[Gasification] Ceramic Filter Candles

[doug.williams]

Hi Ben,

You ask:

>I do not post to this list much, but I enjoy reading it, it is very helpful too me, thank you.  
>I have been thinking about filtration of gas, and ways too do this.   Given a tar free gas, and the ability to cool and dehumidify it to a reasonable degree;  I am looking at ceramic filter >candles, and wondering with the large range of these that are available for water filtration if any of these are suitable or more suitable for wood gas?  

Kevin has already offered advised about using ceramic water filters, and I am not aware of any other ceramic filters that are porous enough as a cheap alternative to the real thing. As far as I can establish, only Gosfume http://www.glosfume.com/show_pic.php?id=big_home_1&alt=Hot+Gas+Filtration+Systems+-+Installing+Ceramic+Filters  
in the UK make them specifically for gaseous flows. From memory, we use about 76 of them in our Andes Class Gasifier development programme in California, but they require compressed pulsing from time to time when they reach 8"WG.

Being wood gas, you will find that filter bags are very difficult to use due to the high moisture content, and it is difficult to prevent condensation in the bags during start-up, which saturates the filter cake. Even if you cyclone the gas, there will be all the particulates over 10 micron still in the gas, and this is the stuff to catch before the dew point of the condensate. Bags are OK for charcoal gasifiers, as they do not usually have condensate unless over supplied with steam.

As my work is on a small scale and on a budget, I am of course looking for solutions that exist in industry that are easy to adopt rather than coming up with something new.

You might like to take this idea and run with it. I have always wanted to try and use the waste charcoal crushed to some small even size, and mix it with a bonding agent to make a domed construction of large surface area. I imagined that I might have to bake it in an oven, which would harden it off to make it quite robust. Any takers??

Hope this stimulates some creativity of practical value, because filtration needs a nudge in the right direction for this application.
Doug Williams,
Fluidyne.
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