Gasification of biomass over dolomite using fixed-bed reactor method at 550°C

Abstract

In order to reduce open burning of rice husk that will give impact to the environment, gasification of biomass was introduced. In this project, the rice husk as biomass and the dolomite as a catalyst was used to undergo a gasification process to produce the maximize hydrocarbon gas and determine the effect of dolomite to biomass ratio. The parameter that affects the production of hydrocarbon gas are duration of the gasification process, sizes of the particle, the amount of catalyst, temperature and the gas flow rate. Calcined dolomite that used in this project was in three different temperatures 700 °C, 750 °C and 800 °C. The ratios of dolomite to biomass are 1:3, 1:4 and 1:5. The calcined dolomite was undergone x-ray fluorescence (XRF) to determine the element found in the calcined dolomite. The gasification of biomass was run using fixed-bed reactor method with the result were started to recorded at 400 °C until 550 °C to determine the trend of the hydrocarbon gas production. By utilizing response on the surface method, the factors were investigated, analyzed and optimal condition were obtained at the temperature 700 °C, 750 °C and 800 °C, particle sizes of 600 μm and 1.18 mm and the holding time of 14 minutes. The result shows that the trends of the hydrocarbon gas production was high at size of rice husk was 600 μm and the calcined dolomite at 800 °C compared to 1.18 mm particle size. The dolomite to biomass ratio shows that 1:3 was the ratio for the high production of hydrocarbon gas with 280 ppm.