New French Wood-fuel Gas Producer
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Our Paris Correspondent Sends Some Details of the New Brandt Generator in which Charcoal is Used as a Filtering Medium and to Enrich the Gas Obtained from Wood
AWOOD-FUEL producer-gas plant, with certain unusual features, has been produced in France by lee Etablissements Edgar Brandt, 101, Boulevard Murat, Paris (XVIe), as the result of official encouragement in the producer-gas field.
In the Brandt design a central tube of large diameter runs up from the furnace to the top of the fuel hopper and is kept filled with charcoal. The wood fuel is carried in the space between this tube and the hopper wall.
The generator proper is lined with fireclay, whilst air enters the annular space between this furnace and the outer wall through automatic inlet valves, and thence passes to the fire through a number of jets disposed radially at different levels.
The fuel hopper has a double skin and is provided with an automatic moisture ejector which evacuates any excess of water vapour before it can begin to upset the proper functioning of the plant. This is of importance for slow running, especially when the wood employed has a high water content. Wood-fuel generators are inclined to smoke and to behave erratically when the engine is running slowly in traffic, or when starting away from rest after a temporary stop, and this kind of trouble is obviously accentuated by an excess of moisture from the fuel.
It will be seen that the hot gases from the furnace pass through layers of charcoal at varying temperatures, the temperature falling as the gases rise farther . away from the fire. During their passage, the mixed gases combine with the charcoal and form a homogeneous." pour-gas," whilst at the same time the charcoal fragments act as an efficient preliminary filter.
After passing through the usual dust box and cooling tubes the gas reaches a filter of novel design in which it is treated to a period of alternate expansion and shock. This process eliminates the finer particles which may be carried in suspension. Finally, the gas enters a constant-level water washer which completes the cleansing process.
The charcoal employed in the generator is used up slowly, so that it is necessary to remove the cover at the top of the central tube only occasionally, and then only small quantities have to be added.
Workmanship in this gas producer is unusually good, whilst arrangements for keeping the filters, etc., clean, with a minimum expenditure of time and trouble, are excellent, This is of importance, as clean filters are absolutely essential to the satisfactory functioning of a gas machine.
It is obviously an advantage to be independent of supplies of special fuel, and to be able to use wood which is more generally. obtainable. • A drawback, however, is that the latter fuel is considerably more bulky and therefore will probably reduce the range of the