[Bioconversion] Conserve -- Run an Arc reformer now!!

[Peter Singfield]

At 07:39 PM 6/21/2007 +0100, AJH wrote:
>Not so Peter, I posted about my how I saw electric arcs being used in
>the past, I pre qualified this with the admission I was not "up to
>speed on it" and in any case there should be no special emphasis
>attributed to my posts over any other contributor's, I'm not the list
>owner and I try to keep administrative posts clearly separate.
>
>AJH
>

OK -- I got it right this time -- and you are right -- in foundry works --
electric heating is the most energy intensive route -- 

A cast iron foundry would soon go broke using a carbon arc for melting cast
iron -- when compared to even a sloppy cupola set up -- in regards to
energy costs to do the melting..

I am well aware of this fly in this ointment -- as are you.

Here are some thoughts --

Other options --

Electrical Resistance heating -- but -- not happy at 2200 F

Cat heaters -- would be the absolutely most efficient way of all -- but do
they go hot enough??

That is burning product gas in a catalytic heater to maintain a high btu
flow rate at the 2200 F level.

I'm pressed for time now -- but later I'll "research" cat heaters once more
-- and see.

But my gut says they do not do those high temps --

The carbon arc is so convenient for doing high temp work --- to bad it does
not come cheap ---

"Look -- there has always been but one major problem with steam reformation
-- how to get that heat energy into the reaction -- I see the carbon arc
has better potential for achieving that in an easy way than any other
system out there"

And what spurred my renewed interest:

>The recovered electricity sometimes amounts to only about 60-80% of the
>energy required to decompose the waste. 

Now -- let me remind the list -- my interest was spiked not by the Noah
posting so much as it fit with what Leonard Wheeler sent me some time ago.

His studies were made in 1994 -- 95 -- by a certified lab -- after all --
these units were going through the approvable process as hazardous waste
disposal units for Hospitals. No stone was left unturned -- and the figures
were well measured -- well recorded.

That design used a plasma arc torch -- and water jacked reaction chamber --
which was cooled by condensing the steam so produced -- which was then
returned.

That amount of energy was also well measured.

Steam is "waste"??

However -- in the system I envision good insulation will be in place -- as
much as is required -- as my interest will be to direct all energy possible
into the very endothermic steam reaction -- maintained at -- say -- 2200 F
-- and "cooled" by continuous addition of more biomass to process --
cooling by an endothermic chemical reaction -- resulting in the conversion
of biomass directly to syngas -- and at very respectable conversion
efficiencies (very little is any tars -- etc -- minimal N2 -- etc -- etc).

By the way -- what also spikes my interest is these potential new
developments -- fermentation of Syngas to ethanol.

We might well be inefficient using an arc as heat supply -- but - -when
looking at the over all -- the end result might be of greater over all
efficiency -- due to factors such as -- much smaller footprint -- much less
gas cleaning (if any for fermentation) -- etc.

Besides -- if supplementing diesel/producer gas -- 30/70 -- is acceptable
for partial combustion gasifiers ----

Diesel engine -- DC welder generator -- arc -- invest to steam reforming of
biomass -- also runs at about 30/70 ---

The end game is ethanol from woody biomass -- cellulose -- in prodigious
amounts -- from a small -- very inexpensive device --

Hey -- what about graphite resistance furnaces?? Don't they go real high
temps to??

All the thermal mass I did many years ago -- and it was presented then to
the Gas list -- and should be in the archives -- but I can;t find it -- and
it is a huge job to do over again!!

EG -- how much energy has to be "shifted" for X amount of syngas product??

Peter