[Gasification] Fluidyne Uopdate

[doug.williams]

Hi Rolf and Gasification Colleagues,

You ask:

>Do you think it is clean enough to be used as a substitute for LPG in 
>commercial; direct flame food drying devices ?

The comment made right after the test was done to me personally, was that is 
was as clean as NG.

>We have quite some companies here in Spain which use LPG or NG for direct 
>drying.

This market is the one that has the greatest need in Chile, and our 
priority.

>Specially here on the Balearic Islands we have access to a constant supply 
>of bone dry almond shells which make a very good gas and are easy to 
>handle.

>From experience, this fuel will have a design requirement, but difficult to 
develop without the said fuel, outside the country of use.

>The alternative to prohibitively expensive GLP at this moment is a a 
>biomass burner for a conventional flame/air heat exchanger, since the 
>burner´s manufacturer cannot >garantee an odourless flame such like GLP and 
>the plant owner hates the idea of tarry smells in his carob kernel 
>products.

Because there is no prior art using producer gas for direct contact drying, 
our early systems will be using ceramic heat exchangers of our own design. 
Naturally we will also be conducting parallel tests with direct contact. We 
do cool the gas right down to condense the water out, and plenty of people 
have sniffed the emission, both engines and flame combustion, and detected 
no odour.  In my opinion, if the gas contains any pyrolisis oils (tar), the 
odour will form on combustion, making direct combustion a problem, and this 
can apply to many biomass combustors, and close coupled gasifiers. It is a 
mistake to think of producer gas as just another gas, and it creates 
problems for all who take this view.

>The idea of a clean gasifyer sounds good, since it could work 24/7 . In the 
>off work  hours it could feed a  net tie generator.
>I am writing on the list because I think other members might be interested 
>in similar applications for gazzies.

There is always plenty of interest Rolf, the only lack is money specifically 
allocated to implement the solutions.

Doug Williams,
Fluidyne.