Coconut Shell Feedstock Based Top Lit Updraft Gasifier for Biochar and Heat Cogeneration

Biomass is not new in the field of renewable energy and has been in use for decades now. Coconut shell is one of those. It comes from the coconut tree which is a member of the palm tree family or Arecaceae. It is also used for the bio charcoal. Biochar is a carbonaceous solid that is done through the process of pyrolysis. It is a process in which the biomass feedstock is heated with little to no air in a closed container. It can be used as a soil nutrient amendment and can also be processed into briquettes for fuel. The researchers designed a coconut shell-based biochar feedstock in which the heat that is being generated during the process of pyrolysis is extracted and used for cooking means. A top-lit updraft design has been considered for the project. The components of the project such as the outer chamber which houses the whole design, the combustion chamber with slanted row holes which the vaporization process occurs and the blower fan for the vaporization period to aide with the continuous burning and to eliminate the emission of smoke. The gathered data from the experiments were analyzed and it shows that turning the coconut shells into biochar can be done in less than 2 hours with highest inside temperature of 352.32°C at an air flow rate of 0.013 m³/s. The heat it produced is suitable for simple household stove usage without the emission of harmful smoke with the aid of the blower fan during the whole process. The produced coconut shell bio charcoal was later sent to Calaca Power Complex coal testing laboratories for determination of the biochar's characteristics such as its calorific value and volatile matter. The laboratory results reveal that the produced bio charcoal has a calorific value of 30.865 MJ/Kg.