Gasification is a process that converts organics or fossil fuel based material into syngas at high temperature under controlled amount of air. Gasification thus increases the practicality of using biomass as a renewable source of energy. The goal of this paper is to explore corn kernel gasification at the University of Iowa Oakdale pilot scale gasifier. The results of this paper consists of three parts; the temperature profile in the gasifier, gas analysis at 950F and 1050F, and bio char analysis. The temperature profile within the gasifier was obtained and studied; different temperature gasification zones were identified. Sample gases at 950F and 1050F were obtained and analyzed. It was seen that the syngas production (in volume) at 1050 F was 12.2% greater than that of 950F. A 37.4%, 27.1% and 38.3% increase in composition of H, CO and CH4 respectively was also observed. Ultimate analysis, proximate analysis, SEM and BET tests were carried on the corn bio char produced. From the ultimate and proximate analysis, it was observed that corn bio char was similar to activated carbon. Oakdale bio-char was compared with other processed powder bio char. It was observed that char produced from the Oakdale gasifier was more porous than powder bio-char, possibly making it a better soil amendment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uiowa.edu/oai:ir.uiowa.edu:etd-5802 |
| Date | 01 May 2015 |
| Creators | Sharma, Tejasvi |
| Contributors | Ratner, Albert |
| Publisher | University of Iowa |
| Source Sets | University of Iowa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright © 2015 Tejasvi Sharma |
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