Energy is important in driving economic growth. Depletion of
conventional energy sources and escalating fuel prices are causing
an energy crisis. A possible solution may be found with renewable
energies such as biomass, solar, hydropower and wind energy. Biomass
is especially abundant, environmentally friendly and is an
attractive substitute to fossil fuels. Biomass can be converted to
producer gas by gasification, and utilized for generation of power
and heat [1,2]. It has the potential to be used to drive internal combustion
engines, compared with other forms of energy. Producer
gas engines were first introduced around 1914–18, but was used
widely during the World War II. More than one million of vehicles
used producer gas in Europe, North America and Australia [3]. The
use of producer gas in internal combustion engines was seen again
during the oil crisis of 1973. However, the use of producer gas to
run internal combustion engines, so for, has not been very successful
because the power is usually de-rated during the operation. A
major cause of lower performance with producer gas is due to its
low energy density, compared to gasoline, diesel or natural gas
[3,4]. The engine performance may be improved by two methods