Safety of Wood Gas [Gasification] storing wood gas.

[Harmon Seaver]

On 6/15/06, Kevin Chisholm <kchisholm at ca.inter.net> wrote:
> Dear List
>
       (snip)
>
> LPG and Natural Gas are in safe widespread use, even though they are
> explosive and a fire hazard. Procedures and standards have been developed to
> permit safe and reliable of these hazardous gases. The same thing can be
> done with wood gas.

   Yes, they could. One thing that they both have is a "scent" marker.
Also, one major difference is that they are both fairly non-toxic,
meaning yes, they can suffocate you if you have no O2 coming into the
room, but otherwise are no problem. LPG is heavier than air, while
woodgas is lighter than air. So if you have a propane leak (and who
hasn't?) it's not a big deal usually, it just flow out the door.
Woodgas flows right up to where you are breathing, and woodgas, unlike
the other two, is seriously toxic.


>
> We could start by looking at the practices employed by the Coal Gas Industry
> a hundred years ago, and build on their gas handling technology and
> experience to deliver wood gas safely to the point of use. In this day and

   Good grief! Yeah, right, let's go back to all the environmental
proscriptions from 100 years ago. Do you have any concept of how many
coal gas production sites are still posing serious environmental
problems in 2006? That is exactly why anyone trying to setup a big
gasifier today runs into a brick wall with local enviro authorities.
Or certainly should.

-- 
Harmon Seaver