Abstract
Thermochemical conversion of biomass is a technique used in recovering its energetic content and for the production useful biofuels. A lot of wastes/residues are generated from the harvesting and consumption of banana fruits. This study developed an ASPEN Plus model for the gasification of banana (Musa Spp.) residues pseudo-stem, the peels and the leaves. The model will be used to study the effect of gasification temperature, gasification pressure and air-fuel ratio (AFR) on the selectivity of the chemical species in the product stream. For all three residues, the selectivity of hydrogen increases with temperature with temperature. At the optimum temperature, the hydrogen molar selectivity in the product stream is 56% (900oC), 55% (900oC) and 53% (700oC) for pseudo-stem, peels and leaves respectively. At the optimum atmospheric pressure, the hydrogen molar percentage in the product stream was 48%, 49% and 50% for pseudo-stem, peels and leaves respectively. At the optimum AFR, the hydrogen selectivity in the product stream is 55%, 52% and 46% for pseudo-stem, peels and leaves respectively. All three residues are reasonably good feedstock for the gasification process but the pseudo-stem possesses a marginal advantage over the others.
Air Gasification of Banana (Musa spp.) Residues to Produce Biofuels