Selection of Gasifier

Biomass fuels available for gasification include charcoal, wood and wood waste (branches, twigs, roots,
bark, woodshavings and sawdust) as well as a multitude of agricultural residues (maize cobs, coconut
shells, coconut husks, cereal straws, rice husks, etc.) and peat.
Because those fuels differ greatly in their chemical, physical and morphological properties, they make
different demands on the method of gasification and consequently require different reactor designs or
even gasification technologies. It is for this reason that, during a century of gasification experience, a
large number of different gasifiers has been developed and marketed, all types geared towards handling
the specific properties of a typical fuel or range of fuels.
Thus it follows that the "universal" gasifier, able to handle all or most fuels or fuel types, does not exist,
and in all probability will not exist in the foreseeable future.
The range of designs includes updraught, downdraught, crossdraught, fluidized bed as well as other
biomass gasification systems All systems show relative advantages and disadvantages with respect to fuel
type, application and simplicity of operation, and for this reason each will have its own technical and/or
economic advantages in a particular set of circumstances.
Each type of gasifier will operate satisfactorily with respect to stability, gas quality, efficiency and
pressure losses only within certain ranges of the fuel properties of which the most important are:
- energy content
- moisture content
- volatile matter
- ash content and ash chemical composition
- reactivity
- size and size distribution
- bulk density
- charring properties
Before choosing a gasifier for any individual fuel it is important to ensure that the fuel meets the
requirements of the gasifier or that it can be treated to meet these requirements

Gasifier Classification
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 bunkerflow
Slagging
Extreme pressure drop over the gasifier.

A new design to address all this difficulties is fluidised bed gasifier.

Depending upon the gasification medium, gasifiers can be broadly classified into two groups:

Air-blown, where air is the gasification medium

Oxygen-blown, where pure oxygen is the gasification medium .Oxygen blowing is free from
diluents like nitrogen.

Depending upon how the gas and fuel contact each other, gasifiers can be further divided into following
four types:

Entrained bed
Fluidized bed (Bubbling or Circulating)
Spouted bed
Fixed or moving bed

There are many types of Gassifiers but as our requirement gassification of corn-cob fluidized bed
gassifier is the best because:

Features of Fluidized Bed

The major advantage of fluidised 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.
It has high carbon conversion, 95-98%+
It is capable to gasify a wide variety of fuels, including coal/biomass mixtures
It has simple design with safe, reliable operation
It operates at a lower temperature than a slagging gasifier (to 1000C)
It results in longer metal component and refractory life
In a well-designed fluidized bed Oxyblown gassifier, concentrations of both CO and H2 reaches
40%
Easy control of temperature, which can be kept below the melting or fusion point of the ash
Their ability to deal with fluffy and fine grained materials (sawdust etc.) without the need of preprocessing
Fluidized bed systems can also have high volumetric capacity