GAS-L: Gas-L; Northern Ireland Gasification

[Cordner Peacocke <cpeacocke@care.demon.co.uk>]

Dear Gasifiers,

I would like to add some further comments to the concise and accurate
summary of the Energy from Conference held in Northern Ireland in February
given by Doug Williams.  Being a resident in the UK with half my time spent
in Northen Ireland and the other half in England, I have a particular
interest in thermal conversion activiites in my own backyard.

The visits to the Rural Generation gasifier and the B9 gasifier were
organised as part of a Dept of Trade and Industry funded conference, Energy
from Wood, held in Belfast in mid-February.  The conference was very well
attended with over 150 delegates, despite being organised at short notice.
I also had the pleasure of talking with Doug during the conference - the
furthest travelled delegate.

 I do not want to review small-scale gasification, but we all know there
have been numerous attempts to develop a low cost gasification and engine
system to produce up to 200 kWe.  Some companies have succeeded and others
have fallen by the wayside.  Opportunities for systems are limited and the
industry must be open, honest and admit to difficulties.  I want to see
small-scale succeed, but for that to happen, companies must open about the
status of their technology, the successes and the difficulties.

I'm afraid that I have to agree with Doug Williams on the subject of the B9
gasifier.  I work independently on pyrolysis and gasification and I try to
ask the same questions of companies that I meet on their gasification [or
pyrolysis] technology, especially if there is no published data.  It is not
my function as a worker in this area to denigrate anyone's technology, but
information was sparse.  Typical questions I ask gasification companies are:

What is the heating value of your gas? 
What is the gas composition?
What are the tar and particulate levels in the gas prior to the engine?
What is the real engine deration?
How much diesel do you use?
What is the production cost per kWe?
etc.  You can guess the rest.

Extremely limited answers were provided to these questions by B9, as Doug
has pointed out.  Rural Generation Ltd.  were the opposite and free access
was granted to any part of the operation. For your information,  a third
[55 kWe downdraft] gasifier will be opeatrional in Northern Ireland in the
very near future.  

B9's claim to be the first zero liquid discharge gasifier is not correct as
far as I am aware- the KARA/BTG gasifier was before B9 - ask Harrie Knoef
at BTG.  Harrie was also willing to say how this is achieved - B9 were not.
 B9 claim 24 hours a day, 6 days a week operation, fully automated [except
for ash removal].  What I would like to know has anyone in the gasification
group seen this gasifier operating?  I would appreciate feedback.

When companies are evasive in public about their technolgoy, it does not
instill confidence in the civil servants and policy makers when no
forthright answers are given.  Other companies in the UK and Europe are
trying to market systems and it is very easy to be ''tarred with the same
brush''.   As far as I am concerned, claims must be backed up with hard
evidence, preferably independent.

B9 missed an opportunity to show their system working - it is unlikely they
will get a second opportunity.  The industry in Europe had one bite of the
cherry in the 1980's this might be the last oppotunity in the new Millennium.

I will probably get ''burned'' by some members of the group, but if we do
not raise the quality and professionalism of our marketing and provision of
information, then we are not helping ourselves.

Here endeth the lesson........

Yours,


Cordner Peacocke [Dr.]

Director
Conversion And Resource Evaluation Ltd.
9 Myrtle House
5 Cassowary Road
Birmingham
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