Temperature Fields in Downdraft Biomass Gasification

Experiments were performed on a specially fabricated, bench-scale, downdraft gasifier with adjustable configuration parameters. The parameters, which include nozzle height, nozzle size, and choke location, were varied to analyze their influences on the temperature profile and gasifier performance. Surface-fitting techniques were used to convert the discrete temperature data collected in the experiments into two dimensional spline functions, and then plotted as temperature contour maps. It appears that the configuration parameters can be adjusted to alter the temperature distribution within the gasifier and by so doing, gasifier performance can be optimized.