Small-scale shaking single-stage downdraft biomass gasifier

Gasification technology is a well-known biomass conversion usually associated with high amount of tar in the producer gas. Various studies have been conducted in eliminating or reducing tar content. This study focuses on the development of a single-stage downdraft gasifier with an automatic shaking grate mechanism in improving the quality of the producer gas. If concentration of tar is further reduced, the cleaning process of producer gas can be eliminated, thereby reducing cost. The experiment used wood chips on a single-stage gasification process on a 10-15 kW reactor with air as the gasifying agent. A temperature of approximately 900°C favorable for tar cracking was achieved. The automatic shaking mechanism of the gasifier was found to be effective in reducing the tar content up to 0.17-0.25 g/m³ compared to the conventional single-stage without shaking.