Biomass Gasification For Engine Fuel At Sawmill Industry

Biomass gasification is a technology that has been long known in the world and yet has not been widely applied in Indonesia. The use of biomass as a renewable fuel or a carbon neutral fuel and including second generation biofuels made ​​this technology has a new perspective in the era of concerns over the global warming. The potential for biomass is very abundant in Indonesia and the potential to apply this technology. On the other hand the energy needs continue to rise in various fields. There are several gasification technologies that can be used include downdraft, updraft, fluidised bed and entrained flow. To get a more pure gas quality or fewer impurities tar the downdraft gasification technology is the most suitable. Raw materials such as wood wastes with a certain size and water content can be used as feedstock in the gasifier. Gas quality comparison between the various gasification technologies are seen as in the table below:

Tolerance level of each machine is also different. So the gas purity to impurity levels should strive to achieve a high grade or still below the tolerance level.

Gasifier to generate mechanical power or electricity is classified as a power gasifier. Due to the use of gas as a fuel for engines that grade of gas should be better than that directly burned. Process diagrams for gasifier power according to the scheme below:

Judging from the composition of the gas produced each gasifier is also different. In general, the heating value of gas produced is small enough that varied between 4.0 and 6.0 MJ/Nm3 or about 10 to 15% of the calorific value of natural gas. Raw materials and different types of gasifier will affect the composition of the gas produced. Under these conditions need to be modified so that the engine uses fuel gas from the gasifier as enlarging the orifice, ignition timing and so on. The table below:

Sawmill industry in Indonesia will produce biomass waste very much. This potential can be exploited for the use of the gasifier. The gasifier will produce a gas that can be directly used as fuel to generate electricity even machines. With these innovations will reduce fossil fuel consumption significantly. Automated greater economic benefits are also obtained by applying this technology, after deduction for expenses such as investment tools, operational, depreciation and outputs obtained.

To get quality gas is cleaner from impurities, some places use charcoal as a gasifier feedstock. Charcoal can be obtained from the traditional charcoal producers or charcoal manufacturer with modern technology.  Charcoal as residue from gasification of wood waste can also be used as feed in charcoal gasification. Charcoal gasification also has a lot to do. This technology will be more competitive as a result of expensive fossil fuel because the reserves dwindling and environmental issues related to global warming.