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Dual fuel engine performance using biodiesel

and syn-gas from rice husk downdraft
gasification fo power generation
Research October 2015
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2503.4968

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Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
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INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
ON SUSTAINABLE BIOMASS PRODUCTION AND
UTILIZATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

DUAL FUEL ENGINE PERFORMANCE

USING BIODIESEL AND SYN-GAS FROM RICE HUSK
DOWNDRAFT GASIFICATION FOR POWER GENERATION
Bambang Sudarmanta
Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Technology
Industry, Sepuluh Nopember Institut of Technology
Surabaya, Indonesia, 60111
Corresponding author. Tel. : 62 31 5946230; fax : 62 31 5922941; e-mail : sudarmanta@me.its.ac.id

Abstract
In this research, the characterization of dual fuel engine performance using biodiesel and
syn-gas for power generation was conducted. Syn-gas was produced by gasification process using
rice husk downdraft gasifier reactor.
The gasification system consists of feeding system, gasifier reactor, gas refinery unit,
induced fan, filtering unit, dual fuel engine, generator set and system control. Rice husk downdraft
gasifier reactor converted the rice husk biomass throught drying, pyrolisis, partial oxidation and
reduction processes to raw syn-gas. Using syn-gas refinery unit, content dust and particles on raw
syn-gas was cleaned by passing throught in cyclone and furthermore this gas was washed by water
in countercurrent mode in water scrubber, where its also acts like a cooler unit. The mixer
mechanism was used to manage the ratio of syn-gas and combustion air. Yanmar diesel engine was
modified with dual fuel that used air gas integration model and coupled with generator to resulted
electrical power output.
Rice husk downdraft gasifier reactor resulted syn-gas with efficiency until 51%. The gas
refinery system that consist of cyclone dan water srubber unit can resulted syn- gas until 40 0C.
Mixer mechanism can managed ratio syn-gas and combustion air until 50%. Engine performance
was tested at a constant speed of 1500 rpm on biodiesel alone mode and dual fuel mode of
operation. Gasifier reactor consumed 5 kg/h of rice husk, and can replaced 60% biodiesel at an
electricity generation of 3 kWe.

Keywords: Rice husk, syn-gas, biodiesel, dual fuel engine and downdraft gasifier.
.

1. INTRODUCTION
Thermochemical biomass conversion is the fundamental conversion process from
biorenewable feedstock to more useful fuels. This technologies were studied as early as the
17th century with the first patent issued in 1788 by Robert Gardner for his work in the
gasification area. However, during the time span 18001970 this technologies were
forgotten due to an abundance of oil. Biorenewable feedstocks can be used as a solid fuel, or
converted into liquid or gaseous forms for the production of electric power, heat, chemicals,
or gaseous and liquid fuels. Thermochemical conversion processes include three categories:
pyrolysis, gasification, and combustion as shown in Figure 1.
This is for your Footer, type of Font : Times New Roman, Size : 10, with Line Spacing single lines

Biomass Thermal
Conversion Processes

No Air

Partial Air

Excess Air

Pyrolysis

Gasification

Combustion

Figure 1. Biomass thermal conversion processes

While, detail of air fuel ratio of biomass thermal conversion processes is showed in
Figure 2. The conversion of biomass materials has the precise objective to transform a
carbonaceous solid material, which is originally difficult to handle, bulky and of low energy
concentration, into fuels having physico-chemical characteristics that permit economic
storage and transferability through pumping systems. Various gasification technologies
include gasifiers where the biomass is introduced at the top of the reactor and the gasifying
medium is either directed cocurrently (downdraft) or counter-currently up through the
packed bed (updraft). Other gasifier designs incorporate circulating or bubbling fluidized
beds. Tar yields can range from 0.1% (downdraft) to 20% (updraft) or greater in the product
gases

