[Gasification] Fe + H2O = FeO + H2 Reply 4

[Peter Singfield]

At 05:14 PM 12/1/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>Interesting information at below link:
>http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/?q=node/218
>
>
>Snip:
>"The above equation tells us that with steam and hot or molten iron we can
>make H2 with rust being the byproduct. This rust can be converted back to
>iron. Check out the below links for more information."
>
>
>Jeff

Alchemix first shows up in my extensive Hard Drive archives in Nov 2001 --
when they were proposing using molten zinc metal baths -- which I thought
was a very ingenious system indeed.

Ergo -- I researched it in much greater depth -- back "when"

Those other replies I posted are but a very few examples of where that
research led me.

My interest in this process comes from an old past "experience"

Around 1978 or so one of the industrial scrap yards I sourced "materials"
from was situated in an old abandoned steel mill near the Verdun Canal.

The plant was in full activity in the from the late 1800's to the early
1900's -- O believe the great depression was it's final death blow.

The "ruins" were fascinating and highly interesting.

The owner of this scrap yard became a close acquaintance -- and one day
supplied me with the address of the last plant engineer -- who still lived
about 3 miles from this site.

In 1978 he was 84 years of age -- but once I showed interested in the old
mill -- he became amazingly 'sharp'!

They had large underground "fire brick checker heat exchangers that could
be shifted in direction flow -- thus heated -- then heat recovered.

They also baked commercial construction bricks in the chambers.

They used the producer gas which was by product of the bessemer steel
making process in this manner.

It was burned in a tall vertical "kiln" -- which was the heart of a
reversible -- or two stage process.

The bottom part was where producer gas and air were encouraged to combust -- 

Directly above the combustion chamber were layers of heavy iron gratings --
above that were very high temperature (but less than 5 psi pressure!!)
steam super heaters -- and above that was a simple low pressure fire tube
boiler -- with a steam regulator -- max pressure was 100 psi -- and that
was reduced to feed the superheaters at 5 psi (A steam pressure regulator
is often simply a Tempering device -- where a little water is mixed in --
you end up with more volume -- lower pressures -- dry steam --

The exhaust from this kiln was in that mode ported in to the underground
checker heat exchanger/brick baking works.

They produced a lot of H2 -- had a good market for it -- though I never
asked more about that part (maybe Zeppelins though??)

Here is how the old engineer set up to make it "then" --

First they burned producer gas -- till the thick layer of iron grates
reached 2200 F or more -- and the boiler boiled hard. Balancing out (due to
it's design capacity -- with a good head of steam under 100 psi but with a
large waterr volume.

The hot exhaust gases went down to the heat exchangers --- giving up their
highest heat - -then being exhausted -- (Baking new brick also -- a little
"side-line")

Then the flow was reversed and switched -- the produce gas combustion and
air was shut down -- the heat exchanger direction was reversed -- ambient
air blown through it being heated and then fed into the bottom of the kiln
to be mixed with very super heated steam.

The low temperature low pressure super saturated steam was released into
the super heaters which were directly above the 2200 F plus thick cast iron
grates - -where radiant heat rose the temperatures of that steam to over
1800 F --

That steam was fed back into the bottom of the kiln with the super heated
air and rose up to impinge on the cast iron grates --

The reaction was steam -- hot iron -- iron Oxidizing to magnetic Oxide --
steam becoming H2 gas.

That off mixture then went into another underground complex where
relatively pure H2 was isolated from the air/H2 mix.

Once the iron grids cooled to much -- the system was reversed to run on the
producer gas to heat everything back up again. 

The producer gas combustion produce much very hot CO2 which reduced the
magnetic oxide coatings on the iron grates back to iron -- and the process
then would flip again --

Another version they operated was when they got contract to make "black
iron piping" -- the black iron being iron with a layer of magnetic oxide -
-which resists all further corrosion.

Well -- if you replace the source of the producer gas from being the by
product of a bessemer furnace to a biomass gasifier --

And remember -- this all back turn of 1800's/1900's

Jeff -- you probably could build a small version of that process in your
own back yard!


Oh -- I did plumbing jobs in old Montreal where I took out steam for heat
delivery piping -- those old very low pressure systems (3 psi max) which
pipe was well over 100 years old -- and that same "Black" pipe described
above -- and totally not corroded at all -- just like new -- as the day it
was made.

Peter -- Belize