Rice Husk Gasification: from Industry to Laboratory

Abstract

Rice husk gasification (RHG) has been increasingly paid attention in rice-producing countries. Nevertheless, information related to this technology remains small and fragmented. In this paper, the status of RHG has been summarized, highlighting domestic and industrial applications, as well as a scientific review. Moreover, an experimental parametric study was performed to measure: a) the influence of temperature and heating rate on RH pyrolysis, and b) the role of temperature, partial pressure, and heating rate on RHG, under H 2 O or CO 2 atmosphere. Regarding pyrolysis, an increase in the final pyrolysis temperature lowers the RH char yield but does not have much effect on the char morphology. Regarding gasification, an increase in the reaction temperature from 900 to 1000C accelerates about 4.8 and 7 times the char conversion rate, under 0.2 atm of CO 2 or H 2 O, respectively. The conversion rate decreases about 1.8 times when CO 2 partial pressure decreases from 1 to 0.2 atm, and about 1.6 times when H 2 O partial pressure decreases from 0.4 to 0.1 atm. At 900C and 0.2 atm, steam gasification was about 3.5 times faster than Boudouard reaction.