[Gasification] Tar Processing

[Anand Karve]

Dear Tom,
the word used in those days was dry distillation of wood. I feel that
the process is analogous to distilling petroleum. In petrolium
distillation, use is made of the so called cracking catalysts. By
playing around with these catalysts, one can change the proportion of
different fractions that one gets from petroleum. Perhaps one can do
the same with wood tar.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 9:03 PM, Thomas Reed <tombreed2010 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Vikrant and all
> The dreaded word "TAR" evokes nasty images of stuck valves on engines.  It
> has not always been so.  The CSM library has a 1920 book extolling the
> virtues of wood tar.
> Wood (and coal) tar was a major source of organic chemicals - practically
> all organic chemicals -  wood alcohol (methanol), acetone, vanillin, acetic
> acid (wood vinegar) all about 4%, and several hundred others) for a century
> until the synthetic chemists began making them cheaper and pure.
>   The last plant, operated by Henry Ford, was closed in 1950.  I believe
> charcoal kilns produce large quantities, like it or not, and the EPA wont
> like flaring them.  I believe you get several layers of water solubles and
> tars.
> I once visited Prof. Othmer (of Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical
> Technology fame) at NYU and we discussed the value of wood tars.  He said
> that wood tar was his family business until synthetic sources were
> developed.  He said forget it!
> You would need a distillation column to exploit these, but if you are
> producing them in quantity, it might be fun to separate them, and they are
> all useful chemicals.
>
> I hope someone follows this up...
> Tom Reed
> Dr Thomas B Reed
> President, The Biomass Energy Foundation
> www.Woodgas.com
>