Investigation into the characteristics and possible applications of biomass gasification by-products from a downdraft gasifier system.

Abstract

Biomass gasification has attracted the interest of researchers because it produces zero carbon to the atmosphere. This technology does not only produce syngas but also the by-products which can be used for various applications depending on quality. The study conducted at Melani village in Alice in the Eastern Cape of South Africa was aimed at investigating the possible applications of the gasification by-products instead of being thrown away. Pine wood was employed as the parent feedstock material for the gasifier. Biomass gasification by-products were then collected for further analysis. The studied by-products included tar (condensate), char, soot and resin. These materials were also blended to produce strong materials. The essence of the blending was to generate ideal material that is strong but light at the same time. The elemental analysis of the samples performed by CHNS analyser revealed that carbon element is in large quantities in all samples. The FTIR spectra showed almost similar results for all the studied samples, since the samples are end products of lignocellulose gasification. The major functional groups observed in all the samples under FTIR included C=C, O-H, C-H, C-O, C-C. Samples under XRD showed amorphous structure as they mostly absorbed within the range of 10°-35°. SEM gave the sticky images of resin as well as porous char structures. Char showed a higher heating value of 35.37MJ/Kg when compared to other by-products samples.