Gasification of Solid Waste Fuels in a Fixed-Bed Gasifier

Airflow Channeling Through Fixed Wheat Straw Bed in an Updraft Gasifier Before the Initiation of Gasification

“…Cereal straws can be utilized to produce heat energy through combustion (Nikolaisen et al, 1992) and produce gas through gasification (Xu et al, 1997). Its high ash content and low bulk density have been reported to cause serious operational problems in thermochemical biomass conversion processes (Mudge and Rohrmann, 1978;Rajvanshi, 1986;Mattsson, 1997). The major problems reported in the literature are the bridging of straw pieces, the melting of straw ash, and the airflow channeling through straw bed.…”

“…The causes and solutions of straw bridging and ash melting have been studied by Mattsson (1997) and Hampshire (1987); however, airflow channeling has gotten less attention. Channeling, which occurs in updraft gasifiers, is the nonuniform flow of air, and produces gas through the fixed biomass bed (Mudge and Rohrmann, 1978;Parker et al, 1987). It results in the deterioration of gas quality, reduced conversion rate of biomass to gas and early shutdown of the process.…”