GAS-L: Cyclone action gasifier

[kenboak@stirlingservice.freeserve.co.uk]

Gas-Listers,

Here are a couple of ideas concerning the mechanical processing of wood waste or biomass into a finely divided powder form suitable for an efficient gasifier. 

Many of you will be familiar with the cyclone type vacuum cleaners which separate out the various sizes of dust into separate containers using a pair of concentrically arranged cyclones (I'm talking Dyson Dual Cyclones here).  The large particles are separated out first and dumped in the outer container according to their mass, then the very fine dust travels with the column of air into the much smaller diameter inner cyclone which spins out the very fine stuff and collects it in the inner container.

Well, it occured to me that this is the very thing that we want to happen in a gasifier, sorting out the various charred particles according to size and then delivering only the very fine stuff into the reaction zone - Kalle's gasifier achieved this by using a mechanical grinding "poker" to ensure a constant supply of the finely divided charcoal dust to the gasification zone.

The cyclone would be made from heat resistant stainless steel and could be preceded by a drying chamber which not only dries the fuel stock in a stream of hot air (or more likely hot nitrogen), but chars it to the point of it becoming friable and easily broken up into smaller particles.  I imagine a revolving drum - not unlike that of a washing machine, where chipped wood enters at one end and is tumbled between an inner and outer drum, drying and then charring. If the inner drum is perforated like a cheese grater it can be used to grind down the wood chips to the point where they pass through a perforated screen or mesh and into the cyclone system.

If such a system was required to power a domestic scale combined heat and power system, then something as simple as a 2hp garden shredded could be used to first chip the firewood up into manageable chips prior to the drying drum.


Your comments appreciated,



Ken Boak.

  

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