CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Internal combustion engine used fossil fuel such as gasoline or diesel fuel. The price of gasoline

cost higher than the diesel fuel. Nowadays, both gasoline and diesel fuel is subjected to price hike. Not

only this leads to price escalation, but it also has great effect in our environment and in our physical health.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (2021), emission from diesel engines

cause acid rain and ground-level ozone. According to their study, exposure to diesel emission can

contribute to serious illness such as asthma, respiratory illnesses and lung disease. This problem imposes

us to produce alternative fuel for engine application.

The process where syngas is extracted from biomass is called gasification. According to the

National Energy Technology Laboratory, gasification is a technological process that can convert coal into

fuel gas, also known as synthetic gas or syngas. It is commonly used for domestic cooking, heating, power

generation and engine application. Synthetic gas is a valuable flammable gas mixture of hydrogen and

carbon monoxide and smaller quantities of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons (Waste

Management, 2017).

The researcher come up with an idea to design and develop a gasifier prototype that will be used

to extract syngas from woodchips. This prototype will be used for syngas production, containing two main

parts, the upper chamber and the lower chamber. The researcher develops the upper and lower chamber

for efficient production of syngas. Upper chamber holds the reactor chamber; it is where the process of

gasification occurs. Lower chamber serves as the receptacle for ash and char; it also holds the gas exit

tube. Using the thermal cracking or visbreaking, where heat will be used for the destruction of feedstock,

the developed woodchips gasifier will efficiently extract the high quality syngas out of the raw materials.
Jogno and Labog (2019) stated that using thermal cracking, the tar content of the gas will be reduced

which make it suitable for internal combustion engine. The development of woodchips gasifier for I.C.

engine application will be a solution for the problem regarding the price escalation of either gasoline or

diesel fuel. This prototype will be used in extracting alternative fuel for different application, specifically

for engine application. It uses biomass which is a renewable energy source and is also not harmful for the

environment and human health.

Background of the study

The dominant source of energy is the fossil fuel that is made from dead algae etc. The continuous

demand for energy causes price escalation and consuming those fuels contributes to the environment and

human health.

Fossil fuels are hidden beneath the earth’s crust and consist of mainly dead plants- coal from trees,

and natural gas and oil from algae, a kind of water plant (EarthSky, 2009). However, this fossil-base fuel

is formed million years ago and must be subjected to high temperature and pressure before you can mine

it. The demand of using fuels from fossils lead to challenging problem if we continue to consume it.

Consumer Welfare and Promotion Office (2017) indicates that combustion of fossil fuel emits oxide of

sulphur and nitrogen as well as carbon dioxide and thus contributes to global warming.

Nowadays, manufacturing, transportation and industrial civilization are dependent to the supply

of these fuels. The depletion of fossil fuel will need an alternative and renewable source of energy.

Alternative and renewable energy source can be a solution to our problem. Renewable energy is energy

from natural processes and is continuously replenished while alternative energy is an energy source that

is an alternative to using fossil fuels (PennState Extension, 2009). Renewable energy includes various

forms of biomass, sunlight, geothermal heat, wind, tides and water. Biomass is renewable energy used for
the generation of heat or electricity. In early as 1840 in Europe, gasification of biomass is used for heating

and by 1884 in England, they adapted it to fuel engines. During World War II biomass was also used to

fuel vehicles due to shortage of petroleum.

Biomass gasification would be an alternative energy source and help us in reducing our

dependence on fossil fuel. Rural areas have abundant supply of biomass from agricultural residue and

forest residue as a major source. Marinduque is one of the province that has lot of biomass.

As we are continuously relying on fossil fuel, price escalation will be one of the challenging

problem. Another problem is that consuming this fuels will contribute to global warming and can cause

human health illness; it will also put biomass into waste. For this reason, the development of woodchips

gasifier for engine application as an equipment for production of alternative fuel.

Statement of the problem

The study aims to provide equipment for producing alternative fuel source for engine application,

utilized biomass (woodchips), and reduce GHG emission.

1. What is the duration time to gasify the woodchips using the developed prototype per kilogram?

2. What is the efficiency of syngas for internal combustion engine application?

3. What is the acceptability rate of developed gasifier as an alternative fuel source for internal

combustion engine?

Objectives of the study

The main objective of the study is to develop gasifier using woodchips to produce alternative fuel

for engine application, utilized biomass and reduce harmful GHG emission.

This study has the following specific objectives

 1. To determine the duration time to gasify woodchips using the developed prototype per

kilogram.

2. To calculate the efficiency of syngas for internal combustion engine application.

3. To determine the acceptability rate of the developed gasifier as an alternative fuel source for

internal combustion engine.

Significance of the study

This study seeks to develop and promote the use of woodchips gasifier that produce syngas for

alternative fuel for engine application. This study will be beneficial to residents of Marinduque especially

to those residents who uses I.C. engine and to the furniture industry where woodchips are bounty.

