Effect of Grass and Coconut Shell Blending Ratio on the Performance of Syngas

¹ Department of Fundamental and Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: norazilahtamili@gmail.com

Abstract

Biomass is a potential energy source since it is renewable, efficient and cost effective. Biomass can be converted in useful fuel gas via gasification method, which is an effective method to produce energy from biomass. Reliance on a single biomass to generate electrical power can cause disruption due to the inconsistencies in the supply of biomass feedstock. Co-gasification of biomass can mitigate the problem. This paper is aimed to investigate the synergetic effect on the syngas produce from co-gasification of biomass. Co-gasification of grass (G) and coconut shell (CS) was carried out to study the syngas performance. The characterization was carried out in order to understand the physical properties of biomass in relation to thermochemical conversion. The characterization results shows that both G and CS have an acceptable range of proximate and ultimate analysis. Both biomass materials were co-gasified at varied ratios of 50:50, 40:60 and 20:80 using an externally heated gasifier. The blend of G and CS at 20:80 ratio has positive synergetic effect as evident by increase in the gas composition for CO, CH₄ and H₂. It is concluded that co-gasification results of G and CS is possible.