Combustion Engineering gasifier

Stassen H. and Koele H.J. The Use of LCV-gas from biomass gasifiers in internal combustion engines. In Gasification and Pyrolysis - State of the art and future prospects, (Ed. by M. Kaltschmitt and A.V. Bridgwater), pp. 269-281. CPL Scientific Press Ltd, Newbury. 

Two major types of gasifiers for solid fossil fuels are available commercially at the present time. The cocurrent or downdraft versions are used in small internal combustion engine applications for sawmills, remote communities, and to satisfy power needs for developing nations. A more recent advance is the fluidized-bed gasifier, which is appropriate for larger-scale conversion of biomass to producer gas or other products. 

Another approach is to cool and filter the gas and utilize it as an alternative fuel for internal combustion engines. Skov and Papworth, (2), described the operation of trucks, buses, and agricultural equipment in Europe with gas produced using portable wood fueled gasifiers. Gasifiers can also be used to operate diesel engines as described in (6) and (9). 

A gasification process to generate power consists of a gasifier, a gas cooler, a gas-air mixer and a combustion engine and will be described ... 

Despite its sophistication, CARS has been er ineered to operate in some very hostile environments, both inside and outside the combustion device. Measurement demonstrations have been performed in a myriad of practical devices ranging from simulations of gas turbine combustors, internal combustion engines, furnaces and coal gasifiers as detailed... 

Biomass wood with less than 50% moisture can be heated in the presence of air and gasified. The gas produced can be used to run internal combustion engines and also used as a gas fuel and for other purposes. When used in the internal combustion engine, the gas must be cleaned thoroughly as the several chemical contaminates it contains corrode engines and reduce its efficiency. 

The gas from a gasifier-pyrolysis reactor can be further processed to produce methanol. Methanol is useful as a liquid fuel in suitably adjusted internal combustion engines. 

A special case of Fischer-Tropsch is the production of methanol, either from gasified coal or from reformed natural gas (overseas). Crude methanol can be used as a fuel in gas turbines, industrial boilers, fuel cells, and internal combustion engines. 

IV) Entrained Bed (Suspension) Gasifier (Koppers-Totzek, Texaco, Brand W, Foster Wheeler, Combustion Engineering,etc.)... 

The global objective of the project is to evaluate, to laboratory scale, pilot plant and demonstration plant, the real possibilities (technical and economic viability) of gasifying several types of residual and cropped biomass that are (or could be) produced in our country in order to generate power or electricity by internal combustion in gas engines. 

For the rotary cascade dryer with int ral burner, the combustion temperature is calculated at a fixed air-fuel ratio using an iterative heat balance. The burner fiiel comprises the ftaction of biomass feed to the dryer which is undersize and therefore unusable by the gasifier. All ofthe surplus is burned and the hot gases divided between the dryer and the engine exhaust water heater so as to maximise hot water production, subject to meeting the dryer duty. 

The need for retrofit devices to convert biomass materials to combustible fuel gas is well established. Several developers have built and operated successful biomass gasifiers, for example the systems reported by the University of California-Davis and Georgia Tech Engineering Experiment Station. 

Methanol synthesis can be obtained by the reaction of synthesis gases obtained by gasifying ligno-cellulosic wastes with oxygen. Besides the use of methanol in the chemical industry, its utilization as a combustible may be considered too. Indeed, the above described gas-Diesel engines are actually fitted with devices allowing the utilization of methanol instead of gas, together with the usual 10 % Diesel fuel injection. 

As other speakers at this symposium have described, the use of fuel gas produced by biomass or solid waste gasifiers can reduce the use of petroleum fuels in stationary combustion equipment (oil-fired boilers, diesel engines for electric generators or irrigation pumps). Stationary engines and furnaces, however, are not the only big users of petroleum fuels in lesser developed countries (or LDCs, the term we will employ to describe the 88 poorest nations in the world). As is the case for industrialized nations, lesser developed countries need liquid transportation fuels, and probably will for a long time. Brookhaven reports that most LDCs have increased their dependence on highway transport over the last two decades (lb). 

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