Production of hydrogen energy through biomass (waste wood) gasification

Production of hydrogen energy through biomass

(waste wood) gasification

Pratik N. Sheth, B.V. Babu*

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani 333 031, Rajasthan, India

article info

Article history:

Received 23 September 2009

Received in revised form

26 January 2010

Accepted 2 March 2010

Available online 1 April 2010

Keywords:

Hydrogen energy

Biomass

Gasification

Producer gas

Downdraft gasifier

Equivalence ratio

abstract

Biomass gasification, conversion of solid carbonaceous fuel into combustible gas by partial

combustion, is a prominent technology for the production of hydrogen from biomass. The

concentration of hydrogen in the gas generated from gasification depends mainly upon

moisture content, type and composition of biomass, operating conditions and configura￾tion of the biomass gasifier. The potential of production of hydrogen from wood waste by

applying downdraft gasification technology is investigated. An experimental study is

carried out using an Imbert downdraft biomass gasifier covering a wide range of operating

parameters. The producer gas generated in the downdraft gasifier is analyzed using a gas

chromatograph (NUCON 5765) with thermal conductivity detector (TCD). The effects of air

flow rate and moisture content on the quality of producer gas are studied by performing

experiments. The performance of the biomass gasifier is evaluated in terms of equivalence

ratio, composition of producer gas, and rate of hydrogen production.

ª 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Dependence on fossil fuels as the main energy sources has led

to serious energy crisis and environmental problems [1]. The

excessive use of fossil fuels is one of the primary causes of

global warming and acid rain, which have started to affect the

earth’s climate, weather, vegetation and aquatic ecosystems.

Owing to the global environment and national energy security

considerations, a non-polluting and renewable energy source

needs to be developed. Clean, domestic and renewable energy

is commonly accepted as the key for future life [2]. The

application of fuel cells is gaining an increasing interest in the

world of cleaner energy production [3]. The fuel cell uses

hydrogen as a fuel, which reacts with oxygen and produces

energy. The advantage of fuel cell is that it produces the only

by-product water, and no carbon dioxide or other green house

gases are emitted [4]. Hydrogen can be derived from a variety

of energy sources and is used in the fuel cells with high effi￾ciency. However, most of the technologies for the production

of hydrogen use fossil fuels as feedstock such as steam

reforming of natural gas/naphtha, partial oxidation of natural

gas, gasification of coal, etc. These energy-intensive processes

release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and

pollutants as by-products. The process based on fossil fuels

contributes in the increase of carbon dioxide in the environ￾ment. Hence, the process, in which hydrogen is derived from

the fossil fuels, is not considered as sustainable. Hydrogen can

also be produced from renewable sources of energy such as

biomass. Biomass energy is arguably the one truly renewable

energy resource, in that each new crop or harvest represents

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 1596 245073x259; fax: þ91 1596 244183.

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (P.N. Sheth), [email protected], [email protected]

(B.V. Babu).

URL: http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/~bvbabu

Available at www.sciencedirect.com

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he

international journal of hydrogen energy 35 (2010) 10803 e10810

0360-3199/$ e see front matter ª 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.03.009