[Gasification] Producer Gas to Diesel

[Jonathan F. Pratt]

As there are several individuals and organizations on this list who either
already work with gasifiers or are capable of conducting experiments
with gasifiers maybe some can try or comment on experiments with
fischer-tropsche production of synthetic diesel or other synthetically
produced hydrocarbons.

Anyone here who has already worked or is working on fischer-tropsche
synfuels would be an excellent source of input.

These 2 links are an interesting start for someone who can experiment
with making synfuels from a simple setup and catalyst:

As these following links are from Doug Williams site, maybe Doug can
comment in detail what the results where of these experiments:

http://www.fluidynenz.250x.com/_framed/250x/fluidynenz/fischer.htm

http://www.fluidynenz.250x.com/_framed/250x/fluidynenz/fisc2.gif

If anyone else knows of small scale experiments like this of 
Fischer-Tropsche
set-up to make synfuels, please comment on the results.

The feedstock used was sawdust, gasified with air aparently and flow
was established with a compressor to 10 atmospheres. The producer
gas was run through a pipe filled with "Volcanic iron sand (iron
oxide), saturated with diesel fuel" Apparently the product was a wax
that could be refined into diesel.

The setup couldn't get any simpler or cheaper than this to see what
the results would be in a small scale system.

While I'm sure the results may not have been ideal, perhaps they
indicated that some kind of small synfuel production rig may be
viable.

While cellulosic ethanol may still be in development, fischer-tropche
processes are proven and can be utilized now (as South Africa has
been doing on a mass scale for 30+ years) to produce a whole
range of hydrocarbons from both biomass and coal.  But just how
viable might a small (1 barrel to 10 barrel) per day setup be?

Maybe Dr. Makunda's gasifier can be utilized by farmers to gasify
their Ag-residues to make syn-fuels.  As that gasifier appears to
effectively use ag-residues in their gasifier for power generators.


Any takers?

Jonathan Pratt
President, iENERGY Inc.

http://www.woodgas-stove.com