[Gasification] Some ideas to work on!

[Ken Calvert]

Dear Nicklebender,
                                Its a pity that you think that you have 
nothing to offer?  But seeing as you have asked a few questions to 
revitalise the discussion,  and some people are saying that they want to 
leave because there is no new ideas being put up, let me throw in a couple 
of oldies that haven't been aired for a while.   However,  first of all we 
have to devide the field into two!
Stationary gasification is a totally different oyster to driving a  rig down 
the road.   With stationary gear you can dangle a chain down the middle of 
an electrostatic precipitator and there is only a minimum of  spark overs 
and flareups.  For road work you really need to run on charcoal in order to 
minimise on tar.  Or, if you really want to run on wood and of course it has 
been done many kany times, then you need to run a secondary charcoal 
gasifier in tandem to the wood burner and bleed in a little air to keep the 
charcoal white hot and to crack all those tars that you will get from wood. 
If you work it right there will be minimimum consumption of charcoal, but 
consider it as gas cleanup rather than production of gas from charcoal. 
The one good thing about old fashioned gravel roads  was that everything 
shook down well and there was never any bridging or hangups.  Modern asphalt 
highways are not so kind in this regard.   However, having cleaned up ones 
gas at 1000oC, there is then the problem of cooling it.  And if you want to 
get your teeth in something think about converting forward motion through 
air into cooling hot but clean gas into something that doesn't burn holes in 
filter cloths  or make oil bath filters smoke worse than a dirty old diesel 
slugging up a hill.

   The best cool and clean unit that I ever saw was at the I.I.T. in New 
Delhi.   It looked like a normal cyclone  separator on the outside, albeit a 
bit shorter and fatter than the mathmatics would have optimised.  However, 
the sides extended above the top of the cyclone  and held a pool of water 
with the gas outlet coming up through the water.
The really tricky bit however was that  that top plate was slotted all 
around the inside,
so that the  inside wall of the cyclone  had a smooth film of  water running 
straight down it and out the tapered cone at the bottom.  The hot gas 
entered the cyclone chamber  at the normal tangent and  swept round several 
times in intimate  contact with the falling film of water  at right angles 
to it, and all the tar and dust seemed to dissappear into the water film and 
come out the bottom, and cool clean gas came out the top of that cyclone in 
one pass in a fraction of a second of actual contact.  The only fault that I 
could see was that one ended up with a lot of  smokey dirty water to dispose 
of.
However, I was assured that you could filter and clean up the water and 
recirculate it quite a bit before you had to dump it and start again.   If 
someone could make one of those units to work on a road setup, and cool the 
water in a normal radiator,  I would give a medal in honour of the event! 
Yes IIT did have a patent on it, but that was back in 1983 I think, so   you 
would be almost in the clear.
     However,  a month or so ago we had a good discussion on Humphrey pumps 
which came to a stop when someone pointed out that the one they saw was 
surrounded by soil heavily contamined with  PAH carcingens and the health 
authorities raised their hands in righteous holy horror and if I remember 
rightly closed it all down.  Gasifier tars, like other benzene chemicals are 
really bad news.  Maybe if the idea caught on they might put in truckstop 
disposal points along the 66 to   allow one to off load  and tank up with 
clean water  again.    Enough for the moment.   Ken C.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "dunno me" <nicklebender at hotmail.com>
To: <Gasification at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 12:24 PM
Subject: [Gasification] (no subject)


> This will be my second and probably one of very few posts because as much 
> as
> I like to read I realy don't have much to contribute.
>
> Peter was an interesting character, and a fellow who worked in the same
> place I do back here In Canada so I can sort of understand his mind set.
>
> BUT this is a gasification list and a resource.
>
> You want to spark some discussion?
>
> Well here are some questions.
>
> Can we discuss gas clean up?
>
> Gas cooling, I'd like to hear some ideas on counter flow clooling and air
> preheating.
>
> Charcoal, dirty word around to some but its an important fuel, can we
> discuss the math and reasonoing behind how to builkd cahr coal gasifiers?
> The Torsten Kalle gasifier would be an interesting thing to build, can
> anyone explain to calculate how to size this to an engine?
>
> Doug
>
> I want to learn not read debates about why people leave.
> At some point, I'd like to start posting myself when I have something
> productive to contribute
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Enter to win a night a VIP night out at TIFF
> http://redcarpet.sympatico.msn.ca/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gasification mailing list
> Gasification at listserv.repp.org
> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_listserv.repp.org
> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org
> http://info.bioenergylists.org
>