Design & construction of gasifier

Abstract

Since the middle of the 1970's the increase in oil prices has led to a renewed interest in wood gasification technology, especially in countries dependent on oil imports but with adequate supplies of wood or other biomass fuels. Research into the technology of gasifier systems has provided modem designs which work reliably at a level of technical skill appropriate to rural applications in developing countries. Such systems are economical in certain conditions found in many developing countries, but the technology and manufacturing facilities are not widely available and their commercial utilization is limited. In Sri Lanka, industrial, commercial and domestic heat requirements are mainly satisfied depending on biomass. Lower cost and easy availability are the major advantages of biomass combustion. Although the major use of biomass as its direct combustion, which is low in efficiency. This is where energy conversion methods of biomass such as biomass gasification play the key role in satisfying the heat energy demand which is efficient and controllable. In present day context gasification technology is not widely distributed within the country, especially for thermal applications except few. By seeing that, we decided to construct a small down draft gasifier (capacity of 10 kW) to supply heat energy for commercial uses as our final year project.