[Stoves] Gasifier Animation

[Thomas Reed]

Dear GASIFICATION (and STOVES):

I have been investigating gasifiers, first at MIT, then NREL and now BEF 
and BEC since 1973, the first OPEC oil embargo.  My initial focus was on 
the "methanol economy", since you can make MeOH from gas, oil, biomass 
or even MSW.  Wish we had then it would have made us fuel independent. 

At that time my good friend Dr. John Anderson at Linde (Union Carbide) 
had invented a gasifier for MSW, the Purox gasifier which converted 300 
tons/day of MSW into a rather dirty synthesis gas using oxygen in Japan 
but never in the US.  Seattle embarked on a program to convert its waste 
to methanol, but it never reached fruition in that era of falling oil 
prices. 
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Gasification can be very simple as witnessed by over a million vehicles 
running on woodgas during WWII.   However, at that time there was very 
little understanding of what went on in those emergency gasifiers and 
there hasn't been a lot of research since.  Most gasifiers are opaque. 

We developed first a 1 t/d (at SERI/NREL) and then  25 and 75 t/d 
gasifier (at SynGas Inc.).  Again the understanding was hampered by the 
difficulty of seeing what went on inside the gasifier - not a friendly 
environment. 

At NREL in 1982 we developed a "transparent downdraft gasifier" 
operating in a quartz tube with (10 cm?) a semi transparent gold 
insulation.  We could see the "flaming pyrolysis" stage as the wood 
blocks passed down through the pyrolysis zone and then see the gradual 
consumption of the charcoal by the hot gases from the FP.  We still have 
videos of these early experiments. 

Lately we have developed a simpler transparent Toplit Updraft (TLUD, 
Inverted downdraft) gasifier using Pyrex tubes and it is fascinating to 
watch the fuel ignite, pyrolyse, then reduce to a relatively clean gas.  
(This is a TLUD gasifier, the simplest kind as used in stoves.)   For 
continuous use and power or heat generation, it is necessary to 
continually add fuel and remove the spent chardust.  I'll send some pics 
to Tom Miles. 

We have added an animated and oversimplified picture of this process at 
our website (www.woodgas.com) and invite comments.  We are working on an 
animation of the TLUD (inverted downdraft) stove as well. 

Thanks to my grandson, Andrew Reed for the animation. 

Yours for a better understanding of gasification...

TOM REED                     BEF/BEC