Design, instrumentation, and operation of a standard downdraft, laboratory-scale gasification testbed utilising novel seed-propagated hybrid Miscanthus pellets

•A gasifier design was compared with two reaction rate models.•A standard laboratory gasifier test-bed is proposed and built using a flexible design strategy.•An Arduino based robust instrumentation and control system was successfully demonstrated.•A novel seed-propagated hybrid Miscanthus gasification trials were successful.•New opportunities for growing Miscanthus variety in harsher environments, for energy crops.