RE: GAS-L: Hot salt?

[Weststeijn A <A.Weststeijn@epz.nl>]

Dear Joacim,

You ask:
> What happens or may happen if wood soaked in salt is combusted or
> gasified?
> Is there a risk of poisonous chloride substances being formed?
> Salt has been used for glazing in potteries since ancient days, so I guess
> there must be some sort of well-founded experience of NaCl at temperatures
> around and above 1000°C.
> 
The real issue here --as I see it-- is maintenance and longevity.

Salts in all shapes and sizes are killing on your equipment at these
temperatures.
Even the modest amounts of potassium in regular biomass (straw, chicken
litter) are quite worrisome to owners of capital intensive boilers (and
gasifiers, I presume).
To my knowledge the Danish power operators have the longest and largest
scale experience with firing and cofiring of straw (a known reference for
alkali's).
Other useful know-how may be gained from chicken litter processors,
including fluidized bed operators like FibroWatt in the UK. 
But "wood soaked in salt", as you define it, must be a few steps more severe
again.

I don't believe the issue of poisonous gases will ever make it to the top of
the checklist unless you go to extremes in types of construction materials.
And even then, upholding decent heat transfer rates will require undue
amounts of maintenance work (frequent descaling and likely repairs).

I remember beach wood (drift wood) being the pits for bricked chimneys.
Well, it is the pits for metal as well.

For professional operators, this is like a triangle from hell: cheap fuel
versus (too) high maintenance versus (too) fast deterioration.