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Combustion of fossil fuels is one of the major sources of greenhouse gas CO2, it is therefore necessary to develop technologies that will allow us to utilize the fossil fuels while reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a potential technique for removing CO2from high-pressure fuel gas streams. Zeolites are suitable candidate sorbents for use in the PSA process. Studies of the gas adsorption of CO2onto zeolite 13X and zeolite 4A were conducted at a temperature of 25 °C, 35 °C, 45 °C and 60 °C up to a pressure of 1 bar. The data fitting is accomplished with the Toth and Sips adsorption models which are generally used for micro-porous adsorbents such as zeolites. Moreover, regeneration studies have been conducted in order to verify the possibility of adsorbents reutilization, to determine its CO2adsorption capacity within consecutive cycles of adsorption–desorption. Zeolite with higher surface area showed higher CO2adsorption capacity. There is no full reversibility for the two zeolites.

The present study involves the preparation and characterization of the biomass briquettes made from saw dust and rice husk. Five samples with different compositions were prepared using the old news papers as the binder for both the biomass. Ultimate analysis, proximate analysis, heating value and handling characteristic of all the samples were determined. It was observed that the compositions of the biomass sawdust (BMS)-15 and biomass rice husk (BMR)-15 are suitable for the downdraft gasifier.

In the villages of developing countries, use of electricity or petroleum fuel is expensive for drying the agricultural products. In the current scenario, drying through “natural convection grain dryer” is an important alternative. This paper proposes the development and evaluation of the natural convection grain dryer in drying performance of paddy. The proposed system is capable of generating an adequate and continuous flow of hot air with range of 60-70 degree centigrade. Paddy was successfully dried from 33% moisture content to 14% (w.b). Woodchips (biomass) were burnt to heat the incoming air in the dryer. Experiments were conducted with fixed amount of sensible heat storage material with varying the amount of latent heat storage material. Increase in the latent heat of storage material indicates the improvement in standard drying temperature, time and enhancement in amount of paddy dried. Re-firing further enhances the duration of optimum temperature range for quality drying.