The other part of the air passes through the feet of the producer into an air jacket which envelops the whole shell of the producer and enters finally the producer by the reversing valve C on top of the producer. In this way the outer surface of the producer is maintained at a temperature hardly higher than that of the surrounding air. The escaping gases are cooled down so far that the gas outlet into the scrubber may be touched by hand. All ordinary heat losses are thus made use of in the gasification process.
If there is a large excess of moisture in peat, the process is somewhat modified by regulating both air supplies in such a way that the gasification in the upper part of the fuel-bed takes place in two directions, one downwards and the other upwards.
It seems that a content of 80 per cent moisture and 20 per cent dry fuel in the peat is about the limit permitting evaporation of the water, but it is, of course, impossible to obtain in this case a gas of calorific value.
The modification of the process for very wet fuel is as follows:
When the fire on top of the fuel bed appears to disappear, the heater opens the stack and valve D. Valve C is then closed, to prevent air from entering on top. The preheated air enters by D causing a down draft combustion due to the suction of the gas engine and an upward combustion due to the draft in the stack. The moisture is evaporated and escapes through the stack. When the fire has burned through at the top, the valve is switched over. The bad smelling gases rising from the scrubber enter the producer together with air and are there consumed.
In commercial use at the exhibition in Posen the whole plant worked continuously day and night and cleaning of the gas engines was necessary only every three months. Slagging of ashes is done during the operation of the producer, without any nuisance from dust.
The highest percentage of moisture in peat gasified was 50 per cent. The fuel consumption per horse-power hour is 2.2 lb. (1 kg.) of peat. Careful tests made by Prof. Baer, of Breslau, showed that with a cost of peat of $1 per ton the kw-hour at the switchboard costs 0.15 cent.
(14) Crude Oil Producers.
The development of the crude oil gas producer, for which there is great demand, in oil regions remote from the coal field, has been exceedingly slow but it is believed that definite progress has recently been made along this line. The most recent notes on this subject relate to the Grine oil producer. In this type steam spray is used for atomizing the oil which is introduced into the upper part of the generator where partial combustion takes place. The downdraft principle is then applied and the hydrocarbon broken up and the tar fixed by passing through a bed of incandescent coke. Mr. Grine reports that a power plant using one of these producers has been in operation a year in California. With crude oil as a fuel costing 95 cents per barrel, or 2.3 cents per gallon, the plant is reported to develop the same amount of power per gallon of crude as is ordinarily developed by the standard internal combustion engine operating on distillates at 7 cents per gallon. Including the cost of fuel, labor, supplies, interest, depreciation and taxes, Mr. Grine states the cost per b.h.p. hour to be 0.76 cents for a plant of 100 h.p. rating.