[Gasification] Properties of "hydrogen rich gas"

[Thomas Reed]

Dear Rant and All:

After all the oil and gas are gone or too expensive we will still have 
"hydrogen rich gas" (our preferred name for producer gas, town gas, 
syngas etc.) from biomass and  coal by gasification and all other fuels 
by reforming. 

We know the bad sides of this gas, since it was widely available to the 
world from 1850 to 1950 and is coming back in China etc.  It has a low 
energy content relative to natural gas and propane, so is more difficult 
to store and ship.  The CO is deadly, so don't breathe it. 

BUT:  It is relatively easy to make from all other fuels which are easy 
to store and ship.  It has a high burning velocity and can burn very 
lean or very rich.  And it has very low emissions compared to all other 
fuels. 

The burning velocity of most fuels in air is 40-60 cm/sec.  The burning 
velocity of hydrogen is 300 cm/sec.  The burning velocity of really pure 
CO is 30 cm/sec, but a small amount of impurity makes it comparable to 
all other fuels.  So, "hydrogen rich gas" burns faster than most fuels 
with a wider combustion limit. 

I wish that some laboratory would undertake the task of defining the 
flame velocity and combustion limits of hydrogen rich gas.  I have one 
Dutch paper from the 1950s in my archives giving a linear dependence on 
CO-H2 content up to 300 cm/sec and some combustion limits, but we need 
more than that.

Any volunteers?

Yours truly,

TOM REED       THE BIOMASS ENERGY FOUNDATION



Arnt Karlsen wrote:

>On Wed, 10 May 2006 08:21:50 +0200, astrupgaard wrote in message 
><20060510062143.TXLR21582.fep45.mail.dk at ag17276f29bb5e>:
>
>  
>
>>- and that is why a gasifier definition should never include a demand
>>for cooling of the gas! (Apparently that is the case in Californian
>>legislation)
>>    
>>
>
>..it should however require combustibility of the product gas in air,
>say under standard athmosphaeric conditions like under standard 
>aviation conditions such as under the ICAO/ FAA standards, 
>15C/60F, 1013.25mb/760mmHg etc, which _any_ viable gasifier 
>can be set up to produce. 
>
>  
>

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  ¡±