[Gasification] Biogas from Pasture and second gen and GTL

[Harmon Seaver]

Mark Ludlow wrote:

> Gasification seems like a big club to swing--compared to some nifty
> biodigestion of organic feedstock--but it's also the most practical
> down-scale technology that I have discovered. In the end-analysis, the
> resultant products of gasification and anaerobic digestion have similar
> functional characteristics: gases intended to, in their most favorable
> incarnations, substitute for commercial hydrocarbons and be able to fuel IC
> engines.

  Except they both have a very serious problem with bulk and very
limited range. For fueling stationary engines, they can both work great
-- for on the road and small engines, they both suck, at least compared
to liquid fuels.
   Try running a chainsaw or rototiller on either producer gas or
methane. Ethanol works extremely well with little or no modification in
both, as it does with cars and trucks, including diesels.
    And as far as "down-scale technology" goes, you can't beat a still.
It's sure a lot easier to build and run a still down on the farm than it
is ether a digester or gasifier. Just run through this list's archives
for any number of examples of how hard it is to get a gasifier working
properly and keep it working. And ask anybody on the digestion list
about how easy it is to kill off the biogas production of a digester --
or ask any of the farmers in the US who actually have digesters sitting
unused on their farms because they couldn't keep them working.
    Not to mention the serious problem of fuel cleansing with both
producer gas and biogas for running in engines. Ethanol is the cleanest
burning fuel we have, and engines can easily last two, even three times
as long between rebuids running ethanol compared to gasoline or diesel.




-- 
Harmon Seaver