Furniture Industry. The developed prototype will be beneficial to every furniture shop owner

because it can help to convert the huge volume of woodchips into useful syngas that can be used to

generate electricity via using I.C. engine.

Resident of Marinduque. The synthetic gas extracted from the woodchips can be used as fuel in

rural areas that uses generator for generating electricity.

Future Researchers. This study can be used for comparison, thus enhancing the design and

application to make it more advance and efficient not only to the province of Marinduque but also for the

country as a whole.

Scope and Limitation

This study would focus on developing a woodchips gasifier for the production of synthetic gas.

Downdraft gasifier will be used to minimize the tar content of the syngas. The system of the gasifier will

be subjected to filtration and cleaning enabling the syngas to be used to run an I.C. engine.

In spite of that, this study was limited on modifying I.C. engine that uses syngas as an alternative

fuel. And it is also not intended to gasify high moisture content, nd biomass like livestock manure.
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

1.0 Related Literature

1.1 Biomass

Biomass is an organic material from living plants. It is very essential material that

contributes to the supply of energy in the nation. According to US Energy Information

Administration (2020), biomass is a renewable material from animals and plants. Due to the

demand of avoiding the bad effects from the use of fossil fuels, biomass becomes the alternative

source of fuel for transportation and generation of electricity. Salman Zafar (2020) stated that

biomass in the Philippines is abundant that can generate the 200 MW of energy for the project of

biomass. About 27% of biomass is used by the commercial and industrial applications while 73%

of it is used for domestic cooking.

MIMAROPA region 4B has the second highest abundant source of biomass with a total of

915 664 hectares’ forest that can be utilized for the production of synthetic gas (Philippine Forest

at A Glance, 2015). The process of photosynthesis plays an important role in the creation of

biomass energy. As mentioned earlier, biomass refers to the living plants used as alternative fuel

for electricity generation and engine application. Through the process of photosynthesis, the plants

captured the energy from the sun and stored it as chemical energy. The energy stored from the

material can be extracted by using any process of breaking the bond of molecules.

1.2 Source of Biomass in the Philippines

The Philippine total area of the land is about 30 million hectares, one third of the said area

is contributed to gross domestic production while the remaining land is devoted to the forestland,
wetland and shrub land. As our country continuously devoted to the use of fossil fuel, tons of

biomass are put into waste. According to the Consumer Welfare and Promotion Office (2017), the

major source of biomass in the Philippines follows;

1.2.1 Rice Husk

The Philippines is the number one rice consumer. Due to the increasing population,

the demand of rice products continues to grow resulting to tons of biomass every year.

1.2.2Animal Manure

Poultry industries produce huge waste. The demand of production of protein

supports the increasing growth of supply of our country resulting to the huge waste.

1.2.3 Wood Waste

Philippine forest land is about 15 hectares. The residues from the logging can

generate tons of energy, this waste is a great potential for the production of alternative

fuel.

1.2. 4 Coconut Waste

In the Philippines, coconut trees cover three million hectares. The commonly waste

from coconut tree is coconut shell and husks. This waste has a great potential for the

production of syngas.

1.3 Important Properties of Biomass

The two most important properties of biomass are ash properties and moisture content.

The contaminants in gasification is the ash. According to Basu (2010), the organic solid waste left

after the gasification process is called ash, it is one of the most contaminants in the gasification.
The moisture content of the material is important to consider because the biomass that contains

higher moisture content requires higher energy in order to fully gasify.

1.4 Gasification Process

Gasification is a process of extracting syngas from biomass. In order to produce a syngas,

it should follow sequence of steps. The first step is drying; in this stage the moisture content of the

biomass is being vaporize using the higher amount of energy supply from the combustion stage.

The second step is pyrolysis; in this stage, the biomass that is being dry become charcoal which

contain 20% Hydrogen. The third step is char gasification; in this stage the pyrolysis charcoal that

is being produce from pyrolysis stage form mainly Hydrogen, Carbon Monoxide and carbon

Dioxide which the product gas called syngas. The last step is the char combustion; it is the heat

supplier of the three stages.

1.5 Types of Gasifier

According to Diebold (1985) since volatile organic molecules make up approximately 80%

of the products from biomass pyrolysis, the principal task in biomass gasification is to convert this

condensable volatile matter to permanent gases. The most important types for this task are the

downdraft, updraft and crossdraft gasifiers of Fig. 1, 2 and 3.

1.5.1 Downdraft Gasifier

Fig. 1. Diagram of Downdraft Gasifier (Source: www.enggcyclopedia.com)

 The downdraft gasifier (Fig. 1) was developed to convert high volatile fuels (wood,

biomass) to lessen the tar content and therefore has proven to be the most successful design

for power generation. In downdraft gasifier, biomass is fed in the top of the reactor and the

produced syngas release at the bottom.

