Fixed bed gasification of Jacaranda Copaia wood: Effect of packing factor and oxygen enriched air

•Packing factor and enriched air on biomass gasification are studied.•The use of enriched air favors the process reactivity.•Radiation penetration decreases with PF, so reaction front thickness diminishes.•Process efficiency decreases with enriched air due to higher unreacted char

In this work is studied the effect of biomass packing factor (PF) and oxygen enriched air as gasifying agent (GA) on fixed bed biomass gasification. Oxygen concentrations in GA are 21, 24 and 29% vol. The biomass used as fuel is Jacaranda Copaia wood with three defined particle forms: square prism, cylindrical and chips. Flame front velocity and biomass consumption rate increase with oxygen concentration in the GA. These results are due to smaller amount of nitrogen involved in the process, which leads to decrease thermal energy losses by nitrogen heating. Moreover, lower convective cooling effect of gas over solid phase and lower radiation attenuation in the solid are reached with less nitrogen concentration in GA. The efficiency slightly increases when PF increases, this is due to less radiation penetration from the oxidation zone to drying and pyrolysis stages, thereby biomass consumption rate decreases.