Biomass energy and

cogeneration

S Dasappa
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore

Presented at PSTI 10 Apr 2008

Biomass as a source of energy
 Biomass has been used by mankind for
meeting various energy needs
 Both tree cover as well as agro residues
have been used to meet the energy needs
 In the developing countries basic objective
has been to meet the end use with little or
no concern on efficiency and emissions
Conventional uses with
biomass
 Till 1970’s biomass used to meet the
needs
 Heat
 Domestic : Cooking stoves, agro processing, etc
 Industrial : Kilns, furnaces, boilers, driers, space heating, in
various sectors – small, medium and large scale
 Power
 Steam route using direct combustion technology

In India about 30 % of energy comes from biomass

Post 1970 situation
 With the ease of oil availability and energy
cost being smaller fraction in the product,
facilitated fossil fuel technology deployment
 Significant R and D on fossil fuel technology
coupled with automobile research, penetrated
fossil fuel technology to meet a large number
of domestic as well as industrial requirement

Reduced to use of biomass

Revisiting Bioenergy - Post
1990
 In developing countries
 with increase in fossil fuel cost, and to meet the
ever growing energy demand, bioenergy
utilization being considered as a key contributor
to the energy mix
 In developed countries
 With the changes in environmental conditions,
global requirements has brought in key changes in
addressing bioenergy solutions through efficient
utilisation
Period between 1980 and
2000
 Technological development
 Revisiting bioenergy conversion process
 To develop technology packages to for meeting
all the fossil fuel
Modern Biomass technological
utilization routes
 Thermo chemical conversion
 Direct combustion of the fuel for heat or power
 Gasification for heat and power
 Biological conversion
 Through bacterial route – convert to gas and the
gas for end use application
 Bio-diesel route
 Using edible/non-edible oils
Bioenergy systems
 Technology was acceptable even though
 Low efficiency
 Not user friendly
 High emissions
When there was no access to other technologies
The ease of fossil fuel availability has resulted in
 Use of fossil fuel technology for major applications
 Use of fossil fuel technology continued until recently
when the cost of energy was found high to look at
alternates
SWOT analysis – fossil power
Strengths
Decentralised;   Established
technology,   Significant research
input to meet various end use,
Centrally processed fuel available;  Global warning (now) ;
Sales, service and other support
network well established;   Energy
cost (was) a small fraction of the
product cost; Ideal fuel for transport
Opportunities
Small scale industries growing
rapidly;  Gestation period nearly
zero; Energy costs (was) lower
than grid cost
Weakness
Fuel price linked to international
market (now);  Driven by
governmental subsidy pattern;
Competition in product line –
establish to reduce the fuel cost
(now)
Threats
Environmental ; Governmental
dependence on the pricing
Modern bioenergy systems - 1
 Biomethanation

 Animal waste is used in digesters to produce biogas (CH4

and CO2).
 Biomass in the form of market waste, hotel wastes, etc has
also been used for digestion
 Liquid waste from effluent treatment plants in distilleries,
sewage treatment plants, are generating gas
 Recently, leafy waste have been used for gas generation

Depending upon the capacity of the plant, the gas is

used for domestic application, or mostly steam
generation – for process steam or power or both
Modern bioenergy systems - 2
 Thermochemical route
 Use improved cook stoves
 Very little is being addressed as a combustion
problem
 Improved use of biomass energy in
industrial sectors
 Bagasse in sugar industries
 Black liquor in paper industries
 Co-generation techniques
Domestic stoves 1988 - 1992
 Combi Stove

Biomass LPG
•Specially designed stove •Standard burner
~ 2 kW capacity ( 1.5 – 2 kW) ~ 2 kW capacity
• Efficiency > 50% • Efficiency > 65%
• Batch operation •Continuous operation
 A device to use pellets
 A stove with efficiency in
the range of 50 % using
agro residue pellets
 Features
• Smokeless
• One hour burn time
• Rugged, attractive, control
 Benefits
• Clean air – Health,
• Convenience – control, speed
• Less dependency on external factors
 Field Testing (Nasarpuliankulam, Madurai)
Introduction of Combi Stove