Figure 2. Detail air fuel ratio of biomass thermal conversion processes

Gasification describes the process in which oxygen-deficient thermal decomposition

of organic matter primarily produces synthesis gas. Gasification is a combination of
pyrolysis and combustion. Gasification typically refers to conversion of solid or liquid
carbon-based materials by direct internal heating provided by partial oxidation using
substoichiometric air or oxygen to produce fuel gases, principally CO, H 2, methane, and
lighter hydrocarbons in association with CO2 and N2, depending on the process used.
Alternative configurations using either indirect heating methods such as externally fired
burners, or autothermal methods using exothermic reducing reactions have been
demonstrated.
Gasification has more potential for near-term commercial application than other
thermochemical processes. Benefits of gasification over combustion include: more
flexibility in terms of energy applications, more economical and thermodynamic efficiency

at smaller scales, and potentially lower environmental impact when combined with gas
cleaning and refining technologies. An efficient gasifier will decompose high-molecularweight organic compounds released during pyrolysis into low-molecular-weight, noncondensable compounds in a process referred to as tar cracking. Undesirable char that is
produced during gasification will participate in a series of endothermic reactions at
temperatures above 800C, which converts carbon into a gaseous fuel. Typically gaseous
products include: CO, H2, and CH4. FischerTropsch processes may be used to upgrade
gaseous products to liquid fuels through the use of catalysts. Gasification requires
feedstocks that contain less than 10% moisture.
At present, gasification is widely recognized because its end product syn-gas can
applied in flexible by industries or by privately users, particularly in decentralized energy
production coupled with an internal combustion engine for power generation (Chen et al.,
2004). Gasification of biomass can be classified depending on the gasifying agent: air,
steam and oxygen. A system for power generation by means of fixed-bed gasification of
biomass consists of the main unit gasifier, gas refinery system, and engine.
The objective of this work is to characterized gasification performance of rice husk
biomass and performance of dual fuel engine using biodiesel and syn-gas from rice husk
downdraft gasification. In this study, the characterized conducted by experimental.
2. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
2.1. Feed material
The feed material is rice husk, come from Surabaya, Indonesia and characterized by
proximate and ultimate analysis as presented in Table 1.
Tabel 1. The proximate and ultmate of rice husk
No
Parameter
Unit
Nilai
1
Moisture content
% wt
9,2
2
Ash content
% wt
17,5
3
Volatile matter
% wt
65,3
4
Fixed carbon
% wt
17,4
5
Density
Kg/m3
188
6
LHV
MJ/kg
14,1
C
% wt
37,6
H
% wt
5,0
7
Componen
N
% wt
0,3
O
% wt
36,6

2.2. Experimental Apparatus

The gasification system consists of feeding system, reactor gasifier, syn-gas refinery
unit, induced fan, filtering unit, dual fuel engine, generator set and system control. Its
schematic diagram is shown in Fig.2.
3

Drying air

Rice husk
feed
Air 1

Heat
Exchanger

Refinery and cooling unit

Heat

Power
output

Dual fuel
engine

Generator
unit

Air
combustion

Mixer

Water Scrubber

Air 2
Gasifier reactor

Filter
Induced fan
Ash

Gasification characteristic

Cyclone

Refinery characteristic

Performance engine charakteristic

Figure 3. Schematic diagram of dual fuel engine for power generation system

The dual fuel engine for power generation system consists of gasifier reactor with
0,35 m diameter, 1,2 m and 0,04 m. There are five thermocouples distributed uniformly
along the height of the reactor gasifier, while two manometers are installed on the top and
grate, respectively. Above the grate, a catalyst room is designed to fill the catalysts. In the
present study, charcoal is applied as tar cracking catalyst. This system can operated for 1,5
hours continous operation. Air enters at the side and passes through the reaction zone by
induced draft fan. The raw gas from the reaction zone flows downward to the bottom of the
reactor and then it passed through a refinery unit. The reactor gas flow of 812 Nm/h was
supplied to the dual fuel engine and then was connected to 3 kW generator for loading
measurement. Specification of engine and generator was shown in Table 2. and 3,
respectively.
Table 2. Spesification of engine test
Engine Model
YANMAR TF 55 R
Volume stroke
353 cc
Power
4,5 dk / 2200 rpm
Power max
5,5 dk / 2200 rpm
Table 3. Spesification of generator test
Merk
NOQIWA A.C. Synchronous Generator
Type
ST-3 No. 81228025
Power
3 kW
Voltage
220 V
Arus
13,6 Amp
Frequancy
50 Hz
Rpm
1500 rpm
Phase
1
Standard
JB/T3320.2-2000

