Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
1995
Pergamon Copyrighk 1 ' 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd
0961-9534(94)00049-2 Printed in Greal Britain. All rights reserved
0961-9534195 $9.50 + 0.00
(Received 28 September 1992; reoised received I1 April 1994; accepred 2 May 1994)
Abstract-This study reports the development of a gasifier running on sugarcane leaves. A 15 kVA diesel
generator set was operated for over 200 h using this gasifier. The gas flow rate and calorific value were
3-4 Nm3 k w h - ' and 3.5-5.0 MJ Nm-', respectively. The cold gas efficiency was 3 5 4 0 % over the entire
range of loads tested (3.5-1 1.3 kW). The diesel saving (DS) was nearly independent of the load and was
70-93% at a pressure drop (AP) of 40 cm water gauge (WG); it reduced to 50-70% at AP > 50 cm WG.
The indicated thermal efficiency reduced from 18-29% at 3.5-11.3 kW loads, respectively, in the
-
diesel-alone mode, to 16-26% at the corresponding loads in the dual-fuel mode. About 15-28% by weight
of the fuel was converted into char with a calorific value of 19 MJ kg-'. This char, when mixed with
a suitable binder and briquetted, formed an excellent fuel for wood stoves. An economic analysis using
the Levelised Annual Cost (LAC) method showed that such gasifiers are more suited for direct heat
applications than for shaft power applications at the present level of technology.
Keywords-Gasification; sugarcane leaves; electricity generation; direct heat applications; loose leafy
biomass; char production.
2.2.2. Gas-conditioning unit. In gasification of suction through the system was then switched
agricultural residues, there are considerable on. A lighted ball of cloth/cotton was then
amounts of particulates, tars and other condens- dropped inside the reactor. The leaves ignited
ables associated with the gas (-7-15 g Nm-' of almost instantaneously. Continuous feeding of
gas produced7). If particulates are allowed to sugarcane leaves then commenced. Combustible
enter the engine, they cause increased wear and gas was formed within 3 min after ignition of the
tear of moving parts, gum up the inlet and outlet char-bed and was flared in a suitably designed
valves, increase the corrosion rate of different burner. ('I
:he details of the burner design, where
engine components, contaminate the lubricating ---- in excess of 1240°C were
flame tempcra~urcs
oil and, in general, are highly detrimental to the obtained, are given el~ewhere.~) The char re-
engine perforrnan~e.~.~ Thus, an effective gas- moval mechanism was activated after the bed
conditioning system is required to strip the gas height reached -60 cm above the grate. Sub-
of all these undesirable constituents. This was sequently, the char removal and biomass feed
accomplished by using the system shown in were continuous.
Fig. 1. It consists of a cyclone, an impact filter, During this time, the required electrical load
an indirect-contact heat exchanger, a centrifugal (between 3.5 and 11.3 kW) was provided to the
scrubber and a bubbling-cum-packed bed filter. generator (operating on diesel-alone mode)
An additional safety filter containing cotton and through the control panel. Gas supply to the
a stainless steel mesh (SS 200 mesh) as rec- generator was commenced only after ascertain-
ommended by Reed and Dass was also used to ing that combustible gas was being produced at
safeguard the engine. the burner. The blower was operated even
2.2.3. Diesel generator set. The generator set during the generator operation, thereby ensur-
has a direct-injected twin-cylinder diesel-pow- ing a constant gas flow rate even at higher loads
ered prime mover with a rating of 14 kW ( > 9 kW). The air-gas mixing was effected
(19 h.p.), and rotating at a constant speed of through a simple T-junction at the blower outlet
1500 r.p.m. This was connected to a 15 kVA before being admitted into the engine manifold
alternator with a power factor of 0.8 and which (dual-fuel mode). No other modifications were
generated electricity at 41 5 V/50 Hz a.c. The made to the engine.
maximum recommended continuous operating Process parameters like temperature, pressure
load was 10.2 kW. In spite of this, a few data drop, gas flow rate, current, voltage and diesel
points were generated at 1 1.3 kW load. consumption were measured every 15 min and
2.2.4. Instrumentation. Pressure drops at then averaged out over the entire duration of the
critical junctures in the system were measured e
using U-tube manometers. The reactor bed
temperatures were measured using a type K 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
(Chromel-Alumel) thermocouple. The gas flow
rates were measured to within + 3 Nm-3 h-' The diesel savings (DS), an important indi-
using pre-calibrated orifice meters. The calorific cator of the gasifier-generator system perform-
values of solid fuels were estimated using an ance, was defined as
Emerson non-adiabatic bomb calorimeter and
the moisture contents were obtained by oven-
drying samples to constant weight. The gas where SDC is the specific diesel consumption
calorific value was measured by a Junkers (g kwh-'). The subscripts df and d refer to
calorimeter. The electrical load on the generator dual-fuel and diesel-alone modes of operation,
was provided by a combination of lamps respectively.
