[Gasification] coal coocking

Wed Sep 27 09:05:00 CDT 2006

Hans

Thanks for sharing this with us it looks quite innovative. Two questions....
What is the amount of GJ of energy recovered in the coal product relative to
the original biomass? Have you tested the fuel quality as potassium and
chlorine are major problems for combustion processes and the feedstocks you
describe are rich in these materials? 

Roger Samson
-----Original Message-----
From: gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Hans
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:14 AM
To: gasification at listserv.repp.org; funfisherman at prodigy.net
Subject: [Gasification] coal coocking

*MEH (funfisherman at prodigy.net) wrote:

What is it Hans? *

Well MEH, here is one of the articles offline and without pictures:

( http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2071791,00.html )

A Stroke of Genius? A New Recipe for Coal
Markus Antonietti from the Max-Planck Institute has developed a simple 
but ingenious way of producing coal using biomass - such as waste from 
the garden or leaves from the local forest.
The process is environmentally friendly, as the only by-product is water 
- not carbon dioxide which would contribute to global warming. 
Antonietti has successfully managed to develop this method so that it 
could be used for commercial coal production. Such coal could just be 
used for heating purposes, but it could be used far more effectively in 
electricity and gasoline production. The 70 million tonnes of biomass 
that Germany produces every year would be sufficient to cover the 
country's energy needs.
We take a closer look at this potentially revolutionary discovery.
What is this chemist doing for in the woods armed with a pair of scissors?

He's gathering the ingredients for a very special recipe.

Markus Antonietti from Max Planck Institute for Colloid and Interface 
Research: "I'm collecting leaves and twigs. We want this material to 
solve one of the great problems of the age."
It's the problem of the planet's energy supplies. Markus Antonietti 
wants to use a technique he's developed to cook up some coal, based on 
the way nature does it.

But instead of millions of years, his method takes only a few hours.

But stop! First the ingredients.

The biomass goes into the autoclave, a kind of pressure cooker. Leaves, 
pine cones and other plant residues are put into the pot. Water goes in, 
too, along with a citric acid catalyst. The mixture releases a lot of 
heat - in other words, energy.

Markus Antonietti from Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces: 
"We underestimated this when we started. We could calculate how much 
energy was stored in the sugar - in the leaf material. But the first 
time - as you see - we had a runaway reaction, which is obviously 
dangerous, so we need to carry it out under safe conditions."
Now the reaction is being carried out in an experimental "kitchen" on 
the roof of the institute. Here it's no problem if the hydrothermal 
carbonization, as the process is called, causes minor explosions.

It's all part of the joy of experimentation for the 46 year old director 
of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. Antonietti says 
he's only been able to pursue this simple idea since establishing 
himself in his field.

It really is a simple reaction. The ingredients just have to be heated....

...for 12 hours at 180 degrees Celsius.

And the coal is ready.

The single major by-product of the reaction is water, which can filtered 
off. In contrast to other biomass techniques this reaction does not 
generate carbon dioxide. And it gives a higher-energy product, which 
even smells acceptable.

Markus Antonietti from Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces: 
"It has a strong smell. (Very masculine.) Like tobacco."
If it were up to Antonietti, this reaction could go large-scale. The 
50,000 tonnes of plant refuse that accumulate yearly in Berlin could be 
converted into 20,000 tonnes of usable carbon.

Markus Antonietti from Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces: 
"The Max Planck Society only does basic research. But with enough 
engineering back-up, we could establish this in two to five years. It's 
very simple, there just has to be support for it."
Could this laboratory coal be produced on a large scale? Antonietti says 
it makes economic sense. The energy needed for the heating is no greater 
that that required by other methods.

Until that day comes, the Max Planck scientists intend to go on with 
their research.

They want to study their laboratory coal in detail. This is the 
structure of a pine cone before ...

... and after carbonization. But not all coal is alike.

Markuis Antonietti from Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces: 
"Like in a restaurant you can have your steak rare or well done. We can 
adjust our coal to be just a bit refined, or we can cook it until it's 
like hard coal. One end of the spectrum is topsoil, the other is hard 
coal."
When the researchers cook their coal mixture for just five hours, the 
result is topsoil,

This nutrient-rich earth can be used to help barren landscapes bloom.

Soft lignite requires nearly as much cooking as hard coal. But in order 
to get energy out of the laboratory coal, it doesn't necessarily have to 
be burned.

Markus Antonietti from Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces 
says: "We are dreaming of a carbon fuel cell. That would be direct 
electrochemical conversion of the coal, without the actual burning 
process. Other applications are in chemistry, for example, directly 
making gasoline out of the coal."
The scientists intend to pursue those dreams, using nature as a model. 
Their next project is to make petroleum - which is a stage in the 
production of coal. So sometime in the near future these laboratory 
visions may find a place in everyday life....

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More information you find on:

*Coal from biomass :* Go to

http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDokumente/multimedial/filmeWissenschaft/2006
/07/KochKohleEN/downloadEngl.html 

right click the desired video format and choose "download as".

* Zauberkohle aus dem Dampfkochtopf: *Go to

http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDokumente/multimedial/mpForschung/2006/heft0
2/index.html 

find : FOKUS, right click "Zauberkohle aus dem Dampfkochtopf [1985 kB]"  
and choose "download as"

Regards

Hans Plank, Brazil

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