Modeling and experimental investigation on pyrolysis basedimproved natural draft charcoal retort system for rural applications

Abstract

India - occupying 2 % of the world s landmass, possessing 16 % of world s population and generating about 2 % of global electricity experiences 5.5 % energy shortage with a peak demand shortage of 21 %.Given the growing gap between energy supply and demand, the policy makers are turning increasingly to energy efficiency and renewable energy for improving the quality and quantity of power availability. Renewable energyhas for long, been an integral part of the Indian National Strategy for Sustainable Development and Poverty Alleviation. India has the distinction of newlinesetting up first dedicated ministry for promoting renewables and has todayamong the world s largest programmes on renewable energy. Among the renewables, biomass has a bright scope for bridging the energy gap, thanks to its availability and widespread distribution. Despite this, the available potential of biomass is not yet properly utilised (or) converted for energygeneration due to its manifold inherent inferior characteristics. Prosopis juliflora, biomass species fuelwood, is one of the mostcommonly available sources of wood biomass and is preferred for charcoal making both in developing and underdeveloped countries. This fuel wood gives the superior quality charcoal as it has the best of the qualities like hardness and porosity and the process involved is Pyrolysis. The research on prosopis juliflora pyrolysis was focused on three different techniques of experimental methods. First, to determine the kinetic parameters using TGA pyrolysis; second, to understand the pyrolysis process, the product of pyrolysis and their compositions using fixed-bed tubular pyrolysis reactor newline newline