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Rice husk is one of themost abundant biomass wastes in Indonesia. One way to convert it into analternative source of energy is biomass gasification. This is a thermochemicalprocess which converts biomass feedstock into fuel gas or chemical feedstockgas (producer gas). The gasification type which is developed in this study isfixed bed downdraft type due to its low tar content and compatibility inmicroscale implementation. One major problem with the implemented biomassgasification reactor was ruggedness of the partial oxidation process due to theabsence of air in the reactor?s middle section, which consequently affected thepyrolysis zone. Several experiments were conducted previously using coconutshells and rice husks as solid feedstock, where an equivalence ratio (ER) of0.4 was obtained. Therefore, in order to optimize the pyrolysis zone, themodification conducted involves adding a circular air intake into the gasifier.Experiments were conducted in a pyrolysis temperature range of 300?700oCwith ER variation of 0.19, 0.24, 0.27 and 0.31. The results show that a goodquality producer gas is produced at an ER value of 0.24. This value shows apromising result because the ER value of biomass gasification standard is 0.25. |
