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Executive Summary

Most of the nations depend on non-renewable sources of energy, mainly fossil fuels, to fulfill
most of their energy demands. However, reliance on fossil fuels has caused many problems. For
example, fossil fuels produce major environmental pollutants, mainly the greenhouse gases,
which contribute to the climate change. On the other hand, renewable energy resources offer
clean alternatives to the fossil fuels. They produce less or no greenhouse gases and thus cause
less pollution. Furthermore, renewable energy resources will never run out as they are simply
renewable.
This project targets the manipulation of solid wastes in general and in particular the solid
agricultural wastes especially the date stones aiming at converting them in a gasification system
into a gaseous fuel that can be used for electricity generation by dual fuel engines and gas
turbines or for heat generation in furnaces in different industrial applications.
We have chosen the date stone to be the input of our system because it is of much relevance to
the UAE and the GCC countries and because of its availability in these countries with promising
quantities. Preliminary calculations and tests indicate that the energy potential in a unit mass of a
bio fuel such as date stones is equivalent to at about 60 percent the energy contained in a typical
hydrocarbon and by no means less than that contained in a fuel such as coal, with the advantage
of the date stones being with very low ash content as compared to coal. In the UAE, the fate of
date stones is either to be got rid of as wastes or to be used as animal feed.
Our project aims to produce a green fuel that will be friendly to the environment and wont
contribute to the environmental pollution. In addition, this produced fuel will meet the UAE
2021 vision which states As a leader of the green revolution, the UAE is conscious of its
responsibility to safeguard nature and mitigate the effects of climate change on its habitat and
ecosystems in order to ensure that future generations inherit an environmentally sustainable
world. Furthermore, our system will increase the options available for both the decision makers
and the energy planners as well as the producers of such bio-resources by giving them a chance
to add to their list of options a clean energy and electricity generation option when they attempt
to decide on their plans for energy. For that purpose we plan in this project to design and build an
gasification system to release the gaseous fuel within the solid fuels and to provide a system that
produces these gaseous fuels so that they may be used for electricity generation by diesel engines
and gas turbines or simply in furnaces and boilers for steam and hot water production or for heat
production for different industry uses.

Project design
Process
The input to the system will be the date stones which will be fed with a certain well-judged rate.
After that, a mechanism to cause the effective heat up and gasification and pyrolysis of the
supplied biomass will be adopted. Temperatures in the range from 500 oC to 700 oC will be
needed to assure the above processes will take place in an efficient manner. Different techniques
to achieve the above may be used and tested, including the use of two fixed beds and a typical
fuel such as LPG as a starter. As a result of the heat resulted from the combustion of the LPG, the
date stones in the first bed will be gasified and volatile gases will be released. Then these volatile
gasses, in the presence of air, will combust. Once there is a flame, then the LPG supply will shut
down and the date stones will be supplied regularly to the first bed to assure the presence of
continuous source of heat. With that the process will be self-supported. The heat resulted from
the first bed will be directed to heat the second bed, such that there will be no contact between
the date stones in the second bed and the coming heated gasses. After some time and in the
absence of air, the date stones in the second bed will be gasified and volatile gasses will be
released. The released gasses will be directed out the system through a pipe to the energy
application use intended. For example, an engine to generate power or a furnace or boiler where
heat can be produced for some industrial application. The surplus amounts of the produced gas
may be stored in storage tanks at certain conditions for possible future use as a clean fuel that
may replace typical fuels such as LPG or Natural gas.

The system
The system consists of some main components, which are two suppliers, a centrifugal blower for
supplying air and the other is a LPG cylinder for supplying
LPG, a combustion chamber, two cylindrical beds with a
conical end, two bases, one of them is a cubic base with legs
and the other is a cylindrical base, one solid fuel feeder for each
bed and finally an output pipe in the top of the upper bed.

Figure 2.1 Embodiment sketch


(section view)

Results and conclusions


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Authors
Advisor: Dr Salah AL Omari
Co-Advisor: Prof Mohamed Younis
Students:
Mohamed Aly ElKabalawy 200935067

Abdullah Omar Mohammed

200834899

Humaid Rashed Al Suwaidi

200880273

Mohammed Saeed Ghaleb

200814155

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