Improved gasification of rice husks for optimized biochar production in a top lit updraft gasifier

dc.contributor.author Nsamba, Hussein Kisiki
dc.contributor.author Hale, Sarah E.
dc.contributor.author Cornelissen, Gerard
dc.contributor.author Bachmann, Robert Thomas
dc.date.accessioned 2015-03-10T10:44:16Z
dc.date.available 2015-03-10T10:44:16Z
dc.date.issued 2014
dc.description Research Article en_US
dc.description.abstract Biochar is a solid material obtained from the carbonization of biomass. If properly produced, it is useful for soil application to enrich plant values. Rice husk (RH) waste, an abundant agricultural by-product, was gasified in a top-lit updraft Belonio rice husk gasifier with a biochar yield of 29.0% ± 1.9%. The equivalence ratio (ER) for optimum biochar production was identified and its effect on biochar properties such as pH, volatile matter (VM), fixed carbon (FC) and ash content (AC), electricity consumption, biochar yield, specific gasification rate (SGR) as well as reactor temperature investigated and statistically analyzed. As ER increased from 0.292 ± 0.005 to 0.442 ± 0.016, the SGR decreased from 85.4 ± 4.5 kg/(m2hr) to 51.6 ± 2.4 kg/(m2hr) whereas reactor temperature increased linearly with ER. The original VM content of RH was found to be 76.1% ± 1.2% and decreased with increasing ER from 14.1% ± 0.2% to 10.6% ± 0.3%. The original FC and AC of 5.49% ± 0.22% and 9.10% ± 1.23% increased with ER from 50.5% ± 0.7% to 51.3% ± 0.4% and 33.7% ± 0.4% to 36.7% ± 0.1% respectively. The biochar pH at low, medium and high ER was 9.36 ± 0.11, 9.64 ± 0.03 and 9.42 ± 0.01, respectively. Results revealed a significant change in biochar yield and proximate values as ER changes from low to high. en_US
dc.description.sponsorship Financial support was provided by the Norwegian Research Council’s “Norway-Global partner” programme, Project 203901/H30 “Biochar on acidic agricultural lands in South-East Asia: Sequestering carbon and improving crop yield”. en_US
dc.identifier.citation Nsamba, H. , Hale, S. , Cornelissen, G. and Bachmann, R. (2014). Improved Gasification of Rice Husks for Optimized Biochar Production in a Top Lit Updraft Gasifier. Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems, 4, 225-242 en_US
dc.identifier.issn 2165-400X
dc.identifier.issn 2165-4018
dc.identifier.uri http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jsbs.2014.44021
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10570/4371
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Scientific Research Publishing en_US
dc.subject Equivalence Ratio en_US
dc.subject Biochar en_US
dc.subject Carbonization en_US
dc.subject Yield en_US
dc.subject Specific Gasification Rate en_US
dc.title Improved gasification of rice husks for optimized biochar production in a top lit updraft gasifier en_US
dc.type Journal article en_US
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