Show S suction u c 0 n gas P producer produce r plants BY FRANK E JOHNSON this type power of generator is at present creating a great deal of interest among engineers and power users in fact this interest might be compared to the time that electricity was first being successfully installed as a power the merits of producer gas as a power are appreciated by the united states government for it has within the past four years appropriated to carry on comparative fuel tests with this type of power generator in com parison carlson with the steam boiler and the re suits obtained show a wonderful balance in favor of the gas producer this type of producer is comparatively new being introduced into germany in the year 1894 but the importance of the suction type produced was not realized immediately and it was not until several years thereafter that it was put into extensive use and at the beginning of 1904 there were probably plants of this type in use in germany alone it was due to this fact that american manufacturers turned their attention to germany to get data on producer gas plants so that they could manufacture the same in this country for beyond all question of doubt the germans met with the greatest rea test success in this type of generator and it was not until the year 1904 that this generator was introduced trod into america after thorough investigation ti and experiments had been made with the german type of producer working on american fuels the fuel used mostly was pennsylvania anthracite as it was then an established fact that an anthracite producer was the one most successful and universally ver sally used in europe 77 D r A 46 A 1 ip P N irwy I 1 f a 7 w v TIM k 7 cross section of iso xo HP producer plant from the results gained from these experiments peri ments the type of producer shown in the accompanying cut was designed and it embodies quite a few radical changes from the german type as it was soon discovered that the american coal would not work successfully cess fully in the german type of producer from the introduction of this type producer in the united states up to the present time there were about plants installed and put into operation and a plant of this type has been operation at ogden utah jor for the past two years the fuel used is known as crested butte anthracite coal no 6 and is mined at crested butte colorado this type of producer is primarily built to operate on anthracite coal but can also be operated with success on coke charcoal or lignite and for approximate figuring it is safe to allow 1 lbs ibs of anthracite coal per B D H P H 1 lbs ibs of coke 1 lbs ibs of charcoal and 2 lbs ibs of lignite of course these figures depend greatly on the fuel itself as these classes of fuel vary a great deal in different localities producer gas generated from coal may be analyzed as follows carbon monoxide 26 per cent hydrogen 12 per cent carbon dioxide 5 per cent nitrogen 57 per cent taking the cut as an illustration we have the producer proper shown on the right hand side of the cut and the hot gases are produced from the fuel by partial combustion and pass up through the producer and out through the opening shown at the top on the left and down through the vaporizer which contains an inner cylinder filled with water and the hot gases passing through the tube around which this w water ater circulates heats the water and generates steam this steam together with a limited amount of air pass under tinder the grates of the producer at points E and F and together with the product of combustion forms the producer gas it is well to add 11 hare re that the draught is caused by the suction of the engine the engine being directly connected to the connection at point A hence the name SUCTION GAS PRODUCER 1 you can readily see from this that gas will only be produced as the engine requires it that is if the engine is running on a light load the suction will be light and the quantity of gas small and as the load increases the suction increases and the gas production increases after the gas passes through the vaporizer it passes pas ses through a 3 way away a valve shown in the center of the cut the valve as shown is open at the bottom so that the gas can pass through into the scrubber which is filled with coke over which a spray of water is constantly sprinkled the large contact surface presented by the coke effectually cleanses the gas of impurities carried over from the producer and also serves to cool the gas which is very essential in order to prepare it for use in the engine when starting up a producer the gas valve is closed at the bottom and opened at the top so that the gas can pass out first generated is very poor and the 3 way through the pipe at point B to the atmosphere mo sphere until the gas is pure enough tobe to be fed into the engine this usually takes from 20 to 30 minutes and the blast during this firing up period is caused by a small blower usually operated by a 2 H P gasoline engine this engine is also used for running 1 a small air compressor which compresses air into a receiver to be used for starting the engines with certain fuels especially when much air is formed it is necessary to have in addition to the scrubber a purifier and the gas I 1 passes from the scrubber direct to this purifier which is a steel cylindrical tank quite similar to the scrubber excepting larger in diameter and has in the interior a series of trays on which are beds of sawdust shavings or excelsior and the gas passing through these beds is further cleansed from its impurities if the fuel is excessive in tar there is also used a centrifugal tar extractor which is operated from the engine and the gas passes from the purifier into this tar extractor which removes removes absolutely all traces of tar the tar being collected by means of water the gas then passes into the gas tank which is shown on the extreme left side of cut this is usually avery small tank and is not intended for a gas reservoir or storage for in some cases the engine is direct connected to the gas pipe without this tank but it is always advisable to use a gas tank to take care of any variations in the production of r gas as by the producer the principal attention required in operating a producer of this type is to keep the fuel hopper C above the producer constantly full and to poke the fire every few hours through the poke holes at the top of the producer shown at point D it is absolutely essential that the producer be as near air tight as possible therefore the hopper at the top is made with a double gate so as to admit fuel without admitting air also the poke holes are made with an iron ball ground into a seat this ball having a hole drilled through the same of a little larger diameter than the stock rod and when one wishes to stoke the fire the ball is turned in its seat so that the rod can pass down through same into the producer the position of the ball in the cut shows the hole sealed in the producer the amount of water necessary to operate a producer plant exclusive of the engine is approximately gallons per horsepower hour this figure is based on a plant that does not require a tar extractor all the water is collected in the trap shown in bottom of cut and flows from there into the sewer or ditch at point H there is absolutely no danger from explosions plo in the type producer shown in cut and any ordinary laborer can soon be educated to attend to its requirements and taken as a whole it is without question the most simple economical and efficient type power generator that has ever been introduced there are now being installed in this lo 10 bality two plants similar to this cut one for the city of salt lake at the intercepting sewer pumping station and the other for the glasgow western exploration company cherry creek nevada to operate its new concentrating mill the perfection reached in this type producer makes it no longer an experiment so 0 no one need hesitate to consider such an install installation aaion 1 |