• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

Hydrogen can be produced by gasification of biomass and other combustible fuels. Depending on oxydant agents, syngas or producer gas compositions become quite different. Since biomass has limited amount of hydrogen including moisture in it, the hydrogen concentration in the syngas is about 15% when air is supplied for oxidant agent. Experiments were conducted to investigate the channges in hydrogen concentrations in syngas with different oxidant agent conditions, fuel conditions, and external heat supply. Allothermal reaction resulted in higher concentrations of hydrogen with the supply of steam over air, reaching over 60%. Hydrogen is produced by water-gas and water-gas shift reactions. These reactions are endothermic and require enough heat. Autothermal reaction occurred in the downdraft gasifier used in the experiment did not provide enough heat in the reactions for hydrogen production. Steam seems a more desirable oxidant agent in producing the syngas with higher concentrations of hydrogen from biomass gasifications since nitrogen is included in syngas when air is used.