Your right Matt! However in that case there suld then be a valve between the vessels
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This unit could be placed some distance from the house.
And some of the gases could help with the prosses of cooking the wood. Once the gases are good and is cooking the wood vessel, it can be shut down to fill the Barometer tank.
In case of a explosion the water has a place to go out the top.
Bob
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Reigel’s Handbook of Industrial Chemistry 1920 edition.
My copy is buried in the stacks and I won’t have time for some days to retrieve it.
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why not pump the water up in the higher vessel? than it creates a suction on the pyrolysis gas production area…
also a hand pump might work well?
the whole idea with the two vessels is very good… the inventors geneally not can sleep very good bacause of the lot of projects what goes in the brain around…
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Years ago I did an experiment, namely, I filled the cylinder with sawdust and put it in a 200 l barrel in which I burned heavily, from the top I ran the gas through a copper pipe and cooled it with water, first water condensate appeared, then combustible gas and tar. I also tried to clog the pipe and it really achieves a good pressure, probably in this way a partial reduction of gases would take place. By the way, the gas is very strong, it heats the iron red on the outside, the only drawback is that it requires very strong burning and shaking of the cylinder, so you must first consider the construction of the furnace, boiler, … with good heat exchange, super sealing, … .
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Yes the gasometer part of the design seem simple enough. I agree with Tone that how the fuel burner works is the engineering issue. What is the fuel source, sawdust, wood chips, other bio-mass? How will it be loaded and removed from the fuel enclosure? I would think about heating that cylinder with a rocket heater with the heat riser venting against that fuel cylinder. BTU’s at the exit of that heat riser are super hot and the rocket heater is simple to build and fuel efficient. I can burn hardwood in the Rocket Mass Heater in my greenhouse all day long and only end up with about half a liter or less of ash.
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I would include a float valve at the gas outlet so water cannot come out with the gas. And eventually you will have to clean out tar, so you must consider how to do it.
Rindert
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These are cheap and made of pvc plastic
Machine be you could glue a couple of kids pools together
Weight or down with a sheet of ply wood
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How long do you think they would hold up with wood gases exposed to the plastic?
They make air mattress too.
Bob
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These here maybe interesting for this. They are stackable and already have a built in cage in case Kahboooy!! Might have to re think my design now.
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I don’t know Bob
It would likely get a little tar in it over time but there is nothing in wood had I am aware of that would harm plastic pools or matresses
That inflatable mattress is also a very good idea
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This obviously has holes but lots of companies make vent tubing to order
Maybe a long tube could be ordered with a cap on both ends like this
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They seem to be available as well.
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We use this at work
This is a some tiny brand new stuff I just ordered
I am several thousand feet underground right now
On a cell phone
Talking gengas
Strange days
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Honestly, the wood pyroliser seems like the least of the problem. This thing doesent need to be big lets not forget! 1m3 of gas weighs about 1kg so theoreticly about 4kg of wood is neaded to fill 1m3 of gas. I figure l need about 2m3 for my needs. Shuld last a couple of days.
Im thinking to let the air pass trugh an aditional barrel first. Most of the tar shuld drop out there. It may be possible to add lime there too, theoretucly it shuld bond with CO2 in the gas and produce a even richer gas, but it seems a whole 50lbs bag will only scrubb about 16m3 of gas. In adition, acetic acid will probably kill it before CO2…
Kitty pools and air matraces are ok for tests and temporairy solutions but l want something permanent, and hidden if possible. Im thinking of digging the tanks in the ground.
Matt, those are exactly what l plan to use. I alredy have 3.
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It is a good idea Kris
Buried would be safer and the fluid air lock is probably more secure against leaks
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Hey, im thinking… the top reseroir doesent even need to be a tank… culd be a covered pool… brings the cost down aditionaly.
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I had in mind that the wood would cook at a pressure of a few bars, maybe even 5 bar, then the gas in the stream would be cooled and cleaned in a closed water bottle and then stored in a larger cylinder say 200l, all together at a pressure of 5 bar.
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Oh l see! Certainly doable and it shuld cut down space but brings aditional problems.
First, since the pyroliser gets red hot, structural strenght is compromised and might fail under pressure.
Second, a pressure regulator is then needed to have a stable flame. This will probably get stuck over time due to traces of tar in the gas.
Third, it wuld cost more.
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But since we talk high pressure gas, here is an idea l had a while back when l was in to Fischer Tropsch (gas to liquid) and needee a solution for high pressure singas.
There is a vessel wich holds wood chips and 2 carbon electrodes inside. The sistem shuld be primed with a litle charcoal to insure a contact between the electrodes. The vessel is sealed and a current is put on the electrodes. Something in the range of a stick welder, 40 V and say 70A.
The charcoal will begin to glow from the resistance, producing heat that pyrolises the wood on top. The water and gas products can tgen react with the glowing carbon and will continue to do so untill all thd carbon and gases are reduced down to just CO and H2 under some serious pressures, 50atm plus.
Bigest advantige is that there is no nitrogen in the syngas.
I tested this once in a way but not under pressure. My setup was like this
This was a clay pipe filled with charcoal with two electrodes made of hollow steel rods. Again, the welder was used at 40V 70A to make the charcoal glow and steam was injected trugh the hollow electrodes. It made amazing gas but needless to say the electrodes only lasted minutes. I hadnt gad a way to seal this setup so it made no point to continue in this direction and l went with a alternating water gas generator and pressurised it with a fridge compressor for the tests with the FTS.
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