[Gasification] Baffling, a question of sanity

[linvent at aol.com]

 Bob,
	Thank you very much for the wise and well illustrated response. When I look for a pointed response with poetic or prosaic content, I shall certainly think of your well aimed intellect.?
	Corruption comes in many forms, sort of the levels of Hell, and many un-punishable. The engineer who may review a new technology but finds that it is outside of his realm of experience and comfort zone and doesn't want to take the time to understand it, or finds that it may displace some of his brethren engineers in their work, may not approve of the technology for an investment, stifling the field. The root causes are laziness, and greed.?
	On the other hand, with large projects and lots of engineering talent, when a third party is used to evaluate the work of many others they may feel intimidated and not make the critical critique decisions necessary for the project to reveal defects, be fixed (if possible) and work. the project goes on to fail and in doing so, hurts the entire community by denying follow-on work.?
	There are many technical instances I can refer to and have in this forum before. The major point is that without a suitable third party engineering review, it is difficult for a project to get funding, but even with it, it is no assurance it is going to work. Very difficult situation indeed.?
	
Sincerely,
Leland T. "Tom" Taylor
Thermogenics Inc.?



-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Stuart <bobstuart at sasktel.net>
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <gasification at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Wed, Feb 25, 2015 10:35 am
Subject: Re: [Gasification] Baffling, a question of sanity

   The study of money and how it flows can shut out a great deal of common sense, but there are supposed to be "due diligence" specialists to find prior disasters. Corruption can keep them from doing their job, and somebody gets to build their dream. ?A few people gamble with their own money. ?J. Paul Getty put a pulp mill in a tropical forest that didn't have a hope of producing steadily. The enthusiasm for the repetition of history is probably most often due to the Dunning-Kruger syndrome. ?One has to have a small talent for a topic in order to be able to judge one's own performance. ?Every field seems to have a few people who seem to have just wandered in, and never add more than noise to the conversation, but remain delighted to be involved. ?Unfortunately, some of them are also excellent at sales.
An example from the world of literature is appended below.

Bob Stuart


On 25-Feb-15, at 9:36 AM, linvent at aol.com wrote:

  	There was recently announced a 1000 ton/day MSW to RDF gasification facility to be built in the UK. The UK has a significant number of waste to energy facilities as do other parts of EU.?
 	However, the announcement said that the MSW would be sorted into combustible (RDF) and non-combustible fractions with the RDF being fed into a gasifier, presumably a fluidized bed reactor. The gas from the reactor would exit at 1200C and then go into a plasma tar destructor.?
 	Now, for the life of me, I do not know how anyone familiar with the business and technology can seriously entertain such a process as there is an inherent thermodynamic energy problem doing this and the prior failures in the field are quite significant, one group spending $128 mm on a 3 ton/hour system. The US Air Forces' attempt at plasma waste conversion resulted in the system being scrapped and a paper titled "Lessons Learned".?
 	One definition of insanity is doing the same ?thing over and over again hoping for a different outcome. It also applies to those who use the typical gas cleaning system such as water sprays, or baths, or sawdust, bark or whatever trying to clean the aerosols from a reactor gas stream.?
 Sincerely,
 Leland T. "Tom" Taylor
 Thermogenics Inc.?
 
 



William Topaz McGonagall ?lived for years in the shadows of the Tay River bridge, and celebrated its completion with an epic poem which began thusly:?
Beautiful railway bridge on the River Tay!
And prosperity to Messrs Bouche and Grothe,
The famous engineers of the present day
Who succeeded in erecting the Railway
Bridge on the River Tay,
Which stands to be seen
Near Dundee and the Magdalen Green.


The poem, and the bridge were very long, but the bridge collapsed one dark and stormy night, eliciting an even greater epic, which concluded:
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world without delay
That your central girders should not have given way
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported by buttresses -?
At least many sensible men confess.?
For the stronger we our houses build
The less chance we have of being killed.


??I must not leave out the fairer sex, pluckily represented by Amanda McKittrick Ros, an Irish woman who memorialized her visit to Westminster Abbey with these impressions:
Holy Moses! Have a look?
Flesh decayed in every nook!?
Some rare bits of brain lie here,?
Mortal loads of beef and beer.?
Some of them are turned to dust,?
Every one bids lost to lust:?
Royal flesh so tinged with "Blue"
Undergoes the same as you.






 
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