On Diversification Of Feedstock In Gasification Of Oil Palm Fronds

Co-gasification of biomass can be beneficial since relying on only one type of biomass can interrupt operation when supply of feedstock is disrupted for many reasons. Nevertheless, a gasifier system is usually suitable for operation with only one specific feedstock. Gasifying of different biomass can normally lead to failure or inefficiency. In this work, gasification of different forms of feedstock derived from oil palm frond was experimented in an updraft gasifier that was designed for oil palm fronds. The feedstock considered was dried frond blocks, briquetted fronds and overdried (at 150°C) frond blocks. The air flow rate was maintained to the value set for dried fronds in order to investigate the robustness of such configurations. The resulting syngas from the gasification was analyzed. It was generally found that the altered forms of feedstock caused degradation in the syngas quality.