[Gasification] Does charcoal production also produce wood gas?

[CAVM at aol.com]

Ananda,  The point of my questions about charcoal retorts is to  discover 
whether situations such as your coconut shell charcoal retorts are  producing 
combustible gases.  It may be that by simply cleaning and cooling  the exhaust 
from the charcoal makers you can use it as fuel in an engine.   This would mean 
cheap electrical power as a byproduct of charcoal  manufacturing.  You could 
pump water, air condition a building, or whatever  using mechanical power or 
electrical power if this exhaust gas can be used in an  engine.
 
Is the unsophisticated process of piling biomass in an enclosure and  setting 
it on fire with controlled oxygen inlets enough to produce a combustible  gas?
 
Neal

From:  Ananda Weerakkody <aasakuweer at yahoo.com.sg>
Subject: [Gasification]  Re: Gasification Digest, Vol 23, Issue 2
To:  gasification at listserv.repp.org
Message-ID:  <20060604012329.34311.qmail at web31915.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type:  text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Dear Friends,

I have a suggestion which I put forward to Japanese experts too, but they are 
 too busy with Rice Husk.
When Coconut Shells are burnt, a large  volume of very thick acric smoke 
comes out. This contains many Organic  compounds. Not only CO & H2. This may be 
used as a fuel for Petrol; or  Diesel engines after proper treatment. The volume 
of Gas and Heat produced  during Coconut shell burning is second only to Coal.
I am living in  Sri Lanka and Philippines. We produce massive amounts of 
coconut shells but  they are just burned to produce Charcoal for export. Locally 
this charcoal is  used by Gold-Smiths and Black-smiths.
I think this is a massive  wastage of Bio-mass energy. Unfortunately for us, 
the expert like you on this  subject are mainly from Europe & USA.
Thank you.

Ananda