TITLE:
Effects of Heating Temperature and Moisture on Indirect Gasification of Rubber Wood in Closed Gasifier Chamber
AUTHORS:
Hiroki Homma, Naoya Nishida, Akio Furuta
KEYWORDS:
Indirect Gasification, Rubber Wood, Closed Gasifier Chamber, Moisture Content, Gas Component
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems,
Vol.6 No.1,
March
9,
2016
ABSTRACT: Rural area in Indonesia of which electrification ratio is still low has a strong demand for off-grid
electric power supply. On the other hand, Indonesia is a leading natural rubber production country
and these rubber wood trees are cultivated in vast plantation farms. A rubber wood tree is
woody biomass resource which can be stably supplied because a lot of trees aged more than 25
years are logged and nursery trees are planted constantly. Woody biomass is burned directly as
solid fuel and the generated thermal energy can be applied only for room heating or cooking. Otherwise,
direct conversion of biomass to electric energy requires a large scale equipment such as a
boiler and a steam turbine, whereas gasified woody biomass can be easily handled and can have
wide application. A closed gasifier chamber which was kept vacuum and fulfilled with gas yield
during gasification was recently developed by the authors for indirect gasification. It was confirmed
that generated gas by the gasifier is clean and can be directly used to drive an engine generator
to supply electricity. In this study, planer dust of rubber wood is used as gasification
feedstock for indirect gasifying in the closed gasifier chamber, and effects of heating temperature
and moisture content on gasification performance are discussed to examine characteristics of the
closed gasifier chamber in details.