With the depletion of energy resources like coal, dependence on cleaner energy carriers like biomass is growing in the present century. Gasification is the most renowned and more energetically efficient technology for extracting this energy via the generation of syngas than other thermochemical conversion processes. It can produce power, liquid fuel, and valuable chemicals like methanol, upon which the present civilization relies. In contrast, other thermochemical processes can produce products (biochar or bio-oil) that do not hold value as high as syngas. Rice husk (RH) and cashew nut shells (CNS) are the two abundant biomasses predominantly found in India with extensive energy potential. RH and CNS gasification have several disadvantages that can be eliminated when gasified together, e.g., co-gasification can reduce the tar and ash content, which can cause serious operational issues during gasification. RH with significant lignin content and CNS with high volatile matter are ideal feedstocks for syngas production via gasification. The present study investigated the synergistic effect of co-gasification of the above feedstocks in a fixed-bed reactor. The mixtures of RH and CNS with blending ratios of 75:25, 50:50, and 25:75 were gasified using steam as the gasifying agent and N 2 as the carrier gas at a reaction temperature of 850 °C. The N 2 flow rate was kept at 20 LPM, and the steam flow rate was 0.825 mLPM in all the experiments. Syngas, with an optimum energy content (higher heating value) of 13.8 MJ/Nm 3 , the highest H 2 concentration of 43.5% volume (without considering N 2 and O 2 ), and the highest yield of 1.24 Nm 3 /kg obtained with gasification of a 50:50 blend, revealed the synergistic effect simultaneously. The char and tar yields were also the lowest in the case of 50:50 blend gasification.
De et al. (Mon,) studied this question.