Design and first tests of a micro lab scale (2kg/h) gasifier

Most of the gasification systems cost various tens or hundreds of thousands of euros, take up a lot of space and need trained staff to be operated. This implies that biomass gasification tests are usually expensive and complex to carry out. From all these difficulties arise the need of a solution that is simple, cheap and small, allowing experimental studies without all the issues related to a commercial power plant. A laboratory scale gasifier was designed and built to meet this need. The main features of the system are the use of stainless steel for all the parts, the small size that allows to use it on a worktable and the nominal biomass flow rate of 2 kg/h. Data from literature was used to size the gasifier and choose its main parameters after an interpolation process. The interpolation was necessary because most of the data available refers to systems at least one order of magnitude more powerful than this prototype. Fir wood pellet was tested as a benchmark of the gasification system. Thanks to the manageability of the system it will allow to test different kinds of biomass. Gas-chromatographic analyses and tar and particulate sampling were carried out in order to evaluate the gas produced by the system. Elemental analysis of the char extracted from the lower part of the gasifier was performed to assess its quality. First results showed that the composition and the amount of contaminant of the gas are similar to the ones produced in much bigger power plant and also the char composition is the typical one for pyrogasification.