[Gasification] water injection of producer gas fired ic engines

[jim mason]

On 7/6/06, Harmon Seaver <hseaver at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/6/06, jim mason <jimmason at whatiamupto.com> wrote:
> > On 7/6/06, Peter Wilson <petergwilson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > i might be misunderstanding, but there is no need for another reactor
> > vessel.  you want it all to happen in the combustion chamber of the
> > engine, where the exothermic nature of the reactions can be mined by
> > the piston.
> >
>      Yeah, you are misunderstanding -- he said "why carry all that water?"
>
> --
> Harmon Seaver
>


well, to which i am suggesting "why carry all that fuel?"

filling a water tank is usually much easier than preparing a load of
gasifier fuel.  if the water was found to even cut gasifier fuel
consumption by 25%, that would be very significant.  given the high CO
content of producer gas, the chemistry seems to suggest that the
beneficial effects of water injection of producer gas fired engines
would be much more than with other fuels.

unfortunately, i do not yet have a gas/ic rig to test this out.  might
any of you want to test as such?  (i.e. harmon?)

for the cheap route, here is how to make a DIY water injection unit:
http://www.dawesdevices.com/howto.html

also more water injection DIY units in the water injection forum
http://www.waterinjection.info/phpBB2/

or really, a hand pressurized insecticide sprayer would allow some
rough experimentation.


i recently noticed that gas chromagraphs are cheaply available at your
local smog test shop.  some even now with an attached load dyno for
under load testing.

an interesting test would simply be to see the CO out the gasifier/ic
motor under load, without water.  add water and see what happens.  it
should drop significantly.

so harmon, i'll propose to you a gentlemanly and respectful wager.
that wager is that your "well tuned" gasifier/ic rig is in actuality
putting out over 10% CO in the exhaust pipe.  and that with the water
injection, it can be more than halved (from whatever the "as is" rate
was found to be).

if i am wrong on either prediction, i'll pay for the "smog test".  if
you are wrong, well, you get to pay.  either way, all of us might
learn something new in the process.  i'll put the money in escrow with
some neutral gasification enthusiast via paypal.

so harmon, do we have a wager? . . . ;-)

j