Process modeling and evaluation of optimal operating conditions for production of hydrogen-rich syngas from air gasification of rice husks using aspen plus and response surface methodology.

Biomass gasification is recognized as a viable avenue to accelerate the sustainable production of hydrogen. In this work, a numerical simulation model of air gasification of rice husks is developed using the Aspen Plus to investigate the feasibility of producing hydrogen-rich syngas. The model is experimentally validated with rice husk gasification results and other published studies. The influence of temperature and equivalence ratio on the syngas composition, H yield, LHV, H/CO ratio, CGE, and PCG was studied. Furthermore, the synchronized effects of temperature and ER are studied using RSM to determine the operational point of maximizing H yield and PCG. The RSM analysis results show optimum performance at temperatures between 820 °C and 1090 °C and ER in the range of 0.06-0.10. The findings show that optimal operating conditions of the gasification system can be achieved at a more refined precision through simulations coupled with advanced optimization techniques.