The Village

Training of HH by Jyothi

Traditional cook stove

Combi stove in usage
 Biomass combustion device

Current status
 There are about 800 puffed rice
production units in Davangere
and estimated 4000 in
Karnataka
 They use biomass and tyres for
meeting the fuel requirement
 Working atmosphere is bad
 Exhaust Emissions a major
issue for the PCB
 Biomass device
ABETS Contribution
 Designed a biomass based
stove to meet
 Power level
 Convenience in operation
 Improve working environment
 Saves 40 % of the fuel
 Product quality improved
 Field testing – last few months
 Accepted by the community
 KCTU is interested in large
scale implementation.
Thermo chemical route
 Power generation – gasification route
 Technology has been in existence since World
War II.
 Had limitation with quality of gas for power
generation
 Fuel was confined to charcoal in most cases,
otherwise wood

The challenge was to adopt gasification

technology for small and medium power level
by using agro residues
Further on the open top dual air entry
downdraft gasification
- The IISc design
 Brief history on the gasification
technology at IISc
 Gasification research commenced in 1980’s
 Emphasis was on 5 hp diesel pump sets
 Over 450 Man-Years of R&D effort
 Evolved State-of-the art technology
 Undergone critical third party evaluation – by various groups
 Commercial applications ~ five years
 Ten manufacturers in the field (India and abroad)

 At IISc (Open top down draft technology - distinctly different from

other designs)

 Technology package for agro residue as the fuel

 Power range 5 – 1000 kWe
 Both power and high quality thermal applications
 Over 350,000 hours of operational experience
 Gas cleaning system for turbo-charged engines

 High pressure gasification for micro-turbine

 Technology elements
1 4 5 6
2 3 1
8 0

7 9 11 12

Salient features
•Well insulated reactor
- Ceramics – to stand high temperature and meet industrial standards
- No metal would stand the oxidizing and reducing environment
• Necessary cooling and cleaning system
- to meet the end use requirements
 Reactor design
- IISc design – open top
Air(~ 50-70%)
Novel reactor design Biomass
 Air is drawn from the top A
Broaderthanin Stratification(upward
and from the air nozzles – closed-top. propagation
B offlame front)
 Uniform distribution A
Air
 Broader high temperature B
Grate
zone o C H
1200 - 1400 (7o0t0g-as80es0C
o)
 Enough residence time

• Consistent high quality gas over the turn down ratio

• Varying biomass quality – can accept all agro
residues

The ratio of air flow rate from the nozzle to the top depends on the fuel
properties – size, density; the char consumption rate, etc
Open top gasifier
Closed top gasifier
Open top Dual air down draft
- The IISc design
 IISc design uses a conventional concept of cyclones to remove the dust, heat
exchanger to extract useful heat and series of scrubber to cool and clean the
gas along with a gas drying by cooling the gas to below ambient temperature.
 A fabric filter is also used to remove any residual contaminant.
 As water is being used for scrubbing, a water treatment plant is essential to
meet the local standards. IISc design has a complete water recirculation system
to meet the discharge standards of effluent.
 Gas engine with turbo charger
Air

Flare
Air

Gas

Char/ash
Reactor Cyclone Cooler Scrubber - 1 Scrubber-2 Fabric filter Engine
Gas Engine – R and D
 Basic research
 in cylinder process modeling for PG
 Identify key parameters like the optimum ignition
timing and establish maximum rating in each case
 Turbocharger performance evaluation
 Gas carburetion
 Adaptation and field projects
 Partnering with Cummins Engines on various
projects
 Analysis of Producer Gas Engine
Reasons for
de-rating with
PG

Power output = f (F , Pf , Ef , Mf , Tf)

Energy density Sub-optimal –

Reactant:Product
PG < NG Turbocharger
< 12%
by 20 - 23%

Properties of Gaseous Fuel

Fuel Fuel Air/Fuel Mixture, Φ, Limit SL (Limit), SL Peak Product/
+ LCV, @ (Φ =1) MJ/kg cm/s Φ =1, Flame Reactant
Air MJ/kg Lean Rich Lean Rich cm/s Temp, K Mole Ratio

H2 121 34.4 3.41 0.01 7.17 65 75 270 2400 0.67

Typical composition
of producer gas CO 10.2 2.46 2.92 0.34 6.80 12 23 45 2400 0.67

