It is generally accepted that larger facilities tend to be more efficient on the energy production. Biomass resources, however, are widely dispersed and have various conditions: the kind, size, moisture content, and so on. Thus, it is preferable that biomass resources are converted to energy in a small-scale plant close to the local area where biomass resources yield. In order to develop a small-scale gasifier in which biomass can be converted to energy with high efficiency, we proposed a gasification process that consists of two parts: pyrolysis part by the rotary kiln and char gasification part by the downdraft gasifier, and conducted fundamental experiments. This report provides our concept on the gasification process under development and the results of fundamental studies for the design process.
