ASSESSMENT OF A HEAT EXCHANGER'S EFFICIENCY IN A FLUIDIZED BED GASIFIER FOR BIOMASS GASIFICATION

The experiment is focused on recovering heat loss generated during the gasification process of biomass in a high-temperature and high-pressure circulating fluidized bed gasifier. The important operating conditions are the temperature of gasification, the pressure inside the gasifier, and the flow rate of the gasifying agent. The generated syngas during the gasification process with different operating conditions contain higher thermal energy (heat) that can be extracted from syngas with the help of an efficient heat exchanger, and this energy can be used in different applications. In this study, a heat exchanger is designed to extract heat from high-temperature producer gas generated during the gasification process. The performance of the heat exchanger was evaluated based on the log mean temperature difference, effectiveness, and overall heat transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger. A maximum log mean temperature difference of 168.99 was observed at an operating pressure of 500 kPa, with a noticeable rise in log mean temperature difference corresponding to rising operating pressures in the gasification process. The heat exchanger's effectiveness (S) was determined to be at its peak of 0.73 at higher operating pressure of 400 kPa.