Commentary
Saravanakumar Ayyadurai and
Abstract
This work presents a pilot-scale performance study intended at evaluate the achievability and operatability of biomass gasifier specially designed for hilly regions. The operations were carried out with forest wood blocks with around 35% moisture content. The gasifier was designed for 360 kWth downdraft modes operating with air at 15°C as gasifying agent. The designed gasifier system was installed in a green tea processing factory for supplying thermal energy for panning of green leaves. This system has replaced their conventional open wood firing rotary kiln furnace which was an in efficient combustion due to the ambient conditions. A performance study conducted on the gasifier system for their factory’s thermal demand had shown firewood saving of 35% over conventional panning operation. The economics of installation–cum–operation of the gasifier was also found to be acceptable enough the operation results are discussed.