Page 502 - AWSAR 2.0

478 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
trees owing to the generation of about 2 tons per day of garden waste. Therefore, the IIT Bombay campus itself is a major source of raw feedstock for the gasification process.
The raw feedstock required for the process is abandoned, but the chemical and physical properties can vary significantly depending upon the geographical and climatic conditions. The variation in the properties of feedstock plays a vital role in the performance of the gasification process. The ash content of the feedstock is one of the major properties that can affect the gasification process to the extent of shutting down the whole process. The issue with high ash content biomass is the agglomeration of melted ash components near air inlets in the combustion zone at high temperatures. This phenomenon is known as clinker formation, and it is common for the feeds to have ash content more than 5%. The formed clinker sometimes results in the complete blockage of feed movement,
finally leading to the shutting
down of the gasifier. This
situation is highly undesirable
for cooking applications;
therefore, it demands an
efficient design of the gasifier
that can handle a wide variety
of feedstocks. Hence, the
underline objective of my work
is to design an efficient and
user-friendly gasifier that not
only provides efficient burning
of producer gas but also treats
both high and low ash content
biomass feedstocks.
To address the issue of clinker formation and increase the quality of producer gas, I performed various experiments using a commercially available TERI downdraft gasifier by varying parameters such
as flow rate of the gasifying agent, grate rotation period, gasifying agent split ratio, and gasification zone length. Based on the results obtained from the experiments, I proposed a set of operating conditions and also come up with a revamped design of the downdraft gasifier. To further improve the design of the gasifier, I performed a study on the flow and temperature profile of various species inside the gasifier with the help of modeling and simulation methodology. The burner plays a vital role in the efficient burning of any gaseous species. Therefore, simultaneous work is going on to design an efficient burner specifically for producer gas.
Now referring to the employment of the revamped gasifier, I performed trials for cooking the food in a staff canteen and one of the hostel messes of IIT Bombay for a period of 4 months. I have also collected the feedback regarding the quality of food and
the operating procedure of the gasifier. The feedback was positive, and people operating the gasifier, students, and administration were very enthusiastic about having new eco-friendly technology (Figs. 1 and 2). After successful installation of the gasifier- based cookstove setup in IIT Bombay, a survey was done in various districts of Maharashtra to identify the target places where this technology could be employed. We visited many ashram schools and other institutions having a mess facility and had a conversation to convince them for the gasification-based cookstoves. As a result, we installed a complete setup in one ashram school and replaced the use of
To address these issues, people have invested their time and capabilities and come up with solutions such as composting, biogas generation plant, and gasification. With time, people have preferred gasification process over traditional methods such as composting. Gasification is a process in which any carbonaceous substance is processed with a limited amount of air/O2/ CO2 steam or their mixtures to produce a mixture of H2, CO, and trace CH4.