[Gasification] mycoremediation of tarry water

[Tom Miles]

While we develop gasification and pyrolysis for their benefits we need to
manage the byproducts so they don't endanger health.  

 

I posted the Myanmar story on this list about a year ago. I do not know if
anything has been done about it.

 

It should be easy to accept the fact that tar in water can be toxic. Run
your dirty gasifier, clean the gas with water, and have the water analyzed.
You will ring all the bells for toxicity (mostly from benzene and cresols).
Picture that water going into ponds and waterways where people bath and wash
their clothes. Why should anyone be surprised that people can get sick? Not
everyone is like the man I met in Siberia, where the life expectancy is
about 59,  who attributed his old age and good health to taking a spoonful
every day of pyrolysis oil from pine needles. 

 

This is nothing new. Some years ago the first job of a young bioenergy
specialist in Alaska was to clean up the site of an experimental wood
gasifier that was intended for use in native villages. The classic Imbert
style gasifier had been developed and tested with federal money for remote
power generation. The site was so toxic that it had been designated a
"superfund" site by the Environmental Protection Agency. That killed
interest in gasification in the state for many years. 

 

The Gasification Guide project in Europe didn't seem to address liquid
effluents. Studies of liquid effluents from gas scrubbing have been done
under the IEA Task 33 biomass gasification. 

http://www.gasification-guide.eu/gsg_uploads/documenten/D10_Final-Guideline.
pdf

 

 

Tom     

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