Thermochemical Conversion Division, Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, Vallabh Vidyanagar-388 120, Gujarat.
An opencore down draft gasifier, having capacity of 60 kg/h, designed & developed by SPRERI was installed at a temple managed by Jai Sacchdanand Sangh, Kamrej, Surat, Gujarat (India) for cooking application. The gasifier can operate on fuels such as wood, groundnut shells, groundnut shell briquettes, cashew nut shell, saw dust + de-oiled castor cake briquettes etc. The units replace 2 cylinders of LPG/day by consuming 144 kg of biomass. Producer gas based community-cooking system is working satisfactorily. User is satisfied with its performance. Economic analysis of LPG based cooking system and Producer gas based cooking system reveals that user can save around Rs. 59,265/-per annum if gasifier based cooking system is replaces the by LPG based cooking system. The payback period for the investment of Rs.1,75,000/will be around 3 years.
Open core downdraft gasifier, thermal application, rural energy