CH4 50.2 17.2 2.76 0.54 1.69 2.5 14 35 2210 1.00

CO ~ 20 % C3H8 46.5 15.6 2.80 0.52 2.26 - - 44 2250 1.17

H2 ~ 20 % C4H10 45.5 15.4 2.77 0.59 2.63 - - 44 2250 1.20
CH4 ~ 1-2 % PG 5.00 1.35 2.12 0.47 1.60 10.3 12 50 1800 0.87
CO2 ~ 10 % a b c d

Rest ~ N2
 Engine Operations Summary

•Adaptation procedure for PG engine

identified and complete Time T=0 Hours T = 24 Hours

•The 0-D model can be used to get a

first estimate of engine output using
producer gas
1 2

0.8 1.6
CO

0.6 1.2
NO, g/MJ

CO, g/MJ
0.4 NO
0.8

0.2 0.4

0 0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
Time, Hours
Overall engine performance
 The turbo charged engines was closely monitored in the field,
 Joint inspection every 1000 hours
 Checking of oil at regular intervals
 Some issues related to load following capability was resolved by suitable load
distribution.
 30 – 40 % block loading was possible
 Over 50,000 hours of operational experience in the field
 No major issue on the engine wear (based on the inputs from CIL)
 Engine capable of handling varying loads
 SFC ~ 1 ± 0.1 kg/kWh
 Efficiency (Wood to electricity) > 26 %
 Efficiency (Gas to electricity) > 32 %
 Cummins India Limited has agreed to manufacture producer gas engines
based on the input from IISc on the carburetion and ignition timing.
 Cummins has accepted Producer gas as a fuel and would provide
performance guarantee along with the warranty for the equipment.
 Typical applications serviced

 Electricity generation
 Village electrification
 Captive power generation
 Grid linked power generation
 Energy Service Company - ESCO
 Thermal application
 Low temperature (drying, etc., )
 High temperature (furnaces, kilns, etc., )
Biomass used in IISc systems
 Field Installations

 Total installed capacity

Thermal : 22 MWth
Power : 2.5 MWe
Brazil

By Dec 2007 additional

Thermal : 12 MWth
Power : 6.0 MWe

 Over 350,000 hours of operation Butachaques

 Saving 18 -20 Tons of fossil fuel/day

 8 Licensees in India and 3 in overseas

Approximately 10 M USD of private investment

Grid linked project – Arasi Hi-tech
biopower ltd

 First, single largest IPP based on fixed bed biomass

gasification technology
 Biomass used – coconut shells, prosopsis Juliflora
 Plant conceived to operate in gas alone mode; in the
initial phase dual-fuel engine installed later a bank of
5 nos of GTA 1710 G engines with higher
compression ratio (1:10) were deployed
 Peak power of 290 kW obtained against 355 kW on NG
 First time the gas engine connected to grid
Arashi Hi-tech Biopower Pvt Ltd

GASIFIER PRIME MOVER EMISSION ~ Qualifies for

CDM Benefits

Producer gas

Electricity @
440 V
Flue gas

Overall efficiency > GRID LINKAGE

FEED STOCK
27%

440 V to 11 kV
DRIER

EFFLUENT
TREATMENT
PROCESSOR

Recycled water
POWER EXPORT
General Arrangement
Gasifier waste heat – 80 °C

Flue Gas

Biomass Gasifier - 1 E1
E 1
450 °C Biomass
Drier
E
E22
VAC

Gas at ambient
temperature
E33
55 TR Flue Gas
E
150 °C
E
E44
E5
E 5 5 x 240 kWe
Biomass Gasifier - 2 Gas Engines Gasifier waste
heat 80 °C
415 V

Grid sync
Effluent
Effluent Treatment
Treatment 11 kV
plant
plant

Sludge: Biomass to Electricity: 24 – 26%

50 kg/day
The Power Plant with gas engines

Gas engines commissioned in two phases; additional stream of

850 kg/hr gasifier commissioned in December 2004
5 x 240 kWe gas engines coupled to 2 x 850 kg/hr gasifiers
became fully operational in December 2004
Producer gas supply in a common gas manifold to all the five gas
engines
It took about 3 months to streamline the operations at rated
capacity
√ Issue related to inadvertent tripping due to erratic grid
behavior
√ Failure of one of the engine component – frequent after-
cooler burn out
Major Issues Addressed

