Experimental Studies on Lignite Gasification Process

Abstract

The remote region of India either face a severe shortage of power or are not connected with newlinegrid system. Many villages which are connected to grid system the electrical supply is found newlineintermittent and unreliable. For villages/habitations, where grid connectivity is neither feasible newlinenor cost effective, off-grid solution based on stand-alone system may be taken up for supply of newlineelectricity so that every house hold gets electricity. Off-grid electrification can provide a more newlinereliable supply and has a great potential to supply power to remote and rural areas. The gas newlineengine coupled with gasifier is a proven technology and can be economically used for newlinedecentralized power generation in the remote areas distant from the grid. Various biomass have newlinebeen used as a fuel for downdraft gasifier. However, their seasonal availability and land newlinerequirement for production coupled with other competing use has forced the attention of newlinedevelopment of technologies for the use of other comparable gasifier fuels. newlineIndia has a considerable reserve (6.18 billion tonnes) of lignite. Application of lignite has been newlinelimited due to their high moisture and ash content. Lignite has not been exploited to any great newlineextent and its utilization is not properly focused, because it is inferior to higher-rank coals in newlinecalorific value, ease of handling, and storage stability. However, lignite seems to be promising newlinematerial for gasification, as it is highly reactive than other types of coal and high volatile matter newlinecontent. A little or limited work has been reported on gasification of lignite in downdraft newlinegasifier. In this work, an attempt has been made to use the lignite as a fuel for downdraft gasifier. newlineThe main objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of lignite as a fuel for downdraft newlinegasifier. The first part of the study involves design and development of pilot-scale (10kWe) newlinedowndraft gasifier for lignite fuel and to evaluate the effect of the particle size on gasifier newlineperformance. Six different particle sizes viz. 13-16 mm, 16-19 m