Re: GAS-L: Essay: Wood/Coal/Oil/Gas/RB

[Harmon Seaver <hseaver@cybershamanix.com>]

   Excellent essay, Tom. I think the world needs a lot more discussion,
especially in the mainstream media, regarding refined biomass.


On Fri, Aug 30, 2002 at 07:10:31AM -0600, Tom Reed wrote:
> Dear All:
> 
>  One of the blessings of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable
> Technology (CREST) is that we have raggedy "debates"on various issues
> surrounding the future energy sources of (so called) Civilization.  Another
> is that half formed ideas can be floated back and forth and will serve as
> fodder for each of us to form our own ideas and all of us reach some partial
> consensus.
> 
> I am taking this opportunity to write a short essay on the relative merits
> of wood/coal/oil/gas to get my own ideas in order and in hopes that others
> will aye/nay the ideas and we'll all clarify our ideas of our future energy
> sources.  If you haven't the time or already know it all, please delete. If
> you would like me to send a WORD copy, let me know, since attachments are
> becoming non-grat here.
> 
> 
> ~~~~~
> 
>                   WOOD/COAL/OIL/GAS/REFINED BIOMASS
> 
>                                   AS ENERGY SOURCES
> 
> WOOD, ( and other forms of BIOMASS) has been the baseline fuel of humans
> since the origin of humans and we are differentiated from all other life
> species by our adoption of fuels and fire to serve the needs of (so called)
> Civilization.  We are fortunate indeed to be surrounded by a wide variety of
> biomass energy sources, but ill served by the variety of properties - size,
> moisture content, flammability, energy forms.
> 
> This wide variation in properties can be "fixed" by densification which can
> make a fungible fuel out of most forms of biomass.  (Densification increases
> the mass energy density from (eg) 15 GJ/ton to 18 GJ/ton and the volume
> energy density from (eg) 200GJ/m3 to 18 GJ/m3). We spend the money to size
> coal, to separate petroleum into its components and to build gas pipelines.
> We need to accept that some cost will be required if we want biomass to
> serve us as well as we have been served by coal/oil/gas.
> 
>  Biomass and coal also share the properties of being dual fuels. They
> contain sufficient volatile matter so that the gases evolved can be lit to
> start combustion.  When the volatile components (typically 75% for biomass)
> have burned charcoal remains.  Charcoal is an excellent fuel in its own
> right, but has very different combustion characteristics from the volatiles.
> So each biomass fire becomes two kinds of fire with different air/fuel
> requirements.
> 
>  COAL displaced biomass in the 19th Century because it has a higher mass
> energy content (28  vs  18 GJ/m3) and a higher volume energy density (15 vs
> 9 GJ/m3).  Small wonder that industrialization adopted coal and steam as
> soon as possible, and that coal is still and will continue to be a major
> energy source as oil and gas are depleted.
> 
> OIL (Petroleum) displaced oil as the prime fuel of the 20th Century for
> industrial applications because
> 
> ·           It can be separated into many kinds of fuels for many purposes
> (gas, lpg, gasoline, diesel, lube oil, grease, tar.)
> 
> ·           It can be pumped rather than shoveled and so is inherently
> cheaper than biomass/coal
> 
> ·           The various products are fungible on world markets since they
> are refined to predetermined specifications
> 
> ·           Oil is very energetic (eg  45 GJ/ton) and moderately dense (eg
> 36 GJ/m3)
> 
> GAS (mostly methane) will be a major contender to replace oil as the oil
> wells run dry since it occurs many places that oil does not and can be used
> to make liquid fuels (such as methanol and FT diesel)
> HOWEVER coal/oil/gas (and bitumen, shale, tar sands, gas hydrates .) are non
> renewable and biomass will eventually again become King if we develop .
> 
> RB (Refined Biomass).  Here we come full circle to renewable biomass fuel,
> but apply the necessary technology to make it acceptable and indeed superior
> to all the other contenders from the global viewpoint.  Biomass can be
> improved today by ..
> 
> ·           Densification (see above)
> 
> ·           Torrefaction (which selectively removes H2O and CO2, increasing
> mass energy density from 18 to 24 GJ/ton
> 
> ·           Densification after torrefaction (DTB, which increase volume
> energy density to ~25 GJ/m3)
> 
> ·           Liquefaction which can produce yields of pyrolysis oil of >50%
> (mass basis)
> 
> ·           Other processes yet to be developed
> 
> Refined Biomass will develop slowly along with the other energy sources and
> the needs of Humans are balanced against the needs of the Blue Planet.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dear All:
> 
> One of the blessings of  the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable
> Technology, CREST,  is that we have raggedy "debates"on various issues
> surrounding the future energy sources of (so called) Civilization.  Another
> is that half formed ideas can be floated back and forth and will serve as
> fodder for each of us to form our own ideas and all of us reach some partial
> concensus.  I am taking this opportunity to write a short  essay on the
> relative merits of wood/coal/oil/gas in hopes that others will aye/nay the
> ideas and we'll all clarify our ideas of our future energy sources.  For you
> busy people and those who already know it all, please delete.  If you would
> like a MS Word copy, let me know since attachments are becoming non grata
> here at CREST. I look forward to your comments.
> 
> ~~~~~~~
> 
>                                     WOOD/COAL/OIL/GAS/REFINED BIOMASS (RB)
> 
> WOOD, ( and other forms of BIOMASS) has been the baseline fuel of humans
> since the origin of humans and we are differentiated from all other life
> species by our adoption of fuels and fire to serve the needs of (so called)
> Civilization.  We are fortunate to be surrounded by a wide variety of
> biomass energy sources, but ill served by the variety of properties - size,
> moisture content, flamability, energy forms.
> 
> Biomass and coal share the properties of being dual fuels. They contain
> sufficient volatile matter so that the gases evoloved can be lit to start
> combustion.  When the volatile components (typically 75% for biomass) have
> burned charcoal remains.  Charcoal is an excellent fuel in its own right,
> but has very different combustion characteristics from the volatiles.
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com

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