[Gasification] Problem with "Re: Producer gas without nitrogen"

[Thomas Reed]

Dear Anand Karve and All:

The atmosphere contains 21% O2 and 79% nitrogen+argon, unreactive gases.  

The temperature of air flames is about 2000C.  If you used only oxygen, the temperature would be ~10,000 C except for the fact that the H2O and CO2 products of combustion dissociate into H, OH, CO, etc., high energy molecules that limit the oxygen flame temperature to about 3,000C.  But heat transfer from the oxygen flame is about 5X that of air flames, which is why it used for welding.  

If you used oxygen instead of air to make producer gas, it would have a combustion energy of 300btu/standard cubic foot (scf).  Since Producer gas from air has 50% N2, it has a combustion value of ~150 Btu/scf.  

Natural gas has has a combustion value of 1,000 Btu/scf, over six times that of air producer gas!  It is stored at a pressure of 3,000 psi in heavy steel cylinders.  Methane, natural gas, is ubiquitous.  Very occasionally it is used to run cars.  But cylinder and compression costs are very high. 

Wood has a combustion energy of 8,000 Btu/lb or 160,000-300,000 Btu/cubic foot for soft to hard woods.  So it is practical to carry the wood alone and a 300 lb gas generator if you don't have access to gasoline/diesel, which have an energy content of ~1,000,000 Btu/scf.

These are non obvious "facts of life", but they explain why we value petroleum so highly and seldom use wood for transport. 

Your wet blanket,

Tom Reed


On Mar 18, 2012, at 7:17 AM, Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Friends,
> thanks for enlightening me about molecular sieves. From the information received from members of the gasification and pyrolysis group, it appears to be within the realm of possibility to produce pyrolysis gas without nitrogen. This opens up the possibility of bottling nitrogen free producer gas and using it as automotive fuel. Even a TLUD stove would burn much better if supplied with primary air without nitrogen.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
> 
> -- 
> ***
> Dr. A.D. Karve
> Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
> 
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