(4.6 kW) and two electric heaters of 4 and 6 kW The system was operated for over 220 h.
capacities. An energy meter monitored the ac- Attempts were made to maximize D S and min-
tual load on the generator to within f0.5 kwh. imize the specific biomass consumption (SBC),
which is defined as kg of biomass consumed per
3. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS k w h output. Table 2 summarizes the data gen-
erated on the 15 kVA generator-gasifier system.
Both the gasifier and the generating set were Figure 2 shows the D S obtained at different
started simultaneously. A small amount of sug- loads. It is evident that an increased pressure
arcane leaves was first fed into the reactor. A drop of the system resulted in lower DS. Higher
0.75 kW (1 h.p.) electric blower used to provide pressure drops, usually a consequence of ac-
94 R. M. JORAPUR and A. K. RAJVANSHI
cumulation of contaminants in different com- Figure 3 shows the relationship between SBC
ponents of the gas conditioning system, imply and load. The trend towards declining SBC at
leaner gas to air mixtures (due to lower gas flow higher loads (3.5 kg k w h - ' at 3.5 kW and
rates) and hence result in lower DS. This 1.2 kg k w h - ' at 11.3 kW) is similar to that
phenomenon may be partially responsible for reported by others,12,"and clearly demonstrates
reported incidences of low DS especially at the need to operate the generator at near maxi-
higher mum load conditions. This finding is further
Further, DS is fairly independent of the corroborated from the plot of the indicated
load, and lies between 70 and 92% (for thermal efficiency (q,) of the prime mover vs
AP < 40 cm WG) throughout the range of loads load shown in Fig. 4. q, is defined as
tested (3.5-1 1.3 kW). This is primarily because
low pressure drops and adequate gas flow rates
even at higher loads were possible due to the
use of the blower even during the generator where CV, is the gas calorific value
operation. In fact, higher gas flow rates (kwh Nm-3), V, is the specific gas flow rate
(3.54Nm3 k w h - ' ) resulted in very high DS (Nm3kwh-'), CV, is the diesel calorific value
(> 85%). However, this was almost always ac- (kwh kg-'), and SDC, is the specific diesel
companied by severe "knocking" of the engine, consumption (kg kwh-').
especially at lower loads ( ( 7 kW), and hence it It is seen from Fig. 4 that q, increases with
was thought advisable to limit the gas flow rate, increasing load and reaches a maximum of 29%
and thus the DS, to 3 Nm3 kwh-' and 8&85%, at 10 kW. It is also evident that q, is lowered by
respectively. 3-5% when operating in the dual-fuel mode as
2 = 0.686
SBC = 5.32 - 0.68.load + 0.03.(load)'
. .
regression line
A A
4
.-e,
P 60 1.0 - A A
I
8 1 0.5 I I I I
50 2 4 6 8 10
6 8 10
Load (kW)
bad (kW)
rlg. 3. I ne specific biomass consumption (SBC) plotted
Fig. 2. 1 he d~eselsavlngs (DS) obtained at different operat- against the corresponding load. SBC = biomass consumed
ing loads on the diesel generating set (WG =water gauge). (kg, dry)/net electrical output (kwh).
Sugarcane leaf gasifier 95
mode
r2 = 0.69
q, = -3.05 + 4.851 (load)
-0.189 (load)'
IA I
Air
Riomass esel
Output 11 kW
*
65 kW 38.7 kW
Char
Dual fuel 5.21 kW
18.3 kW
Rs. 0.045 kwh-' for agriculture to appear to be well suited for direct heat appli-
Rs. 1.71 k w h - ' for industry"), this may cations such as in seed driers and agro-based
not be a feasible proposition. industries.
(c) One of the major findings of this analysis Thus, it is felt that with the associated uncer-
was the economic viability of gasifiers for tainties in the supplies and prices of crude oil,
direct heat applications such as in seed gasifiers utilising a variety of agricultural
driers and other agro-based industries residues (which are not being used presently)
like fruit and food processing units. These have a bright future, especially in the Third
now depend on furnace oil to meet their World countries.
heat energy demands, which typically
constitute about 90% of their total energy Acknowledgements-The authors gratefully acknowledge
the financial support from Ministry of Non-conventional
requirements. Moreover, these industries Energy Sources (MNES), Government of India, New Delhi
are usually situated in rural areas, where .for this study.
biomass fuels (in the form of agricultural
residues, tree cuttings, etc.) are readily
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