Wood Gasification Furnace
Gasification is a technique converting carbonaceous materials, such as coal, petroleum or biomass(wood) into the simpler elements carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting the raw material at high temperatures.
Working in the temperature range of 395° F to 535° F (regular fire), most of the gases are released from the wood along with the smoke. Those gases contain about 50% to 80% of the heat content of the wood. This results in a gaseous mixture, known as synthesis gas or syn gas or wood gas.
This emitted wood gas can be used as a fuel for a number of purposes. The gas can be cooled and cleaned to remove tars and particulates and used as fuel in a variety of other applications, including engines.
In gasification wood furnaces, the wood gases does not go up and out of the chimney, as in the case of standard wood furnaces. Instead, the reaction goes on and the wood gas is superheated and mixed with air resulting in complete combustion. The heat is then transferred to a boiler for efficient distribution. An additional benefit of this process is that it leaves little or no ash.
There are two approaches that can be used for applying wood gasification and secondary combustion principles in practice:
Continuous burn
These are dual combustion chambers. Most of models imported from Europe use this approach. The units operate properly when they burn a load of wood in one continuous burn and transfer the resulting heat to a water storage container where it is stored until the heat is needed.
On-demand burn
These are single combustion chamber. In this, a thermal mass maintains the firebox at the extreme temperatures required for complete combustion. This enables the system to operate as an on-demand system, thereby removing the need for the water storage tank. This simplifies the operation, maintenance of the unit and also enables a greater variability of fuel composition. |
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