Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556

DOI 10.1007/s11027-009-9173-x

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Experimental investigation of open core downdraft

biomass gasifier for food processing industry

N. L. Panwar & N. S. Rathore & A. K. Kurchania

Received: 26 November 2008 / Accepted: 17 March 2009 /

Published online: 1 April 2009
# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009

Abstract This paper deals with field related experience of a low temperature
industrial heat application through biomass gasification. The gasification system is
essentially consists of an open top down draft reactor lined with ceramic. The
experiment reveals that 6.5 kg of liquefy petroleum gas (LPG) is fully replaced by
38 kg of sized wood on hourly basis. The maximum temperature attained was 367°C
in 130 min at 100.7 Nm3 h−1 gas flow rate. This system has resulted a saving of about
19.5 tons of LPG over 3,000 h of operation, implying a saving of about 33 tons of CO2
emission, thus a promising candidate for clean development mechanism. Fuel economic
analysis of gasifier system showed that the saving was about 13,850 US$ for 3,000 h of
baking operation.

Keywords Biomass . Gasifier . Industrial heat . LPG replacement

1 Introduction

Biomass fuels continue to play an important role in the domestic and industrial
sectors in India, as it is an agricultural-based economy. The substitution of
conventional fossil fuels with biomass for energy production results both in a net
reduction of greenhouse gases emission and in the replacement of non-renewable

N. L. Panwar (*) : A. K. Kurchania

Department of Renewable Energy Sources, College of Technology and Engineering,
Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India 313 001
e-mail: nlpanwar@rediffmail.com
A. K. Kurchania
e-mail: kurchania@rediffmail.com

N. S. Rathore
College of Dairy and Food Science Technology,
Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India 313 001
e-mail: rathoren@rediffmail.com
548 Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556

energy sources (Dasappa et al. 2004). However, at present, generating energy from
biomass is rather expensive due to technological limits related to lower conversion
efficiency (Caputo et al. 2005). As per the estimates, about 249.78 Mt of surplus biomass
was in India in 2001 from all sources including agro-processing residues, grassland,
forests, roadside, agro forestry and degraded habitats. Their availability is likely to
increase to about 384.51 Mt by 2015 (Pathak et al. 2004). Biomass has high but variable
moisture content and is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and
inorganic elements. In comparison to fossil fuels, biomass contains much less carbon,
more oxygen and a lower heating value in the range of 12–16 MJ kg−1 (Mukunda et al.
1994; Pathak 2005). Biomass gasification is the thermo chemical conversion of solid
biomass into combustible gas mixtures. Gasification is carried out in a reactor which
converts biomass into combustible gases by controlled-temperature oxidation with
ambient air and subsequent reduction of the products of combustion with the char
(Sasidharan et al. 1995; Fassji 2006). The gas produced by gasifier can be utilized to
produce process heat for thermal application. To disseminate the gasification technology
in actual uses, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has taken initiative to
develop research group within India for technology and man power development, as a
consequence Indian premier institute like Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc)
(Dasappa et al 2004). The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), Sardar Patel Renewable
Energy Research Institute (SPRERI) have been involved in the field of biomass
combustion and gasification technology. More than 350 TERI gasifier systems have
been successfully installed in the field throughout India with a cumulative installed
capacity of over 13 MWth (Palit and Mande 2007). The gasifier technologies available in
India are based on downdraft gasification and designed primarily for woody biomass
(Chawla and Kishore 1993).
Package of practice was developed by IISc, Banglore to dry marigold flower with
open top downdraft gasifier. The developed gasifier is in position to replaces 2,000
liter of diesel or LDO per day completely. The system operates over 140 h per week
on a nearly nonstop mode and over 4,000 h of operation replacing fossil fuel
completely (Dasappa et al. 2003). Work on development of modular throat type down
draft gasifier having 1.39 MW thermal capacity was carried out by Pathak et al (2008).
There is huge scope to utilize the gasification technology in small scale industries for low
temperature applications. Keeping this in view, Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research
Institute (SPRERI), V.V Nagar (22o 32′N 73o 00′E) open core, throat less down draft
gasifier was installed at M/s Suman Food Products by the Department of Renewable
Energy Sources, Udaipur (27° 42′ N, 75° 33′ E) for baking the bakery items such as
bread, toast etc. In this paper attempt has been made to evaluate the performance of
gasifier for food processing industry.

