Gasification

Gasify describes a chemical-physical process in which a part of a solid or a liquid is converted into a gaseous end product. This is done by heating, optionally with a special low-oxygen atmosphere.

Method

In contrast to the evaporation takes place during the gasification splitting and rearranging existing chemical compounds by cracking or pyrolysis and / or reduction or partial oxidation. So gasification is the generic term of a series of chemical processes to consider, which have as common the generation of a chemically altered gaseous end product. Gasification can leave solid residues.

A high level of awareness reached the coal gasification for town gas production. In a Winkler generator lignite was first burned in a fluidized bed, until a uniform bed of embers emerged. Subsequently, a mixture of steam and air was blown, which carbon monoxide and hydrogen formed - the combustible main components of city gas. The gas generator had then yet to be freed from most of its non-combustible constituents ( water vapor and carbon dioxide ) in order to achieve a satisfactory heating value. The disadvantage is the high energy loss in the conversion of lignite into town gas. Town gas itself has therefore replaced the disadvantage of its toxic carbon monoxide fraction and its low heating value and was from natural gas.

Another example is the wood or biomass gasification. In the period after the Second World War served in Germany occasionally wood gasifiers for operation of motor vehicle gasoline engines. For several years the thermo-chemical biomass gasification for electricity and heat production and for the production of synthesis gas for the production of chemicals and fuels to be tapped again and developed. Further processing of biomass gasification products by methanation results in natural gas compatible biogas (Synthetic Natural Gas, SNG) that can be fed into the existing gas networks.

A certain importance gasification in a diesel engine, especially during cold start using a plug that has gassed a portion of the injected fuel upon contact, thereby reactive radicals are formed. Not to be confused is the concept described here gasifying with the term in the sense of carburetor mixture forming device for the gasoline engine, whose principle is based solely on sputtering and evaporation.

When gasifying altered energy content expressed by the cold gas efficiency.