Novel Engine Concepts For Handling Producer Gas From Biomass
First Claim
1. A system to remove heavy organic components from a producer gas, wherein the producer gas comprises heavy organic components known as tar, comprising:
- a clean-up engine, comprising one or more cylinders, wherein an input to the cylinders of the clean-up engine comprises a rich mixture of the producer gas and an oxygen-containing gas, wherein the producer gas enters the clean-up engine at a temperature greater than a dew point of the tar, and wherein the clean-up engine exhausts a cleaned producer gas.
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Abstract
Internal combustion engines tolerant to tar-containing producer gas are disclosed. Two concepts are described. The engines are tolerant to producer gas from a biomass gasifier with minimal pretreatment. When biomass is gasified to be burned for power generation or to be used to synthesize chemicals such as biofuels, a large fraction of the installation cost is spent on equipment to clean up the heavy organic components (also referred to as ‘tars’) from the gas stream, hereafter referred to as ‘producer gas’. The invention described herein may be used to enable power generation from gasified biomass with minimal treatment. It may also be used to treat biomass at a very low cost for other uses such as synthesizing chemicals. The producer gas is not necessarily limited to biomass derived. Producer gas derived from coal or other sources has similar issues and the invention described herein would be equally applicable.
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45 Claims
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1. A system to remove heavy organic components from a producer gas, wherein the producer gas comprises heavy organic components known as tar, comprising:
a clean-up engine, comprising one or more cylinders, wherein an input to the cylinders of the clean-up engine comprises a rich mixture of the producer gas and an oxygen-containing gas, wherein the producer gas enters the clean-up engine at a temperature greater than a dew point of the tar, and wherein the clean-up engine exhausts a cleaned producer gas. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A system to produce power from a producer gas, wherein the producer gas comprises heavy organic components known as tar, comprising:
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an internal combustion engine, where producer gas at a temperature greater than a dew point of tar mixes with air within a cylinder; and a generator that produces power due to rotation of a driveshaft in the internal combustion engine. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method of cleaning producer gas, wherein the producer gas comprises heavy organic components known as tar, comprising:
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introducing the producer gas at a temperature greater than a dew point of the tar to a cylinder of an engine; introducing an oxygen-containing gas into the cylinder; combusting the producer gas and oxygen-containing gas to destroy the tar; and exhausting cleaned producer gas from the cylinder. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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Specification