Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

Biomass gasification provides synthesis gas or syngas that can be used for internal combustion engines as fuel or chemical synthesis as feedstock. Among different types of gasifiers, downdraft gasifier can produce relatively clean syngas with lower tar contents. In this study, a downdraft gasifier was fabricated with 150 mm of hearth diameter to gasify woodchip that is commercially available in this country. After drying woodchip to about 20 %, gasification experiments were conducted measuring temperature, pressure, air and gas flow rates. The volumetric concentrations of CO, H₂, CO₂, CH₄ were 10.7～14.5, 16.5～21.4, 12.5～16.6, and 2.3～2.9, respectively. They were overall within the ranges of the results that the previous studies showed. However, CO concentration was relatively lower and H2 was slightly higher than those from other studies. It seemed that water gas shift reaction was occurred due to the moisture in the fuel woodchip. Additional drying process coupled with syngas cooling would be required to improve the overall efficiency and syngas quality.