Development and Testing of A Laboratory Type Gasifier for Gasification of Paddy Straw

In this research, a laboratory scale gasifier was designed and manufactured for rice straw straw that stayed on the field after harvesting to evaluate energy contents. Collected rice straw from our region was pelletted (100% straw pellet and pellet mixtured with 15% coal powder) and the pellets were analyzed. Experiments were realized by using both rice straw and pellets and biomass samples were gasified and compositions of obtained gas samples were determined . As a result of the gasification experiments, it was observed that adding of coal powder to paddy stalk pellets increased the heat value of obtained syngas (from 3,686 MJ / Nm3 to 3.71 MJ / Nm3 ) while it has negative effect on the efficiency due to increasing of specific gasification rate (maximum 61.9% for pellets without coal powder and maximum 57.41% for coal powder added pellets). Due to the high silicon content in the paddy pellets of the paddy, the high gasification rates could not be achieved due to the risk of glass structure at temperatures of 800 °C and above. For gasification of pelletted biomass with increased energy density, designed reactor in this project worked smoothly. On the other hand, it has been determined that reactor construction is not suitable for the gasification of paddy straws that were not pelletted and continuous biomass feeding systems should be included and changes in dimensions should be done. Lower efficiency was found for unpelletted paddy straw as 37.14%. As parallel to this lower efficiency values compared to values determined for pelletted straws, heat values of syngas for unpelletted paddy straw was determined rather low (1.94 MJ/Nm3 ).