In module 4 of Gasification 101, Ben from Victory Gasworks talks about the origins of gasification and the rise, fall and rise again of this technology.
The first large scale use of gasification was for towns gas at the beginning of the 1900’s, which was produced form coal. This gas provided heat and light, however was also used to power vehicles. These vehicles carried the gas in balloons attached to the top of the vehicles.
In the 1920’s the introduction of natural gas pipelines began to replace towns gas, as well as cheap electricity and oil. This began a downward trend in the use of town’s gas and gasification in general. Taxes here in England affected the cost effectiveness of gasification, as road tax was based on weight.
In 1923 the first patent was applied for a down draft gasifier. Between the 1920’s and 30’s there were 12,000 gasification units for stationary power generation operating in Canada and the US.
In the 1930’s Germany was seeking to be energy dependant, and gasification as an automotive fuel began to surge. As with many technologies, the event of war drives technologies further. Again with world war two, the lack of petroleum forced a massive adoption of gasification.
Gasification use peaked during the war, however due to post war cheap oil and gas prices, gasification became a forgotten technology. Between the 1950’s and 1970’s gasification falls further into obscurity, only remaining in developing countries.
As environmental awareness grows during the 1990’s, gasification begins a come back. Today gasification is growing particularly as a means for small-scale operators to produce energy.
As with the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer, we believe in small-scale production of biomass pellets. The reasons for this are better utilization of resources, fuel independence, price stability and environmental concern. Biomass pellets are currently predominantly used for heat, however small scale gasification offers the possibility to use biomass pellets to generate electricity for personal use, and to sell back to the grid.
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