Hi Doug. I can appreciate the inconvenience of metering steam to the "reaction zone" on modern setups. Even so, there is a deficiency in monitoring the quality of gas produced during a run. other than listening to noises from the engine. This book mentions the distillation of "wood waste" together with the exceptable moisture content of the raw fuel."biomass". There was however, NO reference to utilizing the "Exhaust & waste heat" from the the ICE. The steam was obtained from heat generated by the hot gas leaving the "Reaction Zone" The reclamation of heat from the engine was probably not worth the trouble as these long stroke engines were renowned for efficiency, their exhaust temperatures being far lower than that of the modern "Square engine",and were probably sited several buildings away. There seems to be no reference to the temperature expectations here. Your reference to "the inconvenience" of reclaiming ICE exhaust heat is surely a design failure. There has been a lot said about moisture content of raw fuel on recent contributions,would you not agree that the temperature of the reaction zone becomes lowered by wet fuel ,due to the endothermic effect of "to much water" being present, leading to gas of deficient quality and tar?. If so, additional heat needs to be applied to this area in order to convert the "water trapped within the fuel" in to super heated steam, just before being drawn through the "reaction zone". Perhaps we should consider the ICE as the primary provider of heat for pyrolization, and build the gasifier around it.
GFWHELL -----Original Message----- From: doug.williams <[email protected]> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Sat, Dec 25, 2010 12:15 pm Subject: Re: [Gasification] Drying fuel with IC exhause and otherpleasures... Hi GF, There has to be a minute available to make comment on this subject; > I found the information quite enlightening in The Linsay Publication Issue > > of: > “Gas Engine& producer Gas Plants” By R.E.Mathot. > This book describes various systems of early gasification processes. > There was one item which seems to have been neglected in the construction > > of the modern equivalents. > It played an important role on “Pressure” gasifiers and was also included > > on “suction systems of many types. > The enrichment of the gas produced by cracking water was highly valued; > > notes are included of BTU improvement of gas quality, using calorimeters. > The inclusion of the VAPORIZER seems to be of little importance today. Without splitting hairs, most of those historic gasifiers were coal or charcoal, to which the addition of steam improved their gas quality. Biomass gasification based on more recent experience, shows it is not required. You can of course find exceptions to this rule of thumb, where-by, the very dry dead wood of ring barked eucalyptus in Australia, did work better if a bit of steam was added. Steam works best into incandescent carbon beds. Our modern gasification technologies separate steam gasification into the pressurized Syngas plants which we all know is far superior in BTU content, compared to producer gas. While many working with gasifiers describe their work making "syngas", it is in fact fraudulent to do so, when the difference is like night and day. > With the high exhaust temperatures of gasifier fuelled ICE combos > It would be a simple modification to wrap a few turns of metal tube around > > the exhaust manifold and meter water according to demand, there through > and > conduct said flow of >super heated steam to the reaction area of the > > gasifier. This is a description of how Brisbane Taxi drivers in the 1940's improved their engine performance on rationed gasoline. Mobile gasifiers are usually mounted some distance from the engine, and if charcoal, which is the smallest and lightest choice of gasifiers design is used, then heat losses are not an issue, but need the addition of steam to provide H2. > In this way it would be possible to claim some waste heat from the engine > > and use it to cancel out the endothermic losses of the FT reaction. I am not sure if you are still talking gasification or liquid fuels with this comment, but it is easy to be in awe of the waste heat from engines. Doug Williams. _______________________________________________ The Gasification list has moved to [email protected] - please update your email contacts to reflect the change. Please visit http://info.bioenergylists.org for more news on the list move. Thank you, Gasification Administrator _______________________________________________ The Gasification list has moved to [email protected] - please update your email contacts to reflect the change. Please visit http://info.bioenergylists.org for more news on the list move. Thank you, Gasification Administrator
