COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOME SELECTED AGRICULTURAL WASTES’ SUITABILITY FOR GASIFICATION

摘要

Waste management has been a serious challenge government in countries across the world face;with respect to issues of sustainable energy and reduction in green house gases. This workfocuses on the gasification of selected locally available agricultural wastes namely: saw dust, ricehusk, bagasse, neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves and hay. Factors such as nature of theagricultural waste, particle size, moisture content and combustible gas production potential wereconsidered. A modified design of an updraft gasifier was used while the wastes samples werecategorised using a sieve analysis. Data obtained were analyzed using simple statistical methodsand results from other works. Findings revealed that leakages of the gas were minimal during thegasification process. The water boiling tests results showed an average time of 8 minutes wastaken to boil 1.06 kg of water. The efficiencies of combustion of the various feed stocks werefound to be: 28.49; 33.47; 32.61, 38.60 and 41.54% for saw dust, rice husk, hay, neem (Azadirachta indica) and bagasse respectively. Particle size has an impact on the gas qualitywhile moisture content of feed material affected the reaction temperature due to the energyrequired to evaporate water in the fuel.