2.3. Experimental procedures

Firstly, open the sealing cover of the reactor gasifier and put about 3 kg of charcoal
on the grate, carefully making them distributed uniformly. Then rice husk was placed on
charcoal. Afterwards feedstock in the reactor gasifier is ignited and induced fan is turned on
4

to preheat the reactor gasifier. Then refilling is done with fixed weight of rice husk at a
specified intervals. The whole temperature of the gasifier is raised step-by-step and when
temperature at the throat

and outer wall of furnace reaches 800 0C and over 60 0C,

respectively. a specified weight of rice husk was put into the gasifier and gasifying agents
are driven into the reactor gasifier. Since that, the tests start up and at the interval of test, the
temperature of 5 points is recorded once every 3 min. The syn-gas yield is measured by a
flow meter simultaneously. Usually, the tests arrive at a steady state after 15 min of startup
and then syn-gas sampling is carried out at an interval of 10 min. At mixer, syn gas and
combustion air was mixed and then its enter to combustion chamber. Power output from
generator was measured by lamps load. The experimental dual fuel for power generation
set-up shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. The experimental dual fuel for power generation set-up

3. RESULTS

Dual fuel Gasifier-biodiesel engine system optimally utilizes rice husk waste for
power generation. Rice husk waste was converted into syn-gas in reactor gasifier. Syn-gas
was produced by reactor gasifier with air gasifiying agent consists of some 30 - 40 percent
combustible gases, mainly carbon monoxide, hydrogen and some methane. The rest are noncombustible and consists mainly of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour. Tar and dust
contents in raw syn-gas may lead to operational problems and abnormal engine wear was
cleaned and cooled using cyclone, water scrubber and filtering. The tar and particulates
matter load of clean syn- gas was in range of 25 40 mg/Nm3. Usually, syn-gas that
produced from this reactor gasification had calorific value 4000 kJ/Nm3 until 6000 kJ/Nm3
and flow rate of 8 12 Nm3/h. Detail of mass and energy balance in reactor gasification
was shown in Table 4 and 5, respectively.
Table 4. Calculated mass balance in reactor gasification
T
30
40
50
60
70

Mass inlet (kg)

Mass outlet (kg)

Biomass

Air 1

Air 2

Total

Chart

Ash

Syn-gas

Total

5
5
5
5
5

2.6421
2.6421
2.6421
2.6421
2.6421

2.6421
2.5657
2.4893
2.4129
2.3367

10.2842
10.2078
10.1314
10.0550
9.9788

1.3000
1.4500
1.4800
1.5000
1.7000

0.0795
0.1200
0.1512
0.2450
0.4900

8.2606
8.3806
8.8581
8.7835
8.7478

9.6401
9.9506
10.4893
10.5285
10.9378

Table 5. Calculated energy balance in reactor gasification

T
30
40
50
60
70

Biomass
88000.92
88000.92
88000.92
88000.92
88000.92

Energy inlet (kJ)

Air 1
Air 2
806.26
806.26
806.26
809.10
806.26
810.41
806.26
810.17
806.26
808.47

Total
89613.44
89616.29
89617.59
89617.36
89615.66

Syn-gas

41311.03
42028.52
44644.95
44136.96
44001.67

Energy outlet (kJ)

Ash
Heat transfer
22880.24
10.65
986.47
25520.27
15.24
802.77
26048.27
26.16
2359.59
26400.28
40.92
1578.87
29920.31
63.70
1538.82
Chart

Total
65188.40
68366.80
73078.98
72157.02
75524.51

Table 4. represents calculated mass and energy balance in reactor gasification. Mass
and energy inlet consist of biomass, air stage 1 and air stage 2, while mass outlet consist of
chart, ash and syn-gas and energy outlet consist as same as mass outlet plus heat transfer
from reactor wall to surrounding. From calculated mass inlet and mass outlet results that
mass outlet and mass inlet is coming near equally. The others, measured air fuel ratio shows
the value less than 1,5, so that this value according to gasification air fuel ratio limits. From
Table 5, calculated energy inlet and energy outlet results that energy outlet under energy
inlet until 20%. This matter shows that there be still losing energi others chart, ash and heat
transfer from reactor wall to surrounding. The happened tendency show that air-heating
tend to increase mass syn-gas production, so that this matter can increased mass and energy
outlet totally.
Efficiency of reactor gasifier calculated by equation 1 and from this equation was
resulted efficiency of reactor gasifier until 51 %.
reactor gasifier

