: Gasification, a thermochemical process that takes place in gasifiers, is now understood as a process of transforming
the solid components of biomass into combustible gases essentially consisting of carbon monoxide (CO) and dihydrogen (H2).
This technology is relatively old and was widely used during the Second World War to deal with the shortage of fossil fuels in
Europe. Although gasification was abandoned in favor of oil after the Second World War, this process is experiencing a great
revival of interest today for the decentralized production of energy and for covering the energy needs of the disadvantaged strata
in the developing countries. We aim to experiment with small-scale gasifiers with three objectives: to produce electrical energy,
to improve the energy efficiency of biomass gasifiers and to do so essentially with materials accessible on the market in
developing countries at affordable costs. In this study, we successfully designed, fabricated and tested a heat recovery system
from a downdraft gasifier fueled with wood chunks. The gasifier use material finds at an affordable cost. Our downdraft gasifiers
have a throat which is the hottest part of the apparatus. Almost all designers insulate the throat mainly for safety, environmental
protection and efficiency considerations. Instead of insulating the throat, we designed a heat recovery system surrounding the
throat and generated electrical power from high pressure water vapor produced from that throat. This recovered energy is a bonus
energy from a downdraft gasifier and should be added to the gasifier energy balance, thus increase the overall efficiency This led
us to supplemental electrical power generation from this type of gasifiers.

Downdraft Gasifier Heat Recovery