Mr. Akhilesh Kumar Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 10( Part - 5), October 2014, pp.122-130 www.ijera.com 122 | Page Experimental Analysis of a Producer Gas Generated by a Chir Pine Needle (Leaf) in a Downdraft Biomass Gasifier Mr. Akhilesh Kumar * , Mr. Ravindra Randa ** *(M.Tech. student, UIT, Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal) ** ( Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UIT, Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal) ABSTRACT Today’s Indian scenario is facing an unprecedented energy crisis as the conventional energy resources of India are consistently deteriorating with the limited stock of these natural minerals posing a staggering threat to the Indian economy. Among all the available resources biomass proves to be a satisfactory substitute for compensating the energy void due to these natural resources. Biomass is a renewable resource with almost zero net CO 2 emission which is processed with the help of biomass gasifier which is concurrently used with a chir pine needle. The performance of the biomass gasifier system is evaluated in terms of equivalence ratio, producer gas composition, calorific value of the producer gas, gas production rate and cold gas efficiency. The experimental results are compared with those reported in the literature. Keywords- Biomass, gasification, chir pine needle, downdraft gasifier, equivalence ratio I. INTRODUCTION Biomass refers to all biologically produced matter and all earth’s living matter whose energy is derived from the plant sources, such as wood from natural forests, waste from agricultural and forestry processes and industrial, human or animal waste. Furthermore, it is a renewable source of carbon which can be converted into convenient solid, liquid or gaseous fuels. Chir pine needle on the other hand is still a predominant fuel which is being used in the domestic (for cooking and water heating) in the villages of hill areas (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir).The conversion technologies for utilizing biomass can be separated into four basic categories: direct combustion processes, thermo chemical processes, biochemical processes and agro-chemical processes. In the thermo chemical conversion technologies, biomass gasification has attracted the highest interest as it offers higher efficiencies compared to combustion and pyrolysis. Gasification is a process of conversion of solid carbonaceous fuel into combustible gas by partial combustion. The resulting gas, known as a producer gas, is a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The producer gas is burnt to produce heat and steam which is used in gas turbines to produce electricity. The entire process of pyrolysis and gasification is carried out using two reactors in series. Jorapur and Rajvanshi (1997) in their significant study reported the development of a commercial-scale (1080 MJ/h) gasification system using low-density biomass such as sugarcane leaves, bajra stalks, sweet sorghum stalks and bagasse for thermal applications. Jayah et al. (2003) used a downdraft biomass gasifier using rubber wood as biomass in tea drying unit. Thus, various experimental researches have been carried out by diversified researchers in the past for elaborating the utility of biomass energy with its regards to the proposed work. Hence, in the present study, gasification experiments are carried out with the chir pine needle as a biomass material in a downdraft biomass gasifier. Generally the chir pine needle is used for direct combustion for domestic purposes. The producer gas generated from the biomass gasifier using chir pine needles can be directly fired in the kiln with a better control over operating conditions. The uniqueness of this work is distinguished from earlier studies by covering wide range of equivalence ratio (0.24–0.28) in comparison to other researchers. The results of the present study are useful to choose the operating conditions of the downdraft biomass gasifier. The effects of air flow rate and moisture content on biomass consumption rate and the quality of the producer gas are studied by performing experiments. The performance evaluation of the biomass gasifier system is carried out in terms of the equivalence ratio, producer gas composition, calorific value of the producer gas, gas production rate and cold gas efficiency. Fig.1 shows the potential of chir pine needle for fire histories in northern INDIA. Accordingly, the paper is segregated into four sections for performing the comprehensive in depth study of the proposed chir pine needle model. RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS