Design, Construction and Experiment on Imbert Downdraft Gasifier Using South Sumatera Biomass and Low Rank Coal as Fuel

Abstract

The solid fuel must be converted to gas fuel or liquid fuel for application to internal combustion engine or gas turbine. Gasification is a technology to convert solid fuel into combustible gas. Gasification system generally consists of a gasifier, cyclone, spray tower and filter. This study is purposed to design, construction, and experiment of gasification system. The imbert downdraft gasifier was designed with 42 kg/h for the maximum capacity of fuel consumption, 90 cm for height, 26.8 cm for main diameter and 12 cm for throat diameter. The gasifier was constructed from stainless steel material of SUS 304. Biomass and low rank coal from South Sumatera, Indonesia was used as fuel. The result of the experiment showed that combustible gas was produced after 15 minutes operation in average. The air fuel ratio of low rank coal was 1.7 which was higher than biomass (1.1). Combustible gas stopped producing when the fuel went down below the throat of gasifier.

Keywords: Design, Construction, Experiment, Imbert Downdraft Gasifier, Biomass, low rank coal.

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ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 7, Issue 3, ( Part -6) March 2017, pp.39-44
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Design, Construction and Experiment on Imbert Downdraft
Gasifier Using South Sumatera Biomass and Low Rank Coal as
Fuel
Fajri Vidian*, Hasan Basri*, Dedi Sihotang*
*(Mechanical Engineering Department, Universitas Sriwijaya , 30662, Inderalaya, South Sumatera,
Indonesia)
ABSTRACT
The solid fuel must be converted to gas fuel or liquid fuel for application to internal combustion engine or gas
turbine. Gasification is a technology to convert solid fuel into combustible gas. Gasification system generally
consists of a gasifier, cyclone, spray tower and filter. This study is purposed to design, construction, and
experiment of gasification system. The imbert downdraft gasifier was designed with 42 kg/h for the maximum
capacity of fuel consumption, 90 cm for height, 26.8 cm for main diameter and 12 cm for throat diameter. The
gasifier was constructed from stainless steel material of SUS 304. Biomass and low rank coal from South
Sumatera, Indonesia was used as fuel. The result of the experiment showed that combustible gas was produced
after 15 minutes operation in average. The air fuel ratio of low rank coal was 1.7 which was higher than biomass
(1.1). Combustible gas stopped producing when the fuel went down below the throat of gasifier.
Keywords: Design, Construction, Experiment, Imbert Downdraft Gasifier, Biomass, low rank coal
I. INTRODUCTION
Decreasing of crude oil as the energy
resource will cause the need to finds the
alternative of energy. The alternative of energy
resource can be obtained from solid fuel. Direct
utilization of solid fuel for internal combustion
engine was not yet possible. The solid fuel must be
converted into gas or liquid fuel. Gasification
process is one of the technology that could converts
solid fuel into gas fuel and has a compatible value to
the crude oil [1]. Gasification process could be done
on several types of gasifier. One of the most
common types of gasifier is imbert downdraft as
shown in Fig 1. This type of gasifier has the
advantage at the low tar content in producer gas, so
it can be used for internal combustion engine [2-3].
The low tar content is caused by pyrolysis gas before
leaving the reactor that will be passed through the
combustion zone and reduction zone (high
temperature of char), so tar will be cracked into
combustible gas [3-4]. Downdraft gasifier has
special characteristics where the combustion zone at
the center of reactor and has less diameter (throat)
than the main reactor. This condition cause the
gasification process more complicated. The gas
production is influenced on the diameter of throat
and the continuity of fuel flow down inside of the
reactor especially when it passed through the throat
[5-6]. Fuel continuity went down depending on the
proportionality of fuel size to the throat diameter.
The suitable design will help the production of
combustible gas in gasification process. Some
designs and experiment were done on the downdraft
gasifier [7-12]. The design generally used different
approach and various material constructions,
therefore they would produce different characteristic
of operation. Only few researchers explained the
design, construction and experiment of gasification
system (imbert downdraft gasifier, cyclone, spray
tower, filter). This study aims to design,
construction, and experiment of the imbert
downdraft gasifier using South Sumatera, Indonesia
biomass and low rank coal as fuel.
Figure 1. Imbert Downdraft Gasifier.
RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

Fajri Vidian et al. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Application www.ijera.com
ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 7, Issue 3, ( Part -6) March 2017, pp.39-44
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II. MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study was started on designing of each
component of gasification system then it was
continued with construction or manufacturing and
finally has done experiment of gasification system.
Design of the imbert downdraft gasifier,
cyclone and spray tower base on principle design
was reported by Reed et.al [13]. Filter was designed
following approach by Ramansamy et.al [14].
The construction material of the imbert
downdraft gasifier was used stainless steel SUS 304
with a thickness of 3 mm [15]. Cyclone was
constructed by mild steel with a thickness of 2 mm
.Spray tower and filter was made by SUS 304 with a
thickness of 2 mm. Gasifier was covered by ceramic
fiber wool with 5 cm of thickness to ignore the heat
lost to surroundings. The gasification air was
supplied to the combustion zone using a suction
blower with a maximum capacity of 350 lpm.
The experiment perbatch system was done
using low rank coal (MT-46) and biomass (coconut
sheel) from South Sumatera, Indonesia as fuel.
The bulk density of fuel were 682 kg/m3 for low
rank coal and 397 kg/m3 for biomass. Low rank coal
and biomass had each of 2 cm x 2 cm x 1 cm in
size and 2 cm x 2 cm x 2 mm in size as shown on
Fig 2-3.
Figure 2. Biomass
Figure 3. Low rank Coal
The amount of air stoichiometric was
calculated using equation (1),
(1)
C, H2, S and O2 is mass fraction of each component
in ultimate analysis from Table 1 and 2. The
gasification air is 19% to 43% of air stoikiometric
[16]. The amount of gasification air must be
supplied into gasifier could be calculated using a
assumption of the fuel consumption rate about 6
kg/h. The amount of gasificaton air from calculating
was 6.4 to 14.4 kg/h for biomass and 8.6 to 19.4
kg/h for low rank coal. The actual air gasification
and gas flow rate were measured using orifice flat
flow meter.
Table 1. The Proximate and Ultimate of biomass
Proximate Analysis
Unit
Value
Moisture
Mass Fraction (%)
5.3
Ash
Mass Fraction (%)
6.26
Volatile
Mass Fraction (%)
70,7
Fixed Carbon
Mass Fraction (%)
17.54
Ultimate Analysis
(dry basis)
Carbon
Mass Fraction (%)
47.59
Hydrogen
Mass Fraction (%)
6.0
Oxygen
Mass Fraction (%)
45.52
Nitrogen
Mass Fraction (%)
0.22
Sulphur
Mass Fraction (%)
0.09
Heating Value
Gross CV
kcal/kg (Adb)
5574
Table 2. The Proximate and Ultimate of
Low Rank Coal
Proximate Analysis
Unit
Value
Moisture
Mass Fraction
(%)
27.79
Ash
Mass Fraction
(%)
5.13
Volatile
Mass Fraction
(%)
33,72
Fixed Carbon
Mass Fraction
(%)
33.37
Ultimate Analysis
(dry basis)
Carbon
Mass Fraction
(%)
57.35
Hydrogen
Mass Fraction
(%)
4.31
Oxygen
Mass Fraction
(%)
17.37
Nitrogen
Mass Fraction
(%)
0.77
Heating Value
Gross CV
kcal/kg (adb)
5695
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Design
3.1.1. Imbert Downdraft gasifier
According to Reed et.al [14] used fuel
consumption rate therefore would get the main

Fajri Vidian et al. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Application www.ijera.com
ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 7, Issue 3, ( Part -6) March 2017, pp.39-44
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dimension of gasifier. The maximum of fuel
consumption of 42 kg/h was used on design. The
main dimensions of the reactor was obtained such
as : diameter of gasifier (dr), diameter of throat (dh),
high of the reactor from the bottom to the air inlet
(R + H), high of the reactor from air inlet to the
upper reactor (H’), air inlet tuyer diameter (dn) and
number of air inlet tuyer (n). Five of air inlet tuyer
were used to supply air gasification. All the
dimension are explained in Table 3 and Fig 4.
Table 3. Dimension of Gasifier
No
Dimension
Value
(cm)
1
H’
54.4
2
H
25.6
3
R
10
4
dr
26.8
5
dh
12
6
dn
1.2
Figure 4. Imbert Downdraft Gasifier
3.1.2. Cyclone
The maximum of gas flow rate of 994 lpm
with the gas velocity of 15 m/s and temperature of
300 oC were designed to pass through cyclone. The
main dimension of geometry of the cyclone was
obtained as shown in Table 4 and Fig 5.
Table 4. Dimension of Cyclone
No
Dimension
Value (cm)
1
Bc
3.75
2
Dc
15
3
Hc
7.5
4
Lc
30
5
Zc
30
6
Jc
3.75
7
Dp
7.5
8
Qc
10
Figure 5. Cyclone
3.1.3. Spray tower
Spray tower was designed for the
superficial gas velocity of 0.6 – 1.21 and gas flow
rate of 994 lpm through the spray tower. The
diameter of spray tower was obtained of 13-18 cm.
In this design, the diameter of spray tower was used
of 15 cm. The other dimension is displayed in
Table 5 and Fig 6.
Table 5. Dimension of Spray Tower
No
Dimension
Value (cm)
1
H1
30
2
H2
15
3
H3
15
4
D
15
Figure 6. Spray Tower

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3.1.4. Filter
Filter was designed base on the retention
time gas in filter of 3.5 second. The filter high
(h1+h2+h3+h4) was designed about 70 cm then the
filter diameter (Df) was obtained Dimension detail
is shown in Table 6 and Fig 7. Filter was
constructed with two stage. the first stage was used
charcoal and the second stage was used cotton as
filter. Table 6. Dimension of Filter
No
Dimension
Value (cm)
1
h1
15
2
h2
20
3
h3
20
4
h4
15
5
Df
32
Figure 7. Filter
3.2. Construction
Gasification system was constructed as
shown in Fig 8. The arrangement of gasification
system was gasifier, cyclone, spray tower 1, spray
tower 2, filter and gas burner,
The leakage of gas testing was done to see
the leakage on gasification system. The testing
showed free of leakage on all of gasification
component including of piping system.
Figure 8. The Construction of Gasification System
3.3. Experiment
The result of experiment showed a
indicating amount of fuel consumption was not the
same with the predicting (6 kg/h) as shown in Table
7. It was caused by the reactivity of the fuel
influenced by many variables such as size, shape,
bulk density etc. The amount of actual gasification
air confirmed to predicting gasification air as shown
in Table 7.
The air fuel ratio of gasification had value
of 1.14 to 1.7 was not difference with reported by
Lun et.al and Doghru et.al [17-18]. Combustible gas
was obtained after 15 minutes of start up, it is
suitable with the result was reported by Seggiani
et.al and Surjosatyo et.al [19-20]. The mass flow rate
of gas was approximately of 80% of total of air and
fuel mass flow rate that had same trend with the
result Doghru et.al and Kumararaja et.al [18,21].
The flame was produced biomass more
yellow than low rank coal but low rank coal more
blue as shown in Fig 9-10, due to biomass had more
volatile than low rank coal as shown in Table 1-2.
The air fuel ratio of low rank coal more than
biomass was caused by the higher moisture content
of low rank coal. The combustible gas stoped
producing when the fuel position inside of the
gasifier passed through the throat zone.

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Table 7. The Results of Experimental
Figure 9. Biomass Flame
Figure 10. Low Rank Coal Flame
IV. CONCLUSION
Gasification system consists of gasifier,
cyclone, spray tower and filter that has been
designed, manufactured and experimented. The
system could operate properly perbatch at
integrated system (gasifier + cyclone + spray tower
+ filter). The gasification system operated properly
using biomass and low rank coal as fuel. The air fuel
ratio biomass and low rank coal respectively of 1.1
and 1.7. The combustible gas was produced after
15 minutes of start up. The combustible gas
stopped producing when the fuel position inside the
gasifier passed through the throat zone.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Rector
of Universitas Sriwijaya for funding this research
through Hibah Unggulan Kompetitip Bidang Energi
2016” under contract No 592/UN9.3.1/LT/2016. We
would also like to thank to PT Tambang Batubara
Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk, Tanjung Enim, South
Sumatera, Indonesia for providing low rank coal of
MT-46.
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