[Gasification] "ecogas" defined

[Paul S. Anderson]

Quoting Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at gmail.com>:

> I wanted to write 'biofuel gas' as a nod to the state of the art, but that
> leads naturally to the term bio for the fuel and gas for the output, which
> gives 'biogas', a term which is already taken!  So wood gas is it.

Dear Stovers and Gasifier Folk,

Please consider the name "ecogas" as the term for the biofuel gases 
derived from
dry biomass.  As Crispin points out, "biogas" is already taken as the term for
biofuel gases derived from wet biomass.

To me and some others, the term "woodgas" seems to imply wood only, or 
at least
does not call attention to the multitude of other dry biomass sources for
making ecogas.

The technical terms of "producer gas" and "syngas" still retain their specific
meanings in relation to gasification, but they do not convey to the general
public what "ecogas" could imply.

The term "smoke" (as in "smoke maker" for creating the ecogases and "smoke
burner" for combustion of those ecogases) is useful when describing 
many of the
ecogas systems such as the TLUDs and other updraft gasifiers, but it carries a
low-quality image not suitable for all gasification systems.

I am placing the term "ecogas" (or alternative appearances such as "EcoGas" or
"Eco-Gas" or "eco gas") into the public domain.  I am NOT wanting to have a
"trademark" for ecogas, not for myself and not for anyone else.  This term
cannot be locked up with legalities to prevent others from using it.

Ecogas does NOT refer to the generic pyrolysis and char-gasification processes
and those gases that occur in all traditional burning of dry biomass, such as
in a bonfire or 3-stone cooking fire.  Ecogas refers to gases that are created
separately in gasifiers, that is, separate from where those gases are consumed
(by combustion or distillation or any other usage).  If the gases cannnot be
separated from the combustion area, or if the gases cannot be stored (but
allowing for condensation, etc.) for at least a short interval, then they are
not truly ecogases.

If those people who deal with large gasifiers choose to use or ignore the term
"ecogas", that is their choice.  They already have terminology in use 
among the
professionals, but ecogas might be useful when dealing with the general 
public. However, many of those system are based on wood-only, and for 
them the term
"woodgas" is quite appropriate.  "Woodgas" is ecogas, but not all ecogas comes
from wood.

For those of us who are dealing with small gasifiers, such as TLUDs, we can
identify our cookstoves as "gas-burning" stoves in the same category as the
gas-burning biogas stoves.  Tom Reed's Woodgas Campstove is a good example of
an ecogas stove.

In other words, these ecogas stoves do NOT burn wood and biomass.  They 
use the
dry biomass to create ecogas, and it is the ecogas that is combusted to give
the heat for cooking.  The parallel is that biodigesters use wet biomass to
create biogas, and the biogas is combusted.

This topic is now open for discussion.  I will be driving for 3 days to get to
Stove Camp, so I will only check in later to see what others have been saying
both pro and con.  At Stove Camp I will be using the term "ecogas" to help
people understand the art and science of small gasifier-based stoves and why
they are different (and have less emissions) than the biomass burning stoves.

Paul
-- 
Paul S. Anderson, Ph.D., Geography professor - Emeritus
Telephone:  USA-309-452-7072 (residence and office)
Internet site:  www.ilstu.edu/~psanders
For my gasifier stoves info, go to:
http://bioenergylists.org/contributors#Paul_Anderson



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