Over the last 100 years, the ability to reliably extract energy through biomass gasification has proven to be quite elusive. Environmental issues, energy shortages, and the lack of coherent energy development policies in third world countries have kindled a renewed interest in biomass gasification technology. Recent innovations in pressurized fluidized bed gasification technology have raised expectations for the development of highly efficient biomass gasification power systems. The use of pressurized gasification systems has introduced a supposedly insurmountable problem regarding the transport of biomass across a pressure differential as it is fed to the gasifier. The biomass feed system must provide the capability to not only reliably feed the biomass to the gasifier, it must also monitor and automatically adjust the feed rate to the operating condition of the system. This paper presents the development of a biomass feed system, weight belt assembly modeling, and automated cascade loop PID control development.

Keywords:
bioenergy conversion, flow control, fluidised beds, cascade control, three-term control, process control
Topics:
Belts, Biomass, Cascades (Fluid dynamics), Manufacturing
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