[Gasification] Moisture, Humidity & Inlet Air

[Greg Manning]

 Greetings All.

  The other evening, I came across a weird situation, as a test of
"Cat-tails" ( Marsh Reeds) was taking place, the Relative Humidity (RH) of
the air went quite high as fog really rolled in (we are talking 1 foot in
front of your face, kinda fog) the noted RH was well into the 80% mark, and
the gasifier started "WEIRDING OUT" on me, drastic flare changes, puffing
etc.

 At first, I thought the gasifier was channeling or had bridged, but after
going outside during all of this, (and finding out about the fog) I tried
something some what drastic.

 I have a couple bags of "Desiccant pellets" (pellets are about the size of
suckers w/o the stick) that I use in the "air dryer" on my shop
air-compressor.

 I had a container, and simply made a lifter shelf inside it, (to support
the pellets up off the bottom of the container, and allow air to enter at
the bottom).

 I hooked the whole thing up to the air inlet on the gasifier.... almost
immediately the gasifier stopped "freaking out" and started working
correctly again, no other changes where done, no tapping or shaking,
nothing, JUST to prove that the drying effect WAS doing the fix, I simply
removed the container's hose from the gasifier, and within about a minute
the entire freaking out thing started all over again.... I re-installed the
hose, and "TA-DA"  the process reverted to working correctly again....

 The Pellets are simply in a 4" chunk of vertical tube (so the air must make
it's way from bottom to top, where the hose is connected to the gasifier.

 I'm somewhat AMAZED at this finding, and will be adopting a more permanent
solution to the test-bed gasifier for future testing in other conditions,
and with other feedstocks.


 BTW, for those that remember my post on the "SLICE" gasifier, I've almost
completed the unit, and hope to be testing it within the month.

Greg Manning




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