Doug, as a proponent and developer of continuous charcoal production equipment I second your motion that charcoal gasifiers should get more attention ... after all a good charcoal has less than one tenth the tar production potential of woody biomass. After all that is mostly what char production is about, removing volatile matter to leave a carbon rich product. Of course the volatile matter that is released must be used and dealt with responsibly ... I don't want to advocate for the great billowing char pits and kilns of the 19th century.
The other benefit of charcoal is consistency in what the engine sees as a fuel. Most wood gasifiers have to put up with a lot of variation in their fuel. ... and when it comes to engines and fuels garbage in equals garbage out. Regards, James From: Doug <[email protected]> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Wishart Producer Gas Unit Hi Tom and Gasification Colleagues, While we all want to run mobile gasified applications, what is not mentioned that I can see, is that the Wishart gasifier discussed in the article was a charcoal gasifier. Rural Australia had a wealth of dead standing ring-barked eucalyptus hardwoods which fuelled boilers and made charcoal for the gasifiers. Land clearance of forest cover is more controlled today, so bagged quality char from local sources not so easy to access. Most of what I observed on sale for barbecues originated from coconut shell or Asian suppliers. Wages for a average worker at that time (1940) was around A5 Pounds a week, so the trip quoted amounted to 6.9% of that weeks wages for each person. My Father had a 6 cylinder 1938 Pontiac in Central Queensland in 1955, and on the black top you could get 80 MPH, but I doubt if this speed was possible between Sydney and Melbourne on the 1940's roads. As the trip was probably in June or late May, that can be a lot colder, so cooling would be enhanced. It's still indicative of alternatives to using liquid fuels, and nothing should stop anyone with the need or interest to try charcoal gasifiers for mobile application, that is if you have the ability to make your own charcoal. Doug Williams, Fluidyne. _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/
