[Gasification] Cigarette gasifiers and CO

[Thomas Reed]

Jim Mason and All:

According to OSHA 
(http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/carbonmonoxide-factsheet.pdf) 
you can live with 50 ppm CO all day, so the 10-20 ppm exhaled by 
cigarette smokers is not dangerous.  (My mother lived to 90 and smoked 
until 80).  The danger of CO poisoning can be overrated, but we have a 
chapter on it in our gasification handbook and it can also interfere 
with your SEX life. 

We regularly explain the difference between DD and TLUD gasification to 
guests by sucking (conventional downdraft)/blowing (TLUD).  The 5 kW 
gasifier link below is inoperative, but we regularly demonstrate the 
TLUD cigarette/cigar gasifier using a lungful of pure oxygen (from a 
cutting torch etc.) to get a 6" flame by blowing through the lit 
cig/cig.  We also demonstrate DD gasification by putting the lit end in 
our mouth and blowing, resulting in clouds of dense white smoke.  But I 
wouldn't try it with oxygen - the flame could travel back into your mouth. 

Onward, gasward,

TOM REED        BEF

jim mason wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I am puzzled by an apparent contradiction: why is the CO content of
>>> cigarette smoke so low (~3 - see below), in comparison to typical
>>> biomass updraft gasifier gas (10-20)?
>>>
>>>       
>
> yes, a cigarette is an updraft gasifier (assuming you are smoking it
> the normal way).  if you put the lit butt in your mouth and suck, then
> you are smoking a stratified downdraft.  should make more CO, but less
> tar.
>
> for those who havne't seen it, last year we made a small 5kw genset
> run on cigarettes.  6 packs lasted less than a minute:
>
> http://www.whatiamupto.com/gasification/cigifier.htm
>
> in a cigarette the CO is likely low because the temp is low and/or the
> equivalency ratio is low.  remember that different produced gases peak
> in their production at different temps in thermal biomass degradation.
>  CO is the highest before full combustion and CO2.
>
> there is a great chart on this in the biomass thermal conversion ency
> from BEF.  the order of peaks, from atm temp to full combustion, is:
> CH4, H2, CO, CO2.  such is why a low temp gasifier will have more H2.
> or a pyrolyser will have even more.  and by small extension, with the
> help of microbes, anerobic digestion is highest in CH4
>
> but yes, as i learned about what is happening in gasification, i
> became amazed that cigarettes do not immediately kill us.  not so much
> the CO, which is important, but rather all the HCs that come out at
> the same time.  namely the tars.  one could not better design a direct
> HC tar delivery system than a cigarette.
>
> that our body can deal with it speaks to our general ability to
> process relatively high levels of organic chemicals.   my guess is
> that we likely evolved this ability given the importance of fire in
> our history.  through the use of open flame for heating and cooking,
> we create and consume huge amounts of nasty organic chemicals.  even
> bbq beef is a tar sandwich.
>
> can i get a toulene spritzer with my vodka and tonic, please?
>
> j
>
>
>
>
>
>
> j
>
>
>
>   
>>> A cigarette seems to me to be an updraft biomass gasifier, in every way.
>>> (it is a very small scale one, and the combustion zone is both
>>> unshielded and uninsulated, so it might have proportionately huge heat
>>> losses).
>>>       
>> Hello Daniel,
>> I think a cigarette is more a combustor than a gasifier because the tobacco
>> is not densely packed and there is enough space for sufficient air flow.
>> Philippe.
>>
>>
>>
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>>     
>
>
>