Ross Armetta Physics 197 Homework 2-16-2011 What can you do with wood ?

QUESTION 1 What can you do with wood (relating to combustion in the simple, traditional manner) ? A non-controlled oxidation environment. Essentially any wood placed in virtually any configuration that has sufficient oxygen and controlled moisture externally and in the wood can be used to combust burn wood provided there is enough initial heat to start it.. Wood consists of essentially two primary components cellulose / lignin and volatile gases (along with inert nitrogen). The volatile gases consisting of carbon and hydrogen and various admixtures of the two e.g. methane react with oxygen to burn. Nitrogen is a large component of the gas released from the wood under combustion, but it is inert. Typically the traditional open fire and simple combustion so not control or stochiometrically maximize the chemical reaction of the biomass, in this case wood, well. This is especially true with the secondary gasses e.g. methane which need temperatures above 1100 degrees and controlled oxidation to burn. Inefficient, non-complete combustion occurs in simple open fires and less than thoroughly designed burners. In these conditions the process does not separate and utilize the volatile and non-volatile components well. So far less than efficient utilization of the volatile and non-volatile components occurs when uncontrolled oxidation reactions occur. The burning wood produces heat and is useful for cooking. Wood is still the most prevalent fuel for heating in the world. The burning of wood also produces light which less than ideal can be a lot better than nothing. The burnt remainder can be used to enrich the soil. QUESTION 2 What can you do with wood with technology in a non combustible form ? Anaerobic pyrolysis and gasification in a controlled oxidation environment. Wood and bio mass processors can be designed to optimize output from wood on an overall or specific part of the resource. For example the gas production or bio-char may be maximized. A gasifier is a device that pyrolizes biomass to produce syngas (CO and H2). Once gasified the syngas can be utilized to produce many synthetic petrochemicals. There are also other by products of the process such as tar, ash, and depending upon the feedstock and process other products ( e.g. typically a dirty gas with bio mass ) that may be used to power the process, and produce useful or non-useful byproducts.

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According to Jim Mason of AllPowerlabs.org air brought into bottom of sealed vessel combusts propagating the combustion zone forward until it runs out of oxygen. This process will produce CO2, water vapor, and heat. Once the oxygen is depleted the reaction begins to reverse (The nitrogen absorbs heat and can inhibit utilization of secondary gasses) and forms hydrogen and carbon monoxide. These gases are called syngas and are the raw materials that may be used in a Fischer-Tropsch or other process to produce synthetic fuels. Charcoal and coke are produced by pyrolysis (heating in an oxygen starved or controlled environment) and have been and in some cases are still the primary product desired from the anaerobic heating and processing of wood. Today this process is used by man to produce bio-char used for soil enrichment.

SOURCES: 1) Energy Systems and Sustainability Textbook 2) Wikipedia 3) Various You Tube gasification videos primarily from allpowerlabs.org 4) Internet Montana State University Heating with Wood: Principles of Combustion.