Hydrothermal Biomass-Fueled Engines
Frederick J Sparber
fjsparb at sprintmail.com
Fri Jun 12 00:40:39 GMT 1998
-----Original Message-----
From: MJones <rmjones at cyberhighway.net>
To: 'diy_efi at efi332.eng.ohio-state.edu' <diy_efi at efi332.eng.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Thursday, June 11, 1998 4:44 PM
Subject: RE: Hydrothermal Biomass-Fueled Engines
MJones wrote:
>Hi, Frederick--
>
>Small world. In another life I was a bit player in a study headed by Larry
>Baxter of Sandia and Tom Miles (Sr. and JR.biomass gurus both), on Alkalai
>Deposits found in Biomass Power Plants. When my colleagues and I heard
>about the process you decribe being used to fire combustion turbines, we
>all had the same thought: A new and interesting way to ruin a perfectly
>good gas turbine!
Sure is, if you don't pretreat the biomass.
I worked with Joe Hamrick who has a 3 megawatt
external fired gas turbine burning sawdust.
The private biomass company that I had, got him DoE funding for running
feedlot manure on a
smaller (400 Hp) unit. The only problem was
slagging on the blading due to the low ash fusion temperature (1700 F)
special coatings would cure this problem.
There are inexpensive chemical-ion exchange
treatments that can lower the ash content to acceptable levels.
>(No disrespect intended: We built and operated a
>biomass-burning circulating fluidized bed boiler and the daily trials of
>controlling a plant burning a fuel which varies as widely as biomass does
>would have been funny were it not happening to us.)
More than one way to skin a cat. :-)
>
>
>Your project sounds interesting, if daunting. You obviously have to
>separate out the particulate matter first. (I could tell you stories about
>the wonderful properties of biomass particulate.)
Been there.
> And then seperate out the
>rest of the particulate that you thought you removed but actually didn't.
> And then, depending on the final pressure of your 'fuel' either regulate
>it down (recirculate maybe) or compress first and then regulate. (although
>you're starting with 3200 psig, so maybe you could skip further
>compression). Inject using a modified natural gas system, perhaps. You
>would need a start-up fuel...
Nope. Only start-up hydrothermal reaction heat,
the biomass-water mix makes plenty of combustible gases and oxygenated
compounds, and fast.
>
>I'd like to hear more about what you've got so far. Sounds interesting.
I'm waiting on the PNL team (L.John Sealock,
Ed Baker and Doug C. Elliott) whom I've worked
with for nearly two decades to go through their
hydrothermal conversion data. You can look up
their patents at www.patents.ibm.com keyword
"Sealock" My patents (since 1971) are under keywords "Sparber Frederick".
Regards, Frederick
>
>Mike J.
>
>>>Frederick J Sparber wrote:
>
>Hi All,
>
>I'm new on this list,so I hope it works.
>
>Retired from Sandia Labs, Several patents and
>many years of working with Thermochemical and
>Hydrothermal Biomass Conversion to support
>agriculture (especially fixed power units used for irrigation and power
>generation, and dairy-
>feedlot manure disposal.
>
>About any form of biomass material,leaves, grass clippings,straw, corn
>stover, dairy and
>feedlot manures,can be mixed with water and heated to 550-705 F (1500 to
>3200 psi) in a 5/16" diameter tube used as a heat exchanger in the exhaust
>of an I.C. engine or gas turbine.
>
>The water breaks the organic material down to
>a combustible mix of H2,CH4,C2H4,CO,CO2 and oxgenated liquids and
>particulate solids.
>
>EFI looks like the best approach for getting
>this steam-fuel mix into the combustion chambers of the engines.
>
>Any thoughts on a EFI layout?
>
>Regards, Frederick>>
>
>
>
>
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