US11560A - Improvement in wood-gas generators - Google Patents

Description

W. D. PORTERIV Making Wood Gas.

N. PETERS. Fmb-Liuwgmpmf. washington, D. c.

UNiTED STATES IVILLIAM D. PORTER,

PATENT OFFICE.

on NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN WOOD-GAS GENERATORS.

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM D. PORTER, of New York, in the county and State of New York, havein vented a new and usefullm provement in a Still for Converting food into Carbureted I-Iydrogen or Illuminating Gas; and I do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact descriptien of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification.

It has long been a desideratum to construct an apparatus for the production of gas from resinous wood wherein is combined economy of fuel, simplicity of construction, and efficency of operation, and where from the sale of the resid uum-viz., the charcoal-the expense may be materially reduced. These results have been obtained in my improvement in the construction of the apparatus wherein the wood is subjected to the action of heat, as in a still, by which the resinous products are eliminated and permitted graduallythat is, drop by drop-to fall upon a highlyheated portion of the lower vessel, attached to the one in which the wood is placed, and are thus converted into carbureted-hydrogen gas, as well as all the volatile constituents of the wood-such as water, pyroligneous acid, &c.-are cominingled and subjected to the same violent heatin It has been found that the production of gas froln wood with the same number of retortsin a given time is six times more than from coal, and that it does not affect the health, and is in so pure a condition as to require little or no puriiication before it enters the burners. The arrangement is so simple that the still may be placed in an ordinary stove or replace used for heating dwellings, in the furnace of a steamboat or galley of a vessel, and by suitable pipes be distributed to the burners.

To enable others skilled in the art to make' and use my invention, I will describe it, as follows:

In the accompanying drawing, A represents au ordinary stove. In it is placed the still in a Vertical position. It consists of an iron cylinder B, provided with flanges a at its upper and b at its lower edges. The upper end, after being charged with wood, is closed by a cap luted and bolted on the flanges a. The wood rests on a perforated diaphragm C', and by a rod or handle the diaphragm is drawn out, and with it the charcoal. This diaphragm separates the cylinder from the gas-producing portion placed below the cylinder-wiz., a conical-shaped tight vessel D, within which is a smaller-sized vessel E, also conical, perforated with holes near its bottom or pointed end. Both these cones are provided with flanges corresponding with b of the cylinder, and by bolts and lute are united thereto and made air-tight.

F is the escape-pipe of the gas from between Eand D,and is situated directly under the iianges of the cones.

The stove is provided with dampers, firegrate, duc., of the ordinary construction, and the heat of the re-chamber, after acting directly on the bottom and sides of the still, rises and circulates around the cylinderB and escapes into the smoke-stack through G.

As there is no tar formed in this Operation,

no provision for its collection is considered necessary, the resinous portion of the wood being decomposed on-Zdropping from the cyl inder.

The resolution of the wood is effected as follows: By the more moderate heat impinging on the cylinder B, charged with pine wood, the crude turpentine or resinous portion of the wood is melted and permitted to fall upon the inner cone E, drop by drop, (as the production of it in large quantities without immediate decomposition would produce tar.) Through this cone it passes by the small holes or openings in the sides of the cone E, and lfalls upon the highly-heated inner surface of cone D and is instantly decomposed into resin-gas. The watery, spirituous, and other gases iirst eliminated iu the cylinder B, instead of being permitted to escape from the upper part thereof, descend through the perforated diaphragm through the Icone E, and are exposed to D, as the crude resinous portions, and are mixed and commingled and decomposed, and ascend with the resin-gas between the inner cone E and outer cone D. In this Way the watery portions, as well as all the products of decomposition of the wood except the charcoal, are subjected to further decomposition in the gaseous state.

From some experiments recently instituted, notices of which will be found in the journalsof 1852 and 1853, the mere Coln-A mingling of steam produced from Water in a separate boiler with resin-gas has been supposed to be of advantage; also, the decomposition of hickory Wood for economical illumination; but of hoW much `greater importlnust it be to decompose the gases from pine or resinous Wood, furnishing,` in itself all the Constituents of a good gas, Without the production of the eondensible portions, (sometimes arising in other apparatus from resin itself,) as tar, pyroligneous, &e., and at the same time a Valuable residuum in the char- Coal sufficient to pay the expense of production of the illuminating-gas.

Having thus fully described the nature of my improvement, what I Claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

lVitnesses:

S. W. THOMPSON,

A. PHILLIPS.

Images