1.5.2 Updraft Gasifier

Fig. 2. Diagram of Updraft Gasifier (Source: www.enggcyclopedia.com)

The updraft gasifier (Fig. 2) is widely used for coal gasification and nonvolatile

fuels such as charcoal. Desrosiers (1982) stated that the high rate of tar production (5%-

20%) makes them impractical for high volatile fuels where a clean gas is required. In

updraft gasifier, the biomass is fed at the top of the reactor and the syngas exit at the top.

1.5.3 Crossdraft Gasifier

Fig. 3. Diagram of Crossdraft Gasifier (Source: www.enggcyclopedia.com)

The crossdraft gasifier (Fig. 3) is the lightest and simplest gasifier. The cross draft

gasifier is generally considered suitable only for low tar fuels. Air enters at high velocity
 through a single nozzle, induces substantial circulation, and flows across the bed of fuel

and char.

1.6 Performance of Gasifier System

The performance of the gasifier is evaluated using conversion efficiency airflow rate and

duration time per kilogram.

1.6.1 Conversion Efficiency

It measures how efficient the gasifier system to convert the biomass to syngas. To

find the percent conversion efficiency, the mass of the biomass is subtracted to the original

mass of the biomass and divided by the original mass of the biomass.

1.6.2 Airflow rate effect in the system

The air flow rate affects the gasifier system when the feedstock is small. An

increase in air flow rate also increases the generation rate of syngas. It is measured by

means of air flow meter through experimental observation.

1.6.3 Duration time per kilogram of biomass feedstock

It is the period of time where the gasifier produces syngas from the selected

biomass. The longer the time the better the kind of feedstock of biomass to be used. It is

one of the criteria in selecting feedstock for gasifier.

1.7 Syngas for I.C. engine application

After the gasification process it undergoes condensation and cleaning of syngas before it

will directly plug into the intake of the engine. It should have stoichiometric fuel ratio in order to

run the piston.

2.0 Related Studies

2.1 Foreign Studies

Gupta (2005) stated that the operation of the downdraft gasifiers is influenced by

the morphological, chemical and physical properties of the fuel. Problems normally encountered

include lack of bunker-flow, slagging and extreme pressure drop. The biomass is quickly

undergoing pyrolysis resulting in a relatively large sum of gaseous materials. Further gasification

and tar-conversion reactions occur in the gas phase. The ash particulates carried over to the top of

the reactor have to be removed from the syngas. It is advantageous in that it is easy to control

temperature and fluffy and fine-grained material can be used as fuel but has high tar content

syngas, incomplete carbon burns out, poor response to load changes Most wood species have low

ash content which makes them suitable for fixed bed gasifiers. Because of high volatile content of

wood, updraft systems produce tar containing gas suited for direct burning. Cleaning the gas to

make it suitable for engines is rather difficult and labor intensive.

According to Gautam (2010) downdraft gasifiers can be designed to deliver

virtually tar-free syngas in a certain capacity range when fueled by woodblocks or wood chips of

low moisture content After passing a relatively simple clean up train the gas can be used in internal

combustion engines. Most downdraft gasifiers in existence are not suitable for un-pelletized

sawdust. Some of the problems encountered include lack of bunker flow, inadmissible pressure

drops and excessive tar production.

Russel (2008) stated that the power output from an internal combustion engine is

determined by the following factors such as; heating value of the fuel entering the engine, amount

of fuel entering the engine, engine efficiency to convert thermal energy to mechanical energy and
number of combustion strokes of engine per given time. The heat value of the syngas is dependent

on the syngas composition.

2.2 Local studies

According to the conducted study made by Manguiat et al (2015) at Batangas State

University, they used a fixed bed gasifier using palo china as a feedstock, through experimental

investigation they present the best operating condition of the gasifier when it comes to air flow

rate, amount of specific feedstock, percent conversion and temperature maximum. They conclude

that the best operation condition with palo china as feedstock are as follows, the air flow rate must

be 560-610 m3/min while turning on the blower is 200 second after, and as a result they measure

the efficiency of gasifier in terms of converting biomass into syngas.

Bareng and Acebedo (2000) reported that in Ilocos Norte, wood fuels come from tree

fallows, woodlots, private tree plantations, agroforestry systems and scattered trees found

throughout the landscape. Open canopy secondary growth forests in Ilocos Norte remain an

important source of wood fuels especially for commercial users. Current land use practices in the

Philippines are capable of producing over 85 million of wood for fuel annually, excluding wood

from primary forests which are inaccessible.