Energy of syn gas

x100%
Energy of biomass

(1)

For performance engine test, initially the engine was conditioned by running at idle
on biodiesel fuel. Subsequently, the test procedure began with normal operation at idle for
about 15 min. The engine speed was then increased gradually to 1500 rpm. After a period of
transition, the engine was left running for further 30 min to stabilized. Once stability was
attained, a constant speed testing was carried out with a load applied. The tests were
conducted at constant speeds 1500 rpm under both biodiesel and dual-fuel. Several readings
were taken and the average value was computed. Under syn-gas/biodiesel dual-fuel
operation, an effort has been made to keep the pilot amount of diesel fuel constant, while the
engine power output was adjusted through the amount of syn-gas. To present the percentage
of biodiesel replacement by syn-gas r, the following expression is adopted:
r

m biodiesel m dual fuel

m biodiesel

x100%

(2)

The total specific fuel consumption , sfc and thermal efficiency are calculated according to
equations below:

m biodiesel
Ne
m biodiesel m syn gas
Sfc dual fuel
Ne
Ne
thbiodiesel
m biodieselxLHVbiodiesel
Ne
thdual fuel
m biodieselxLHVbiodiesel m syn gas xLHVsyn gas
Sfc biodiesel

(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)

Results from experiments conducted to investigate the performance characteristics of dualfuel engine are shown in Figs. 6 and 7, specific fuel consumption and percentation of
biodiesel used.
1.20

Sfc (Kg/hp-h)

1.00

0.80

0.60

0.40

Biodiesel

Dual fuel

0.20
0

20

40

60

80

100

Load (%)

Figure 6. The specific fuel consumption vs percentage of load

100

Fuel consumption (%)

80

60

40

20

Biodiesel

Dual fuel

0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Load (%)

Figure 7. Percentage fuel consumption vs percentage of load

The power output from engine operating on dual fuel mode will be determined by
the following factors as first, the quality of syn-gas, mainly the composition of flammable
gas and calorific value. Second, mixture quality of syn-gas and combustion air. Third, the
efficiency of the engine to convert of the combustible mixture into mechanical energy.
The specific fuel consumption was calculated from the power output of the engine
and the measured mass flow rate of fuels. Fig. 6 represent that specific fuel consumption
biodiesel fuel smaller than dual fuel due to the value of lower heating value of syn-gas
smaller than biodiesel fuel. The engine test could run on both diesel and syn-gas, instead of
running only on diesel. The syn-gas is fed into the diesel engine to let the engine operate in
a dual-fuel mode, thereby reducing diesel consumption by more than 60% as was shown in
Fig. 7. The air-gas ratio is 1 : 1. The engine was connected to a 3 kWe synchronous
generator for loading measurement.

4. CONCLUSIONS
In the present work, an experimentally investigation has been conducted to
characterized of engine performance. The engine has been modified to operate under the
dual-fuel mode at high syn-gas replacement in order to minimized biodiesel consumption
and maximized syn-gas utilisation. Syn-gas wasproduced by Rice husk downdraft gasifier
reactor that resulted syn-gas with efficiency until 51%. The gas refinery system that consist
of cyclone dan water srubber unit can resulted syn- gas until 40 0C. Mixer mechanism can
managed ratio syn-gas and combustion air until 50%. Engine performance was tested at a
constant speed of 1500 rpm on biodiesel alone mode and dual fuel mode of operation.
Gasifier reactor consumed 5 kg/h of rice husk, and can replaced 60% biodiesel at an
electricity generation of 3 kWe.
Acknowledgements
Financial support from Directorate General of High Education (DIKTI), Ministry of
education- Republic of Indonesia and research and public service institute (LPPM) is
acknowledged. The author would like to thank gasification team (Daniar, Dita, Bunga, Gita
and Jefry) at Mechanical engineering Department, FTI-ITS for their assistance.

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