Gasification of Solid Waste Biomass

Gasification of solid waste biomass was performed in this study using an updraft gasifier of a fluidized sand bed with date seeds as fuel and air as fluidizer. The date seeds were washed, dried, crushed and sieved to obtain different particle sizes. The thermo physical properties of date seeds, such as higher heating value, were evaluated experimentally. The fluidization velocity was calculated theoretically to achieve the gasification process of date seed. It was found that the gasification of date seeds occurred at 550̊ C temperature with 355-500μm particle size and 2.22 m/s fluidization velocity. The higher heating value of date seed was 17,700 kJ/kg. The carbon content in date seed was little above 50%, which indicates that the solid waste of biomass date seed represents a valuable renewable source of energy in the near future if utilized correctly.