2 Material and methods

M/s Suman Food Product, a franchise of internationally recognized, Hindustan Lever

Limited is situated in Udaipur. It produces bread, biscuits, toast etc. for the
consumption in local market. The industry had one rotary oven for processing the
products. One batch of 60 kg dough (one trolley) required 20–25 min at 230–280°C
for backing by burning Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Oven consumed 6.5 kg of
LPG per hour earlier. Now industry switched over to gasifier which was operated
nearly 15–18 h per day.
Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556 549

2.1 Experimental details

The experimental set up consists of following components:

2.1.1 Open core down draft gasifier

The gasifier was an open core down draft type consisting of well insulated cylindrical mild steel
(IS-2060) shell, manual rotating type cast iron grate, ash pit, electric blower and burner. The major
components of system are illustrated in Fig. 1. The grate area (0.27 m2) was designed from
specific gasification rate of 160 kg h−1 m−2 and the fuel input rate of 60 kg h−1. Air distribution
unit which supplemented the air taken through the open top, consisted of six number of air
tuyeres of 20 mm in diameter. These side tuyeres are placed at 500 mm above the grate. The
volume of ash pit (0.068 m3) was sufficient to allow operation without ash removal for many
hours (Final Report 2002). The gasifier system is piped into the producer gas burners fixed at
the combustion chamber. The technical specification of gasifier system is given in Table 1.

2.1.2 Cyclone

A high efficiency dry cyclone was used to remove the solid particulate matters from hot raw
producer gas.

2.1.3 Blower

Two blowers were used to operate the gasifier system. One blower having 140 m3h−1 gas
flow coupled with 1.5 h.p. electric driven motor is called testing blower. Second blower

1. Gasifier 5. Testing Burner 9. Water seal

2. Cyclone 6. Valve no. 2 10.Walkway platform and ladder

3. Valve no.1 7. Main Blower

4. Testing Blower 8. Main Burner

Fig. 1 Schematic of gasifier layout with bakery oven
550 Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556

Table 1 Technical specifications of the gasifier system

Type Down draft open core

Biomass Babul wood (Prosopis juliflora)

Biomass consumption 60 kg h−1
rate
Capacity 180 kWth
Ash removal unit Manual rotating type
Fuel feeding Manual
Fuel properties Moisture less than 15% (wb). The fuel size should not be more than 1/10th of the
reactor diameter in length, and between 1 and 3 in diameter or thickness

having gas flow rate 400 m3h−1 with 5 h.p. electric driven motor is called main blower. In
the initial inception of operation, the gasifier produces more tar at low temperature thus
may deposit on impeller of blower which reduces the flow rate later on. To overcome this
problem two blowers were used. The main blower was started only when the combustible
gas is detected at testing burner. The impeller of the blower is made up of stainless steel.
The blower is of indirect drive with belt and pulley.

2.1.4 Premixed burner

The premixed burner of 150 Nm3 h−1, i.e. 180 kW was used to combust producer gas. The
burner is a concentric tube type where the air is supplied through a central tube that is
surrounded by another tube. The producer gas is supplied through the annular passage. The
burner consists of swirl vane for air and producer gas, mixing tube and bluff body for flame
stabilization. The swirl vane was manually adjusted to require angle. The burner has spark
ignition system to ignite the flame. The ignition system consists of ignition transformer and
ignition electrodes (M/s Vasant transformer, Ahmedabad).

2.1.5 Baking oven

The baking oven is rectangular in shape and divided in two sections. Producer gas burns in
one section where air is heated to the required baking temperature while in other section
product is put inside with rotary trolley for baking. There is no direct contact between
producer gas flame and product to prevent the deterioration of the quality. It is purely
indirect heating type. The technical specification of baking oven is given in Table 2.

Table 2 Technical specification of baking oven

Type Indirect heat type (air heating)

Volume 10.5 m3
Section
One Combustion chamber
Second Baking space with rotating clip to rotated trolley
Baking Temperature 230–370°C
Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556 551

Fig. 2 Gasifier in operation

2.2 System operation

The gasifier was operated according to the procedure prescribed by the MNRE (2000). Initially
30 kg of charcoal pieces (15–40 mm long) were loaded up to the air nozzle level and 10 kg of
wood saving was loaded for easy firing. Then fuel wood was loaded up to the top of gasifier.
The testing blower was started, drawing air for gasification on top of reactor and through air
tuyeres. The bed was ignited by placing the flame near the air tuyeres, one by one, which

