[Gasification] Making char vs producer gas

[David Coote]

Thanks Tom. Much appreciated.

The other issue is the nature of the char produced. I attended a 
workshop on small-scale biochar manufacturing last year. According to 
some of the presentations at this workshop, a number of char 
manufacturing system and operational parameters affect various material 
characteristics of the char which in turn affect the utility of the char 
as a soil conditioner. The char will still function as a carbon 
sequestration mechanism although the rate of breakdown in the soil may 
also be affected by the nature of the char. As temperature profiles 
during the char making process were emphasised as one driver of char 
quality, again I wonder how this would affect producer gas quality

Bye for now

David



>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 14:52:25 -0700
> From: "Tom Miles"<tmiles at trmiles.com>
> To: "'Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification'"
> 	<gasification at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Making char vs producer gas
> Message-ID:<006b01cf3d74$3107f720$9317e560$@trmiles.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
>
> David,
>
> Phoenix Energy in California is generating power and making biochar in two
> installations in California at 500 kWe and 1 MWe with Ankur Scientific
> downdraft gasifiers.  I don't know if the Ankur gasifiers meet Harrie's
> criteria. In the Phoenix case making biochar has not impacted the cost of
> gas cleaning. With the large number of Ankur and Ankur look alikes in use
> around the world it is likely that char from these gasifiers is increasingly
> being used as biochar.
> http://www.phoenixenergy.net/
> You can find presentations by Greg Stangl of Phoenix at the US Biochar
> Initiative 2013 Symposium session on CHP and Biochar
> http://scholarworks.umass.edu/biochar/2013/Scale/4/ You will also find
> presentations Olivier Lepez of Biogreen Energy and Lenny Roberts who seeks
> to install a Biogen DR gasifier and make char.
>
> The Biogreen Energy pyrolyzer was demonstrated at USBI Biochar 2010 in Ames,
> Iowa. A unit will be installed in Utah. There are currently about 5 in
> operation in France and Asia.
> http://www.biogreen-energy.com/
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPzcAmNZQ3g
>
> Updraft gasifiers would be suitable to making char by removing the char
> faster than you are consuming it. In that case there is no gas cleaning
> because updrafts are normally used for generating heat rather than power. An
> example of updraft pyrolysis generating heat and power is the Black Carbon,
> where Thomas Harttung uses a Stirling engine for generating power.
> http://www.blackcarbon.dk/Contact.aspx  Other systems use ORC, like the
> Green Machine by  Electratherm (http://electratherm.com/products/ ) for the
> power generation. The gas is not engine quality gas. Char from many
> commercial updraft gasifiers is already being used and sold commercially as
> biochar.
>
> Tom
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gasification [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On
> Behalf Of David Coote
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 2:04 PM
> To: gasification at lists.bioenergylists.org
> Subject: [Gasification] Making char vs producer gas
>
> I'm curious about the effects of trying to achieve the multiple objectives
> of char production and producer gas. One combustion engineer I've spoken to
> who has done a lot of work in gasification stated that from his perspective
> char was a sign of an inefficient gasification process. If the inefficiency
> is just a reduced yield of producer gas then this might be OK for a
> particular application. But if the inefficiency results in a gas that needs
> more filtering/volume this may adversely affect the economics.
>
> I haven't found any mixed char and producer gas systems in operation that
> meet Knoef's commercial criteria which makes me wonder if detuning the
> gasification in favour of char does affect the quality of the gas.
>
> Is anyone aware of mixed char and producer gas systems in operation that
> meet Knoef's criteria? Perhaps a good paper that summarises the producer gas
> characteristics over a range of char manufacturing percentage?
>
> Thanks
>
> David
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gasification mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> Gasification at bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenerg
> ylists.org
>
> for more Gasifiers,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/
>
>
>
>
>    
>