[Gasification] Hot charcoal for exhaust cleaning

[andy schofield]

Hi Ken,

  I've used hot engine exhaust to attempt to dry a few batches of wet 
cherrypits. The pits tended to become blackened in the area where the 
temperature was the highest. While the rest of the bed remained wet. When 
drying-chamber mounting brackets showed signs of metal fatigue, I 
discontinued tests. Later I used the chamber to char pits like Alex 
English's TLUD. See his "Big Top" gasifier, and a former post by me to this 
forum for more info.

  The set-up:
Exhaust gasses from a 1991 Ford 5.0 L gasoline engine driving a 1/2 ton 
pickup truck were piped into a cone drilled with many 1/4 inch holes (the 
inlet septum). The cone has a 4" pipe nipple, and bar-cap to drain the dry 
product from the bottom. The hot gasses travel upwards through the holes, 
through the bed of pits (16" by 32") and out a short 4" pipe in the top. 
Water vapor came out the top too. Clouds of it. This posed a safety problem 
I feared, even on the light-traffic rural roads where it was tested because 
of visibility problems.

  You pose a question as to whether a bed of char (like this) will reduce 
unburned fuel (to useful CO,H2) before it escapes to the atmosphere. I guess 
the set-up you plan would act like a catlyst bed used on gasoline engines if 
the air was precisely controlled. The product-gas would then be available to 
add to some combustion process if it has any chemical potential energy. It 
would have a great deal of thermal-energy for shure.

  I see you measured the engine exhaust-temperature for various RPM. What is 
your load? can it be varied?
You will see an increase in temperature at a given RPM for increased 
torque-output (more load). Do you agree?

Andy Schofield
Great Lakes Renewable Fuels

>
>Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 22:55:27 +0100
>From: "Ken Boak" <kenboak at stirlingservice.freeserve.co.uk>
>Subject: [Gasification] Hot charcoal for exhaust cleaning
>To: <GASIFICATION at LISTSERV.REPP.ORG>
>Message-ID: <001001c69d59$100ac7f0$0b00000a at KenLaptop>
>Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Gents,
>
>I am running a 1950 Lister CS 6hp stationary diesel engine on filtered 
>waste vegetable oil and need some advice about the possibility of using a 
>hot charcoal bed for cleaning up the exhaust gases.
>
>Will hot charcoal reduce the unburnt hydrocarbon compounds?
>
>If sufficient air was entrained with the exhaust gas flow with a simple 
>mixer, could the exhaust fumes be further consumed by reduction and 
>combustion within the hot charcoal, and provide useful heat output.
>
>Any insight into the use of charcoal in this manner would be appreciated.
>
>It is likely that I will have a supply of carbonised woodchip charcoal as a 
>result of running a woodchip gasifier.
>
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>
>Ken Boak
>
>
>London
>
>------------------------------
>
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>End of Gasification Digest, Vol 1, Issue 1
>******************************************

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