Gas engine – Burn-out of the one after-cooler of the engine

(V-configuration) during the transient period of grid trip
 Grid trip leading to sudden load throw-off was resulting
in engine getting into hunting mode
 Under the above condition if there is back-fire in both
the engine intake manifolds then engine would come to
a halt else if there is back-fire in one manifold then
engine would continue to run resulting in burn-out of the
former after-cooler
 This issue was resolved by installing a by adapting an
indigenous and simple method of monitoring the after-
cooler temperature and shutting-off the engine fuel flow
Average load during Jan 05 – Dec 05
 5000 Hrs Audit Check of GTA 1710 G Gas
Engine

Intake valves Intake valves

Exhaust Valves Exhaust valves

Intake valves shows accumulation of carbon. However the seating area shows
normal wear. Exhaust valves shows hard layer of ash. Exhaust valve seat area
shows slight wear marks. ( Both the valves reused )
 5000 Hrs Audit Check of GTA 1710 G Gas
Engine

Piston ring groves shows no abnormal wear or deposits.

Piston rings shows normal contact pattern & normal wear.
Engine’s Emission

Nearly Constant Load

Parameter Europe Stage PG engine (90- 95%)
g/MJ II [13]*
CO 0.97 0.5 – 0.7

NOx 1.67 0.15 – 0.2

PM 0.083 below detection

limit

* For non-road diesel engines

 Lube Oil Analysis
Parameter Fresh Used Oil Limit*
Oil (500 -700
hrs)
Kinematic viscosity @ 114 95 - 97 Low - 85
40° C, cSt High - 155
TBN, mg KOH/g 5.7 2.2 – 2.0 2.0

*as per Cummins

•• Oil
Oilquality
qualityinspected
inspectedafter
afterevery
every200
200hours
hours
•• No
Nowater
watercontent
contentininthe
theoil
oil
•• Wear
Wearmetals
metals<<100100ppmppm
•• Oil
Oilchange
changerecommended
recommendedatat500 500hours
hours
Arashi Hi-tech bio power system
Salient features of the plant
 5 engines of nominal rating of 250 kW installed
 Gas engine being grid linked for the first time in the country.
 Total hours of operation ~ 15000 hrs
 Periodic Joint monitoring by Cummins and IISc
 Gas quality acceptable for engines
Performance
 Biomass 1.0 ± 0.10 kg/kWh
 Continuous mode of operation possible
 Engine maintenance comparable to natural gas engine
Beach Mineral Corporation –
Tamil Nadu 1.5 MW
Beach Minerals company Private
Limited, Kuttam
Beach Minerals company Private
Limited, Kuttam
 Performance
 System has operated for over 3500 hours
of operation over the last 6 months
 Some operational issues are being
addressed both by CIL and the gasifier
manufacturer
 Industry has generated about 1.5 M units
Saw dust briquettes for power
generation - India
 Hindustan pencils is a leading pencil
manufacturer of the country.
 Generates saw dust during the process
 Gasifier designed to operate on
briquetted saw dust.
 Captive load with load variation
 Base load requirement 210 kWe.
 Performance
2,000 100,000
1,800 90,000
Hours of operation per

1,600 80,000

Units generated per

1,400 70,000
1,200 60,000
month

month
1,000 50,000
800 40,000
600 30,000
400 20,000
200 10,000
0 0
Jun-03 Jan-04 Aug-04 Feb-05 Sep-05 Mar-06
Month

