Exploring the synergetic effects of rice husk, cashew shell, and cashew husk biomass blends on fluidized bed gasification for enhanced hydrogen production

Abstract

The present study, explored the gasification performance of commonly available biomass like rice husk, cashew shell, and cashew husk and their blend for better gasification performance using a 3 kW fluidized bed gasifier in the ER ranging from 0.2 to 0.35 and temperature of 750 °C. The catalytic effect of biomass blends are identified by using FTIR, XRF, proximate and ultimate analysis. The performance of a fluidized bed gasifier is assessed in terms of its producer gas composition, LHV, CCE, CGE and gas yield. The blending of biomass resulted in the enhancement of producer gas quality due to the synergetic effect. At ER of 0.2, maximum hydrogen of 8.1% and LHV of 4.3 MJ/m3 is obtained, and at ER of 0.35, maximum CGE and CCE of 54.9 and 91% respectively are obtained for RH + CS blend. XRF analysis shows that mineral oxide improves the composition of producer gas, and FTIR analysis indicates a decrease in functional groups in the ash of blended biomass compared to individual biomass. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd