[Gasification] Blue water gas (Hydrogen Content)

[Jonathan Pratt]

Jeff,

40% or higher Hydrogen is perfectly reasonable considering obtimum blue 
water gas is an exact 50% hydrogen 50% carbon monoxide mix.  Because the 
reactions aren't perfect and uniform and because they go both ways a little 
CO2 and methane are produced, also in the blue water gas process with the 
repeated heat and "make" cycles it would seem there would be some residual 
nitrogen in the system as they cut over between cycles.

>From BEF Bookstore:

NEW/OLD: MODERN GAS PRODUCERS: N. E. Rambush, the most complete collection 
of information on the golden age of coal gasification, when every city had a 
"gasworks" . Lots of food for thought on biomass gasification and why it's 
different.
ISBN 1-890607-18-5                                550 pp 
$35

I don't know offhad the page numbers and exact figures but hydrogen ratio 
was very high in town gas (like 44%).  With some 5-10%  variation depending 
on the city and gasworks .

One thing that caught my attention is that the CO ratio in the end product 
(town gas) mix mentioned was very low.   This would seem to indicate that 
they used another process maybe passing the gas over a nickel catalyst to 
convert to CO to more hydrogen and then scrubbing the gas of CO2, so the end 
product was a very hydrogen rich gas of about 44% and a good proportion of 
methane as well.

Tom Reed also mentioned his mother cooking with town gas and not needing any 
special ventilation, that sounds like carbon monoxide was either not a 
present or not a serious problem with town gas.

I didn't see anything is Gas Producers though that described scrubbing or 
converting the CO in the gas.

Can anyone answer this authoritatively?  Was Carbon monoxide 'scrubbed' from 
town gas?  Was there some conversion of the CO fraction to more H2 using 
steam and the CO over a nickel catalyst?



Jonathan


>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:14:13 -0500
> From: Jeff Davis <jeff0124 at velocity.net>
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Blue Water gas - Back to the future?
> To: gasification at listserv.repp.org
> Message-ID: <200611200014.13218.jeff0124 at velocity.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> On Saturday 18 November 2006 09:45 am, Thomas Reed wrote:
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Is it possible that we could make even better synthesis gas (water gas)
>> using the blue water gas process and densified biomass?
>>
>> Comments?
>>
>> TOM REED            BEF
>
>
> If one looks at the chart on page 5 of the below report (40% H2) could it 
> be
> possible that they figured out how? Or am I reading the chart wrong? CO2
> looks a little high.
>
> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/?q=repoteciea06
>
> (IEA Task 33 Gasification: 5 Years Experience with 2 MW CHP Wood 
> Gasification
> in G?issing, Austria)
>
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
> -- 
> Jeff Davis
> Somewhere 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA
> http://www.velocity.net/~jeff0124
>
>