Thermo Chemical Conversion Studies on Agricultural Residues for Plasma Gasification

The suitability of agricultural residues in plasma gasification is studied in this paper. The characterization studies, thermo chemical conversion studies are performed through ASTM standards and Greens apparatus. The selected agricultural residues for the study are red gram stalk, cashew nut shell, rice husk and wheat straw. The average moisture content, volatile content, fixed carbon, ash and heat content are 6.3%, 70.94%, 10.83%, 12. 58% and 18.61 MJ/kg. The elemental composition of agricultural residues shows that the gasification process is possible with higher percentage of hydrocarbons in the producer gas. The different temperature studies in the Greens apparatus shows that the higher the temperature, higher the gas yield reduction in char and ash yield and the agricultural residues are more suitable in plasma gasification process. The producer gas yield increases from 45 to 90 per cent of initial mass and char yield, ash content decreases from 46 to 10, 14 to 1 per cent of initial mass taken respectively.