converted to CO2 and there is
no excess O2 left over. The basis of gasification is to
supply less oxidant than would be required for
stoichiometric combustion of a solid fuel. The
energy value of the useful gas is typically 75% of
the chemical heating value of the original solid fuel.
The syngas temperature will be substantially higher
than the original solid fuel due to the gasification
process [3].
The excess air ratio is one of the most important
operational variables in biomass gasification with
air. In practice, it defines the temperatures of the
bed and of the freeboard, the tar yield, and the
composition and calorific value of the fuel gas [4].
Wang [1] observed that an increase of the
gasification air ratio from 0.16 to 0.26 led to
increases of the higher heating value and of the

ISBN: 978-1-61804-114-2

The results indicate that the concentrations


of H2 and CO decrease with the increase in
excess air ratio, while the concentrations of N2,
CO2 and CH4 increase. The syngas composition
is found to be similar to those reported by other
researchers [7], [8], [9].

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Advances in Fluid Mechanics and Heat & Mass Transfer

The choice of gasifier type depends on the


type of fuel to be gasified and end use of the gas
produced. In a downdraft fixed bed gasifier
(Fig.1), the biomass is fed in from the top, the
gasifying agent is introduced at the sides above
the grate and the producer gas is withdrawn
under the grate Fixed bed reactors are relatively
simpler, reliable, amenable to gasify different
kinds of feedstock, other lower particulate
concentration in product gases, and can achieve
higher efficiencies than other reactors [12].

2 Experimental procedure
The biomass materials used in this experiment were
briquettes made from agricultural residues
(Table 1). The agent gasification used was air. All
experiments were carried out at ambient temperature
and at a pressure of 1 bar.
Table 1: Fuel properties
Fuel
sample

Reed
briquettes

Sawdust
briquettes

Ultimate analysis (% of dry fuel with ash)


C
52.4
53.3
H

5.91

6.28

Sawdust
50%+
corn stalk
50%
briquettes

Sawdust
50%+
wheat
straw 50%
briquettes

49.41

50.63

5.90

6.12

0.65

1.91

0.43

0.53

33.55

35.75

40.73

38.08

7.85

2.77

3.54

4.64

22.60

20.30

67.40

70.10

3.30

4.40

6.70

5.20

Proximate analysis (% of wet fuel)


Fixed
29
24.85
Carbon
Volatile
56.70
66.55
matter
Ash
7.30
2.60
Moisture

The excess air ratio is a measure of the air flow


rate. The excess air ratio is defined as the ratio of
the actual air to fuel ratio divided by the
stoichiometric air to fuel ratio required for complete
combustion [13]. In biomass gasification it varies
from 0.20 to 0.40 [4]. Air flow influences the syngas
in different ways. Air supplies the O2 for
combustion and effects the residence time. By
varying amount of the O2 supply, air flow rate
controls the degree of combustion wich in turn,
affects the gasification temperature. Higher airflow
rate results in higher temperature wich leads to
higher biomass conversion and a higher quality of
fuel. An excess degree of combustion results in
decreased energy content of the syngas produced
because a part of biomass energy is spent during
combustion [14].
In this paper, the lower heating value of the
syngas is reported as an indicator of the gasifier
efficiency. The LHV can be calculated from the
following equation:

The gasification process consists of drying,


pyrolysis or devolatilization, combustion or
oxidation and gasification or reduction [2].
These processes are largely dependent on the
parent biomass composition, moisture content,
local stoichiometry, reactivity of biomass, and
the gasifier design [10].

LHVg YCO LHVCO YH 2 LHVH 2 YCH 4 LHV CH 4

where Y is the mole fraction of each gas


species. The lower heating values of the gas
species are [15]:
LHVCO = 13.1 MJ/Nm3,
LHVH2 =11.2 MJ/Nm3,
LHVCH4 = 37.1 MJ/Nm3.

3 Results and discussion


To obtain the desired syngas composition and to
increase the energy conversion efficiency, the
gasification operating conditions must be optimized.
This section describes the effect of the excess air
ratio on the syngas composition produced by
gasification of briquettes made from agricultural
residues.

