BIO ENERGY

TYPES OF GASIFIERS

SUBJECT: RENEWABLE ENERGY ENGINEERING

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
PREPARED BY….
ZARE MEHUL RAMESHCHANDRA
(130080119033)
GUIDED BY……..
H.A. BHARGAV
 Types of Gasifier
•Gasifier equipments are generally classified as upward draft, downward draft and
cross draft gasifiers, based on the direction of air/oxygen flow in the equipment.
It should be noted that there are types of gasifier equipment which are different
from types of gasification processes.
•Gasification processes can be categorized into three groups: entrained flow,
fluidized bed and moving bed (sometimes called, somewhat erroneously, fixed
bed).
In gasifier Fuel Interacts with air or Oxygen and steam. So the gasifier are
classified according to the way air or oxygen is introduced in it. On a bigger scale
there are following four type of gasifiers.
•The choice of the one type of gasifier over there is mostly determined by the
fuel, its final available form, its size , moisture content and ash content.
• First three type of gasifiers are mostly used in entrained bed gasification process
and moving bed gasification process. While the last one is fluidized bed
gasification process.
Gasifier Plant
Upward Draft or Counter-Current
gasifier

This one is oldest and simplest

type of gasifier. The air comes in
at the bottom and produced syn
gas leaves from the top of the
gasifier. Near the grate at the
bottom combustion reaction
occurs, above that reduction
reaction occurs.
 Upward Draft or Counter-Current
gasifier
 In the upper part of the gasifier heating and pyrolysis of the feedstock
occurs as a result of heat transfer by forced convention and radiation
from the lower zones.
 Tars and volatile produce produced during the reaction will leave
along with the syn gas at the top of the gasifier. Which will be later
separated by use of cyclone and candle filter.
ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS
 The major advantages of this type of gasifier are its simplicity, high
charcoal burn out and internal heat exchange leading to low
temperature of exit gas and high equipment efficiency. This gasifier can
work with several kind of feedstock ranging from Coal to Biomass.
 Major drawbacks result from the possibility of "channeling" in the
equipment, which can lead to oxygen break-through and dangerous,
explosive situations and the necessity to install automatic moving
grate.
Downdraft or Co-Current Gasifier

In updraft gasifier there is a problem of

tar entrainment in the product gas
leaving stream. A solution is to have
primary gasification air introduced at or
above the oxidation zone in the gasifier.
The produced gas is taken out from the
bottom hence fuel and gas move in the
same direction.
 On their way down, the acid and tarry distillation products from the fuel
must pass through a glowing bed of charcoal and therefore are converted
into permanent gases hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and
methane.
 Depending on the temperature of the hot zone and the residence time of
the tarry vapour. More or less a complete breakdown of the tars is achieved.
 Main advantage of downdraft gasifier lies in the possibility of producing tar
free gas for engine operation. However in practice very rarely tar free gas is
produced but the % of tar leaving in product stream is considerably lower
than leaving through the updraft gasifier.
 Main disadvantage is that downdraft gasifier cannot be operated with range
of different feedstocks. Low density feedstock gives rise to flow problems
and excessive pressure drop. High ash content coal also gives more problem
with this kind of gasifier than updraft gasifier.
Cross Draft Gasifier
•Although cross draft gasifiers have certain
advantages over updraft and downdraft
gasifiers, they are not ideal. The
disadvantages such as high exit gas
temperature, poor CO2reduction and high
gas velocity are the consequences of the
design.
•Unlike downdraft and updraft gasifiers,
the ash bin, fire and reduction zones in
cross draft gasifiers are separate. These
design characteristics limit the type of fuel
usage restricted to only low ash fuels such
as wood, charcoal and coke
 The load following ability of cross draft gasifier is quite good due to
concentrated zones which operate at temperatures up to 12000C.
 Start up time (5-10 minutes) is much faster than that of downdraft
and updraft units.
 The relatively higher temperature in cross draft gas producer has an
obvious effect on exit gas composition such as high carbon
monoxide and low hydrogen and methane content when dry fuel
such as charcoal is used.
 Cross draft gasifier operates well on dry air blast and dry fuel.
Fluidized Bed Gasifier

•The operation of both up and downward

draft gasifiers is influenced by the
morphological, physical and chemical
properties of the fuel.
•Problems commonly encountered are:
lack of bunker flow, slagging and extreme
pressure drop over the gasifier. A new
design to address all this difficulties is
fluidized bed gasifier.
 Air is blown through a bed of solid particles at a sufficient velocity to keep these
in a state of suspension. The bed is originally externally heated and the feedstock
is introduced as soon as a sufficiently high temperature is reached.
 The fuel particles are introduced at the bottom of the reactor, very quickly mixed
with the bed material and almost instantaneously heated up to the bed
temperature. As a result of this treatment the fuel is pyrolysed very fast, resulting
in a component mix with a relatively large amount of gaseous materials. Further
gasification and tar-conversion reactions occur in the gas phase.
 Ash particles are also carried over the top of the reactor and have to be removed
from the gas stream if the gas is used in engine applications. To remove ash
particles cyclone and candle filter are used.
 The major advantage of fluidized bed is processing of feedstock. This type of
gasifier are mostly used for high ash coal and biomass. Since temperature is below
the ash softening temperature so handling of ash is relatively simple.
 Drawback of fluidized bed gasifiers is - high tar content in the produced syn gas
and incomplete carbon conversion
THANK YOU……….