[Gasification] Clostridium Ljungdahlii

[phillip manske]

Hi - This is the bacteria that is used for making ethanol from syn
gas.  This interested me so I did some research.  The reseacher that
isolated the bacteria is named Ljundahl but the guy that did most of
work is named Gaddy.  He has a company called BRI.  The early papers
came out in the 90's.

This process doesn't have the decades of wisdom that accompanies
alchohol production, gasification and biodiesel.  The process is
fairly straight forward and does not seem to require giant
engineering.  I think a plant like this will have large tanks but to a
sum of 4000 gallons of mash for 100 gallons of fuel.  The process is
supposed to go fast.
The useful strain is available for sale at $200.  They plants need
100F incubation and they produce ethanol  when not in growing phase
which means the metabolism is slow.  The other substance is acetate
(vinegar) which the plants make much more of. BRI collects the
bacteria when the process is done so I think these plants don't breed
much.  There is a 2% return in the volume and the 98% of water needs
to be reviewed.    There seems to be a pressure requirement over the
top of the culture at 1.5 ATM with 80% N and 20% CO2.

I'm fairly certain a GEK would work although the papers say a
fluidized bed gasifier is better.  I do not know where to get a
fluidized bed gasifer and they always look like giant engineering to
me.  Tire pyrolysis oils works better.  The papers always discuss
sending syn gas bubbles through the solution.  Bacteria can't use
atospheric gas so it looks like they rely on partial pressure to
dissolve the gas into the solution.  If that is the case, it looks
like you should start with a liquid with the same chemical contents as
it looks like there is less fuss in transfering.

Did we find out if reverse osmosis works for distillation yet?

There aren't any tutorials, all of the reading is patents and
scientific papers.  I have about 125 pages to read this weekend with
three papers from Gaddy.

I'm a low rent expert - I regisitered the domain
http://clostridiumljungdahlii.com.

I'll know it all by  Monday or Tuesday.

Phillip