It is still widely assumed that in the Philippines wood fuel extraction contributes to

environmental degradation. Because of the rapid loss of forests in the Philippines in the last 40

years it is also generally accepted that the country is facing or already experiencing wood fuel

shortages. These perceptions persist despite a growing body of evidence indicating that most wood

fuel production in the Philippines comes from agricultural areas, and that tree planting and

management for wood fuel purposes is widespread in many regions of the country.
 Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

1.0 Prototype Design

This section undertakes several areas about prototype components such as specification of

material, flowchart diagram and a preliminary design for this prototype.

1.1 Material specification

These section of prototype design discusses the material components that are assemble on

developing a wood chips gasifier for engine application. The description of each component is stated with

corresponding explanation for the importance and its function to the system.

1.1.1 Reactor Chamber

Figure 4. Reactor Chamber (Source: www.instructables.com )

This reactor is the heart of the gasifier system because in this component where the

gasification process occurs, in this chamber also where synthetic gas is generated. This

reactor should be fabricated from stainless steel tube or other material that can resist

corrosion.
1.1.2 Cyclone Filter

Figure 5. Cyclone Filter (Source: www.cycloonfilters.nl.com)

When synthetic gas was being generated in the reactor chamber or fire tube, it will

directly pass to the cyclone filter which separate ashes and other substance in synthetic gas.

Through high-speed air flow inside the reactor chamber, synthetic gas is tangentially

injected to cyclone filter which forces the gas to rotate within its body before exiting the

cyclone filter. By continued rotational effect combine with the gravity makes the other

substance such as ash and tar to separate from synthetic gas.

1.1.3 Condenser

It is used to cool the synthetic gas produced after it was being filter from the

cyclone. The condenser that was used in the study is air-cooled type. For the purpose of

cooling and further filtration of synthetic gas a variety of pipes was being used with

minimum size in order to lessen the pressure lose in the pipes when the synthetic gas was

being cool by the outside ambient air.

1.1.4 Centrifugal Fan

Figure 7. Centrifugal Fan (Source: www.indiamart.com)

This kind of fan is used in the gasifier system because it increases the volume of air

streams and also it increases the pressure which makes it compatible for gasifier system.

1.1.5 Air Flow Meter

This air flow meter is used in the study to monitor the amount of air being supplied

inside the system. The data being recorded by these air flow meter is important because it

determine the effect of air flow rate needed inside the system.

1.1.6 Thermocouple Sensor

Figure 8. K-Type Thermocouple Sensor (Source: https://electronics.stackexchange.com)

This type of sensor used in the study to measure temperature inside the gasifier.

This kind of thermocouple sensor is suitable for the system because the temperature range

of this sensor is between 200-1500 ℃.

1.1.7 Pipes

Figure 9. Pipes (Source: www.indiamart.com)

It will be used to transfer synthetic gas from component to another. This pipes will

also be the primary material for constructing the condenser. Since the study deals with

synthetic gas it is necessary to use this piping materials. The piping diameter size will be

computed in order to lessen the pressure losses.

1.1.7 Valves

Figure 10. Valves (Source: www.indiamart.com)

A mechanical device that controls the flow of fluid within the system. Its function

is starting or stopping the flow and increase or decrease the direction of the flow. This

valve plays an important role in the gasifier because it’s the one that controlled the air flow

rate that will enter the system. This will also be used to controlled the mixture of air and

synthetic gas that will enter the intake of the engine.

 1.1.8 Angle Bar

Figure 11. Angle Bar (Source: www.indiamart.com)

It is also known as L-bar or angle iron. It was used in the prototype to build the

frame to support entire gasifier.

1.2 Flowchart Diagram

Wood Chips

Downdraft Gasifier

Cyclone Filter

Power Supply Centrifugal Fan

Condenser

Intake of the Engine Synthetic Gas

Figure 12. Flowchart Diagram of Downdraft Gasifier to Intake of Engine

This flowchart diagram illustrates the interconnection of the components to one another.

This includes the feedstock of the wood chips going to the downdraft gasifier and a power supply

to powered the centrifugal fan in order to regulate the air flow rate inside the downdraft gasifier.

When the centrifugal fan starts a supply of air will enter the system and the gasification process
begin inside the gasifier. When synthetic gas was being produced inside the reactor chamber of

gasifier it will passed or go directly to the cyclone filter which clean and filter the synthetic gas.

After that it will travel to condenser pipes which cool the synthetic gas. The result of that process

is clean synthetic gas which will be used for fueling the intake of the engine through proper mixture

of synthetic gas and air.

1.3 Preliminary Design of Downdraft Gasifier

Cyclone Filter

Reactor Chamber
Condenser

Air Flow Meter Sawdust Filter

(alternative filter)

Centrifugal Fan

Air Inlet Valve

Synthetic Gas

Figure 13. Preliminary Design of Downdraft Gasifier

The preliminary design of the prototype shows the part of the prototype that were properly

labelled. The description, importance and functions of each part where already discussed on the

previous page.