Okay, So You Made Wood Gas, Now What?

You may be sitting there wondering, how do you actually use wood gas? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, wood gas is composed mainly from hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases, both of which are flammable. This is only about 50% of the gas produced in a gasification reaction, the rest is inert nitrogen, a little bit of carbon dioxide, a little bit of methane, and a tiny amount of oxygen. Since you have a mixture of gases with plenty of carbon and hydrogen in it there are many ways to use these gases for energy. From now on we will refer to this mixture as syngas (short for synthesis gas because it can be used to synthesize many different fuel products).

Syngas has traditionally been burnt as a way of harnessing its energy. As long as it is cooled it can be used to run the engines in cars, trucks, boats, or anything with a combustion engine. The gas can also be used in the same way as propane or natural gas and can be used to heat homes or produce hot water. Burning syngas is the most direct way to harness its energy.

There is another method of using syngas that is going to become important in the future as a solution to global fuel shortages. This method is known as the Fischer-Tropsch (fish-er trawp-sh) reaction, a method developed during WWII. This reaction involves passing the syngas through a catalyst in order to produce liquid fuel. In this case a catalyst is a mixture of metal particles combined with a liquid. The mixture varies depending on the fuel being produced. The syngas can be pumped through different catalysts and make everything from diesel fuel, to gasoline, to alcohol. That's right, you can make REAL diesel fuel and REAL gasoline using wood! A lot more research and development needs to go in to this technology to make it more reliable but there is huge potential involved with turning biomass into liquid fuel.

The last way that syngas can be used is by running it through a fuel cell to produce electric current.  A fuel cell works by directly producing electrical current from a chemical reaction. In this case the chemical reaction is taking place between the hydrogen and carbon monoxide in syngas and the oxygen in air. This reaction produces electricity which can either be used directly or stored in batteries for later. I hope this has helped you to understand a little bit about how the syngas produced in a wood gasifier can be used in real life. Please Leave Any Comments Or Questions, and don't forget to sign up for Email Updates on the bottom of the page!

We see here a simple animation of a fuel cell. Note the green hydrogen  entering on the left. When this hits the  catalyst it is broken into protons (+) and electrons (-). The protons move to the other side of the fuel cell to meet up with oxygen, and the electrons are used to make electricity. The electrons combine with the oxygen and protons and produce heat and water. When syngas is used in a fuel cell, water and carbon dioxide are produced.Add caption