[Gasification] Range Fuels Closing Plant

[andrew schofield]

Dear Thomas Koch,

  How much of  a problem for the scaled up Range Fuels plant, was heat transfer from the hot fluid outside the auger-tubes to the celluose inside each parallel screw-tube?
we gather a hint of the problem from your description, and Range Fuels needing to consult you about your experience with  
hot-fluid jacketed screw-pyrolizers.

  Dr Reed said he saw the liquid fuel process working at small scale. May I guess this success was with a jacketed single-screw?

  Inside the radiation, and convection sections of water-tube boilers steel surface temperatures can vary widely, as water vigorously circulates inside. 
Water, being more fluid than wood chips screwing along in a tube, keeps steel temperature within certain limits throughout the entire boiler setting. 
May we use this analogy to describe one problem experienced with Range Fuels attempt at system scale up?

A culinary anology for heat-jacketed auger-tubes is stir-frying vegitables in a Chinese wok. The chef adroitly presents new surfaces of the food to the hot steel to transfer heat by conduction. The chef can only make a batch of food under a certain size. Size beyond which he may choose to use a pressure cooker which can feed an army.

Would not direct-contact heat exchange between the hot fluid, and the wood be more practical at 4 ton/hr?

Andrew Schofield
Renewable Fuel Systems


Thomas Koch wrote:
 Tom
 
 Range fuel gasification technology was an externally heated
 pressuries pipe with a transport screew inside when I saw it. 
 It was very similar to the pyrolysis unit on the wiking gasifier but
 they had ideas to upscale it to 4 tons pr hour by stacking pipes with
 screew conveyers. Thinking of the challenges of making the 1 tons pr
 hour screew pyrolyser in Haslev i have doubts this principle will
 ever be competitive for energy production - even for atmospherich
 applications. Thomas Koch 

From: Thomas Reed <tombreed2010 at gmail.com>

 I attended a few of the formative meetings of Range Fuels back about 2007 when I lived in Denver.  
I have known Bud Klepper since about 1988 when we worked together on a methanol project. 
Too bad that many $millions couldn't solve at a large scale what Bud had solved at a small scale.  
 
Tom Reed, Pyrologist
 
Jim of All Power Labs wrote:
 thomas, why did you think a stacked array of skinny auger retorts won't work?   this seems a known solution that tends to work as far as i know.  of course the proof is in the material handling with specific fuels.

 did you find it difficult to keep the auger straight and working?  difficult to keep the heat out of the motor and bearings at the ends?

 any secret cautionary tales we should know of?

 jim

 		 	   		  
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