KIU, Western Campus – Eng. Samuel George Onep, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) will stage the viva-voce presentation of his dissertation tomorrow, May 17th, 2024 in the SEAS boardroom.

The dissertation is titled, “Development of downdraft gasifier using biomass glasification process for commercial application.” 

According to allpowerlabs.com, gasfication is burning solid fuels like wood or coal without enough air to complete combustion (a chemical process in which a substance reacts rapidly with oxygen and gives off heat), so the output gas still has combustion potential. The unburned gas is then piped away to burn elsewhere as needed.

The dissertation explores the energy recovery capabilities of groundnut shells and pine wood chippings through gasification and develops an unconventional gasifier by employing a multiple input and single output (MISO) strategy that utilizes the assembling and coupling of conventional design functions to guide the fabrication of an optimally (unconventionally) designed gasifier.

According to Eng. Onep, gasification is one of the emerging technologies for addressing the increasing global demand for energy alongside concerns about environmental pollution.

It underscores the crucial need to explore biomass as an alternative energy source while also highlighting the significance of effectively recovering energy from biomass for various sectors of an economy.

The results of his study show that the physical characteristics and chemical composition of biomass greatly affect the energy recovery from the biomass during gasification and that MISO is a viable optimization strategy for upgrading single input and single output (SISO) designs to an optimum design for improved system performance.

The results also provide insight into the magnitude of influence exerted by design functions and variables on the gasifiers’ performance. 

An optimized gasifier is therefore recommended for efficient gasification of biomass into energy.