Design, development and testing of small downdraft gasifiers for domestic cookstoves

摘要

The design methodology available in the literature for downdraft gasifiers of large capacity (-40-600 kW(th)) is not directly applicable to very small sized gasifiers. In the present work, design and development of small downdraft gasifiers of 4 kW(th) and 2.5 kW(th) nominal capacities, for domestic cookstove application, have been carried out by non-linear extrapolation of data in literature for large gasifiers. The prototypes thus developed were found to give maximum gasification efficiency close to 80%. Extensive experimentation was conducted in the laboratory to study the effect of two operating parameters, viz., gasification air flow rate and the fuel particle size, on the performance of these gasifiers. The performance parameters studied included calorific value of the gas, gasification efficiency, air-biomass ratio and the hearth load.