Table 3 Physical and thermal properties of feed stock Babul wood (Prosopis juliflora)

S. No. Characteristic Biomass ( babul wood)

(Prosopis juliflora)

1 Size (mm) 25–40

2 Length (mm) 35–85
3 Bulk density (kg m−3) 395
4 Angle of slide (deg) 15
5 Moisture content (% wb) 10.2
6 Volatile matter (% db) 83.42
7 Ash content (% db) 1.05
8 Fixed carbon (% db) 15.53
9 Calorific value (MJ kg−1) 16.3
552 Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556

Table 4 Performance of gasifier at M/s Suman Food Product

S. No. Parameters Babul wood (Prosopis juliflora)

1. Fuel consumption rate, kg h−1 38.0

2. Producer gas flow rate, Nm3 h−1 100.7
3. Calorific value of producer gas, MJNm−3 4.27–5.07
4. Cold gas efficiency, % 70–74
5. Gas production, m3 kg−1 2.65

resulted uniform flame. Producer gas obtained became combustible after some time and was
allowed to ignite at the testing burner (see Fig. 2). Once combustible gas reached to at testing
burner, the main blower is started to turn the producer gas for actual operation in the oven. The
gas was sucked by blower after closing the valve no. 1 and the opening valve no. 2. To remove
ash accumulated on the grate, it was rotated manually at regular interval. The gasifier was
operated with feed stock of Babul wood (Prosopis juliflora) to evaluate the performance of the
system. Physical and thermal properties of feedstock are presented in Table 3.

2.3 Measurement techniques

Proximate analysis was conducted to analyze the feed stock. The parameters studied were
moisture content (ASTM D317373), volatile matter (ASTM D3175-73) and ash content
(ASTM D3174-73). Fixed carbon (FC) was determined using material balance (ASTM
1983; Singh et al. 1999; Singh and Patil 2001).
The calorific value of feed stock was calculated by Digital Bomb Calorimeter (Advance
Research Instrument Company). Cr–Al thermocouples and digital multi-channel tempera-
ture indicator were used to measure temperatures. Water filled U tube manometer was used
to measure the pressure drop across the gasifier. Producer gas samples were collected by
water displacement method and were analyzed by using Gas Chromatography (Netal
Chromatographs, Baroda, Gujarat, India). The chromatograph consisted of two columns
Molecular sieve and Porapack N as stationary media and Argonas carrier gas.
Chromatograph used TCD as detector. ‘INSURF’ Junkar’s gas calorimeter (Instrumentation
and Refrigeration of India, Chennai, India) was also used to determine the calorific value of
producer gas by combustion of a known volume of gas to heat steadily the flowing water
and measuring the rise in temperature of a measured volume of water. A calibrated orifice
plate was used to determine the flow rate of producer gas
Pressure drop , mm of wc

900 22
800
17
700
600 12
500
7
400
300 2
7:55 AM 8:24 AM 8:52 AM 9:21 AM 9:50 AM 10:19 AM
Time
350 mm above grate 500 mm above grate
Flame temperature Pressure drop mm of wc

Fig. 3 Variation in temperature and pressure drop across the gasifer

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556 553

400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
8:00 AM 8:28 AM 8:57 AM 9:26 AM 9:55 AM 10:24 AM
Time
Fig. 4 Temperature profile during no load testing

The fuel consumption rate (FCR) was measured by recharging the gasifier on an hourly
basis by filling the gasifier volume to predetermine level that was at the top of gasifier
hopper. To evaluate the performance of gasifier system for thermal application, the
following parameters were constantly monitored:
1. Size of feedstock
2. Fuel consumption rate (FCR)
3. Oven temperature
4. Gas outlet temperature
5. Flame temperature
6. Calorific value of producer gas

3 Result and discussion

3.1 System performance

The system operated for a cumulative period of more than 3,000 h with individual
test run of 15–18 h and babul wood (Prosopis juliflora) with diagonal length 20–

Batch I Batch II Batch III

390
370
350
330
310
290
270
250
10:09 AM 10:16 AM 10:23 AM 10:30 AM 10:37 AM 10:45 AM
Time
Fig. 5 Temperature profile during full load testing
554 Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556