500 1,400
450
1,200
400
350 1,000
Biomass, g/kWh
Diesel, ml/kWh

300
800
250
600
200
150 400
100
200
50
0 0
Jun-03 Jan-04 Aug-04 Feb-05 Sep-05 Mar-06
Month
Rice husk as a fuel - Thailand
 Initial test with woody biomass
to bench mark the
performance
 The nominal composition was 17
– 19% H2, 20 – 22% CO 1.2 - 1.5
% CH4, 12% CO2 and rest, N2
 Maximum output 83 kW
 Specific fuel consumption 0.94
kg/kWh
 Rice husk briquettes
 The maximum engine load was
restricted to about 72-74 kWe.
 The ash extraction rate was
maintained at about 25%
 Specific biomass consumption ~
1.4 kg/kWh .
Performance using different fuels
 Agro residue briquettes tested at 20 % ash
 Same gasification system can handle 1 to 20 %
ash
 Gas quality acceptable for engine
 SFC consumption similar on ash free basis
 Fuel quality requirement
 Thermal stability of the briquette important
 Density and binding an important property
Heat treatment – Tahafet,
Hosur
 Eight furnaces and temperatures vary from
600 C to 1000 C
 Each furnace is fitted with two burners having
air to fuel ratio control and also a PID
controller to oversee the operations. The
industry operates on three shifts for about 6
days in a week
 Typical LDO consumption per day =
1500-2000
Heat treatment .. contd
 300-kg/hr capacity installed

 All the eight furnaces are connected to

the gasifier using WESMAN make dual-
fuel burner with ratiotrol based A/F
control and PID monitor servo controller.
The temperatures in the individual
furnaces are maintained independently.
 With 8 furnaces connected presently to
gasifier saving is about 2000 litres/day.
 Average fuel consumed per day 5.2 T of
coconut shells, wood chips
 Total operating hours ~ 35000
Kandaswamy Metals, Palakad
 An Aluminium industry
involved in the melting and
making vessels
 Located in Pallakad and
using Furnace oil for the
melting purpose
 System designed to use hot
gas directly for the burner
 100 kg/hr

 Specially designed burner

Kandaswamy Metals, Pallakad
 Performance
 Total running hours of the gasifier June 2007 : 780 hrs
 Average running hours per day : 14.00 hrs.
 Average biomass consumption per day : 1350 Kgs.
 Average melting of the Aluminum per day : 1600 Kgs.
 Replacement of the Furnace oil per day : 400 Ltrs.
 Total biomass consumption : 61 Tons
 Total Aluminum melting : 70 Tons.
 Saving : Rs. 10 Lakhs
 5 MW th for heat application
 Gasification system at M/S Tanfac industries, Cuddalore
 Total hours of operation ~ 40,000
 Last 5 months summary
Biomass FO
Hours of Consumed replaced,
operation Tonnes kL
May-06 702 651 165

Jun-06 660 621 158

Jul-06 509 476 121
Aug-06 642 640 163
Sep-06 640 640 163

Hours of operation 3153 hrs

Biomass used 3028 Tons
Oil replaced 770 k Ltrs
Savings 0.1 M USD
Some glimpses of the hardware

Piping to the burner

Control desk
Co-generation
 Additional energy utilization
 Heat or Cool
 Power
 or combination
 Tri-generation
 Along with the above by products
Typical examples
 Sugar, paper and many process
industries
 Power and steam
 Boiler – for steam generation
 Used for power generation in a steam
turbine
 Steam used for process heat
Steam route
Co-generation
Gasifier Wasteheat – 80 0C

Wasteheat from
Coolingwater
Flue Gas
Flue Gas 120 0C
450 – 500 0C Biomass

Gas at ambient
temperature
Biomass Gasifier – 3000 kg/hr VAC Drier
E
2.7 Mwe Chilled
Gas Engine
water For
industrial
requirement
Effluent Treatment s
Plane 415 V

Captive Consumption or
Sludge : 150 Grid Synchronizing &
Kg/day Power evacuation
Co-generation
 IISc’s experience
 System reliability at industrial level
 System packaging as IPP
 Continuous non stop operation > 2500 hrs
 Increasing demand for gasification systems to
meet various energy demands
Major feature in the program at IISc
It is important to note that the group involved in R & D has also been involved
in the projects. This has resulted in actions to meet the users demand
Global Overview
 Various groups in Europe are actively involved in the
area of gasification
 Basic fuel is wood chips – clean fuel
 Advantage – use the plant as CHP
 Can also burn some wastes generated in the boiler
 Overall economics better
 Total package
 Water treatment and gas treatment still challenging
 Commercial operation on power generation is
available from Indian experience
The work carried out on the biomass
gasification technology has received
significant funding from the MNRE.

………………Thank you

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