Gasification of walnut shells in an open core downdraft gasifier for the producer gas generation

This research work depicts the results obtained during the experiment performed for walnut shell gasification process. In order to carry out the gasification process, a downdraft gasifier has been installed in a Thermal Engineering Laboratory of National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India for the purpose of generating a combustible gas popularly known as Producer gas. The walnut shells have been gasified with air used as a gasifying agent. In this experimental work equivalence ratio varied from 0.170 to 0.251; subsequently, feedstock consumption rate also varied from 68 to 77 kg/h. Results publicized that at an equivalence ratio of 0.251, cold gas efficiency and calorific value of producer gas has its maximum value of 83.07% and 7.59 MJ/Nm(3), respectively. The percentage of methane (CH4) in producer gas reached its maximum value of 7.04% at equals to 0.251. Further, oxidation zone temperature varied in between 700 and 1000 degrees C during this study.