[Gasification] SVO emissions (was Re: Torrified woodchips as a gasifier fuel)

[Daniel Chisholm]

STOP!  (sorry for shouting, but I think it is appropriate here)

I would be extremely cautious about any scheme that involved sending
engine exhaust into a greenhouse.  To do it safely would require a very
well-engineered system that made sure that you don't end up poisoning
the greenhouse's occupants (people or plants).  Carbon monoxide comes
immediately to mind, but you'd also have to be assured that everything
else was properly taken care of (what else in exhaust would you care to
not breathe - unburned tars? NOx?)


"the exhaust from an engine running on woodgas should be only CO2 and
H2O" - yes, to a first approximation that is true.  It is also true of
an engine running on diesel fuel, gasoline, propane, methane, methanol,
or ethanol.  But real engines also produce the typical
pollutants/emissions we associate with engine exhaust - CO, unburned
hydrocarbons, NOx, SOx, etc.

Safely piping engine exhaust from a woodgas-powered engine into a place
where plants live and humans work will be roughly the same undertaking
(difficulty-wise) as using a fossil-fueled engine exhaust for the same
purpose.  Not impossible of course, but in most cases probably
uneconomic.



On Thu, 2007-09-08 at 10:07 +0200, Rolf Uhle wrote:

> better than vehicles, that´s a plus.Also, you don´t have to stay in the 
> greenhouse all the time and never forget about some instruments measuring 


> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Harmon Seaver" <hseaver at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification" 

> > because I was thinking of running the exhaust of the engine into a
> > greenhouse -- thinking that the exhaust from an engine running on
> > woodgas should be only CO2 and H2O, which would be excellent for the
> > plants. Assuming of course that the woodgas was made properly in the
> > first place and the engine was completely burning the CO, H, and
> > methane. Well, of course, there would also be NOX unless you used a cat
> > in the exhaust.


-- 
- Daniel
Fredericton, NB  Canada