Producer Gas Plant

Producer Gas Plant | Installations | Objectives, Design & Construction | Process, Features & Economy

About Producer Gas Plant

Many industries were using Producer Gas as a cheap Gaseous Fuel since Mid- Nineteenth Century. Producer Gas was generated from the reaction of Air and Steam with Coal in single-stage generators either made of bricks in the initial

stages or steel with water jacket or refractory lining in the later versions. Before extensive production of Natural Gas and other Petro-fuels at a moderately lower cost, Producer Gas had been a versatile fuel owing to several advantages over the solid fuels , viz, ease of production, better thermal efficiency in the application, ease of control, smoother flame etc. As a result many industries all over the world have been using Producer Gas as a cheaper energy in various field of applications viz, glass and ceramics, Refractory, Lime-kilns, Dryers, Heating furnaces, etc but with limited flame temperature up to 1000° to 1100°C.

But the Producer Gas in earlier 19 th Century from conventional Single Stage design had several disadvantages. In these gasifiers Producer Gas used to come from one side at the top of the gasifier at a temperature of 470°C to 500°C resulting in the following disadvantages:

  1. As the gas was coming out from one side of the Producer, there will be always a preferential flow which will not permit the old coal bed to come under gasification reaction resulting in poor quality of gas.
  2. Because the coal bed is not coming under reaction, there will be not adequate reduction reaction which will cause a high temperature at the outlet gas of the producer and causing thermal cracking of the coal tar which will form soot and gumming materials and will get deposited in the pipe line. Due to this cracking of coal tar and deposit of soot, the pipe line gets frequently chocked and is a laborious job to get the pipe line cleaned.
  3. The Calorific value of Producer Gas was low.
  4. No consistency in Gas quality and quantity.
  1. Frequent interruptions in the process due to chocking and cleaning of pipe line.
  2. Because of shallow bed it can perform only with high grade of coal.
  3. Single off-take from one side, will cause preferential flow of air-steam mixture resulting in non-uniform gasification reaction.
  4. Operational hazards due to heavy clinkering and jamming of the fire-bed.
  5. Low Thermal Efficiency.
  6. Limited use in industries due to low flame-temperature.
  7. Gasifiers were not pollution-free.

Due to above disadvantages, the source of energy in industries gradually changed from Producer Gas to Petro-gas, Fuel Oils which was available at low cost, had abundance of supply with low investment cost and Electricity so long as these were comfortably cheaper. But due to Global Energy crisis and price-hike of all kinds of Petro fuels, industries have tried to switch over to cheaper fuel. As coal is abundantly found in our country, industries should resort to Gaseous fuel based on coal.

Schematics & Graphical Representations

New Generation Producer Gas Plant as developed and Patented (Patent No. 202603) by IIEPL.

  • Gives uniform quality of Gas having Higher CV.
  • High ash coal could be gasified.
  • Operational hazard such as choking of pipe line due to cracking of coal tar could be avoided.
  • Higher thermal efficiency due to gasification reaction throughout the bed and also due to auto carbonization of coal in the extended shaft resulting in higher reactivity.

Producer Gas Plant | Installations | Objectives, Design & Construction | Process, Features & Economy