Abstract
Efficient gasification of biomass, such as wood chips, requires a low moisture content of 10% to 15%. This thesis presents a comparative analysis of drying methods to reduce wood chip moisture content in preparation for gasification in the Sacramento State University's biomass internal combustion engine. The study focuses on two main approaches: analysis of a custom design dryer and small-scale experiments using an oven and microwave. The custom design dryer underwent modifications to improve drying efficiency, and a simple model was created to simulate these modifications. The results showed that the modifications to the custom design dryer demonstrated potential improvements, but further optimizations could be made for better results. The small-scale experiments were conducted using two different samples of wood chips to compare the drying process and energy efficiency of the oven and microwave systems. The analysis of the oven and microwave experiments revealed that microwave drying is significantly more efficient than oven drying, with thermal efficiencies ranging from 21.54% to 28.4%, compared to the oven's 3.03% to 6.1%. The study concludes that due to the uniqueness of drying systems, experimental analysis is crucial for optimization, and that small-scale experiments can yield similar but less efficient results compared to their industrial counterparts. This thesis emphasizes the importance of understanding and optimizing drying methods for efficient biomass gasification.