Table 5 Gas composition of producer gas during operation

CO % H2% CH4% CO2% N2% Calorific Value MJ Nm−3

Sample 1 18.2 13.5 1.66 10.1 56.54 4.84

Sample 2 19.3 15.1 1.35 8.5 55.75 5.07
Sample 3 17.12 11 1.42 7.9 62.56 4.27

100 mm was used as feed stock. No problem was found in the operation of gasifier and
combustible producer gas was recorded after 10 min of flaring. The required temperature
was attained at an average gas flow rate of 95–115 Nm3 h−1. The calorific value of
producer gas varied in the range of 4.2–5.07 MJNm−3 and cold gas efficiency in the range
of 70–74% as shown in Table 4, it is very close to result addressed by Dasappa et al.
(2004). The variations in the temperature of different zones of gasifier with respect to
time is illustrated in Fig. 3. No load testing was carried out and it was found that oven
temperature 367°C maximum was attained in 130 min as graphically presented in Fig. 4.
After attaining temperature of about 367°C during no load conditions, the loaded trolley
having 60 kg of product for baking was placed in the oven which was baked in 8 min, and
the temperature drop by 24°C was recorded. Afterwards two more loaded trolleys were
placed successively for baking period of 8 min each. The total temperature dropped
during these three baking batches was found to be 82°C. Its graphical variation is
illustrated in Fig. 4. Table 5 reveals the chemical constituent of producer gas obtained in
different samples during operation. The higher heating value of producer gas varies in the
range of 4–5 MJ Nm−3. Similar heating value of producer gas was presented by Bhoi et
al. (2006) for thermal application.

3.2 Economic evaluation

Earlier, one oven was consuming 6.5 kg of LPG per hour, for 3,000 h of operation
19.5 tons of LPG is required which costing about 22,440 US $(exchange rate Rs 40
US$−1, June 2007). It was replaced by 110 tons of wood which costing about 8,550 US
$. There is considerable saving of about 13,850 US $. The system is in position to save
about US $. 13,850 at 3,000 h of operation as compared to LPG (Table 6). The result of
fuel cost economics is given in Table 4. Over 3,000 h of operation this system has
resulted in a saving of about 19.5 tons of LPG, implying a saving of about 33 tons of
CO 2 (Online emission calculator 2009), thus a promising candidate for clean
development mechanism.

Table 6 Comparison of operating cost with different fuel

Fuel per Cost per kg Fuel required per hour Operating cost per day Operation cost for 3,000 h
hour (US $) (kg) (US $) (US $)

LPG 1.15 6.5 112.12 22,440

Wood (sized) 0.075 38 42.75 8,550
Saving 13,850
Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2009) 14:547–556 555

3.3 Repair and maintenance

Regular checking is required for smooth running of gasifier. The gasifier should be air tight,
it has water sealing at the bottom which also acts as ash pit. At the initial stage of starting
the gasifier water tank should be filled with water up to the level to provide proper seal.
Ash should be removed from the water tank before restarting the gasifier. Cyclone should
be cleaned to remove ash dumped weekly. Gasifier should be unloaded after every 200 h of
operation to check the status of inside insulation. All gas valves should be cleaned after
every 200 h to remove the tar deposited on side wall. Burner should be cleaned after every
200 h of operation to check status of sparking electrodes and transformer. Similarly blower
should be cleaned after every 500 h of operation including bearing grease checking at the
gland packing, if it warn out replace it. The combustion chamber of backing oven should be
cleaned after every 500 h operation.

3.4 Source of availability

More details on the technology including training and dissemination of technology at industrial
level can be provided by author’s university. Industrial personnel for further details can also
contact to Project coordinator, Renewable Sources of Energy, CIAE, Bhopal and Director,
Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, VV Nagar, Gujarat, India.

4 Conclusions

Biomass has high potential to contribute to energy need of modern society worldwide. The
open core down draft gasifier provides a practice solution for production of a low calorific
value gas for small scale agro based industries for thermal application.
Open core down draft gasifier performed satisfactorily operation in baking application.
About 6.5 kg of LPG is replaced by 38 kg of wood used in gasifier. The economic analysis
of the gasifier showed that user could save about 13,850 US $ on 3,000 h of operation. The
payback period for the gasifier system was only 1,100 h of operation

Acknowledgement The authors are grateful to Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Govt. of India for
providing financial support and to Dr. B.S. Pathak, Director Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research
Institute for providing valuable guidance to carry out the study. Authors are also grateful to the M/s Suman
Food Product Private Limited for providing facility to carry out work.

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