Fig. 1 - The downdraft fixed bed gasifier [11]

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Advances in Fluid Mechanics and Heat & Mass Transfer

Fig. 2: Effect of excess air ratio on the composition of syngas from different agricultural residues briquettes

on the LHV of the syngas produced is shown in

Fig. 2 depicts the syngas composition


resulting by gasification using air, a gasification
agent, as a function of the excess air ratio. The
increase in the excess air ratio means that the
feeding air increases, which will cause more
oxidations reactions, normally to increase the
CO2 and H2O concentrations at the expense of
CO and H2.
The excess air ratio for the gasification of
agricultural residues briquettes is found to be in
range 0.16 - 0.33.

Fig. 3. It is evident that the lower heating value

decreases with increasing of excess air ratio.


The LHV of the syngas ranges from 5.4
MJ/Nm3 to 8.5 MJ/Nm3. The value of LHV is
high for low excess air ratios, mainly due to the
high concentration of H2 and CO.

It has been found that the syngas composition for


sawdust briquettes with an excess air ratio of 0.21
was about 37.35%, 27.10%, 0.14%, 0.39%, 34.56%
for CO, H2, CH4, CO2, N2, respectively, in a
moisture free basis.
It can be observed that the molar fraction of CH4
is very low. This increases with the increase of the
excess air ratio. The concentrations of H2 and CO in
the syngas decrease with increase of excess air ratio.
The molar fraction of N2 increases linearly with the
excess air ratio.

Fig. 3 The variation of lower heating value of


syngas with the excess air ratio

The effect of the excess air ratio variations

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Advances in Fluid Mechanics and Heat & Mass Transfer

Fig. 4 presents the variation of the H2


concentration with the excess air ratio for all
agricultural residues briquettes used in the
gasification process. A large decrease in H2 at a
higher excess air ratio was obtained from the
oxidation of H2 at a higher excess air ratio.

The highest contents of the CO2 in the


syngas were obtained by gasification of
briquettes made from sawdust 50% + corn stalk
50%.
Fig. 6 shows the variation of the CO molar
fractions with excess air ratio. The increase in

Fig. 4: Variation of the molar fractions of H2 with


the excess air ratio

Fig. 6 - Variation of the molar fractions of CO with


the excess air ratio

The maximum concentration of H2 (30%)


was obtained by gasification of sawdust 50% +
wheat straw 50% briquettes at the minimum
excess air ratio (0.17).
The variation of the molar fractions of CO2
with excess air ratio is presented in Fig. 5. It can
be observed that the increase in excess air ratio
increases the CO2 content in the syngas.

excess air ratio decreases the CO content in the


syngas. The highest content of the CO in the
syngas was obtained by gasification of
briquettes made from sawdust 50% + corn stalk
50% at the minimum excess air ratio (0.17).
In Fig. 7 is presented the variation of CH4
with excess air ratio. The molar fraction of CH4
is very low and this increases with the increase
of the excess air ratio.

Fig. 5 - Variation of the molar fractions of CO2 with


the excess air ratio

Fig. 7 - Variation of the molar fractions of CH4 with


the excess air ratio

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Advances in Fluid Mechanics and Heat & Mass Transfer

The highest concentration of CH4 was obtained


for gasification of sawdust 50%+wheat straw
50% briquettes at an excess air ratio of 0.30.

[5] Lv, P.M., Xiong, Z.H., Chang, J., Wu, C.Z.,


Chen, Y., Zhu, J.X., An experimental study on
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[6] Kumar, A., Purohit, P., Rana, S., Kandpal,
T.C., An approach to the estimation of the
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195 203.
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4 Conclusion
Gasification was conducted in a temperature range
of 700900 C and excess air ratio of 0.16- 0.33 for
air as a gasification agent. The syngas was
composed mainly of CO, H2, CH4, CO2, H2O, and
N2, as in typical gasification process.

The syngas composition is strongly


influenced by the excess air ratio. As the excess
air ratio increased, the concentration of CO2
increased sharply, whereas the concentration of
H2 strongly decreased.

At a lower excess air ratio, a syngas with a high


heating value was obtained. At an excess air ratio of
0.16, a syngas with a LHV of 8.5 MJ/Nm3 was
obtained.
The optimum excess air ratio for gasification of
briquettes made from agricultural residues was
evaluated to be an approximately 0.170.20.

Acknowledgments
The work of this paper was supported by Project
SOP HRD EFICIENT 61445/2009.
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