[Bioconversion] Torrified woodcips

[Ken Boak]

Neal,  and List,

My aim is to reduce the amount of tars, that need to be consumed within the
main gasifier.

Torrefaction seems a sensible step, because it drives off the tar yielding
volatiles (acetic acid, formic acid, ethane, ethene and acetylene)  without
reducing the calorific content of the fuel by much, whereas charcoal
eliminates the tar problem, but at the expense of a lot of the calorific
value.

I agree that the volatile gases of torrefaction should be utilised, but not
in a way that they get back into the main gas stream.

Torrefied wood to me appears to be a good "halfway house", and part way
towards the 2 stage gasifier proposed by the Danish Technical University.

http://bgg.mek.dtu.dk/research/twostage/


The main question is that will the raw mixture of the engine exhaust and
torrefaction volatiles  support combustion if mixed with a suitable amount
of air?


Ken