Newbie needs cost estimate: woodgas people transporter

hey-build a giant jungle raft from wax treated trees, or brush bundles-cheap
and no transporting! a people barge!

another idea is to look into catalyst-plated micro-tubes.
the fischer-tropesch process whereby with steam heat+CO2 or CO is added to the CH3+H's to make larger hydrocarbons.

the Germans invented the process in WW2 and still are the most advanced,
but S.africa used it to make liquid fuel while under trade embargo in the 70-80's. the old equipment might be rusting away right now.

that way u can produce liquid fuel and not need the huge fuel storage capacity.

 

You mean [Fischer-Tropsch]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer–Tropsch_process


"The F-T process has been applied on a large scale in some industrial sectors, although its popularity is hampered by high capital costs, high operation and maintenance costs, the uncertain and volatile price of crude oil, and environmental concerns. In particular, the use of natural gas as a feedstock only becomes practical when using "stranded gas", i.e. sources of natural gas far from major cities which are impractical to exploit with conventional gas pipelines and LNG technology; otherwise, the direct sale of natural gas to consumers would become much more profitable. Several companies are developing the process to enable practical exploitation of so-called stranded gas reserves.

Sasol
The largest scale implementation of F-T technology are in a series of plants operated by Sasol in South Africa, a country with large coal reserves but lacking in oil. Sasol uses coal and now natural gas as feedstocks and produces a variety of synthetic petroleum products, including most of the country's diesel fuel."

 

One can use many many more feedstock sources and that is done on industrial scale for long.

Sun fuel in Germany is the market leader in FT tech. They use waste wood, straw and the like.

But Fischer Tropsch is a old hat and not the most efficient method.

The pressureless catalytic depolymerisation is a much better way at present. (needless to say, a German invention again?)

The problem with all these advanced technologies is the size you have to build them and the related cost.
None of them can be build on a "homebrew" scale for reasonable cost. All need at least several million € investment to run efficient.

And that usually is the end of the story.....


Regards
Richard

 

sorry, i did the report for a college class a few years ago on a different Pc so
don't have the links, but the thin tubing was coated in catalyst that in theory made the process down-scalable. i remember one of the big science mags ran a story as well on it-scientific american or discover maybe.

also remember NH3 burns as well as CH3, so in theory the very cheap ammonium salts ( i.e ammonium sulfide or chloride) and NaOH can be reacted
to make NH3+H2O ( with NH2OH forming stealing yield, but that dissolves into the H2O-it cant exist pure so recycling back to the reactor+dehydration will free more Nh3)

also i remember reading about these CDC biologists stationed sierra leone studying the lhassa fever outbreak. the locals made booze from a tree fruit,
and it had the strange property of very fast fermentation-like 72 hours,and the ethanol content was way higher then what wine or corn can achieve. iam guessing it has its own strain of bacteria or yeast, or perhaps a enzyme?

anyway with the warm temperatures and access to river water maybe fuel your transport with ethanol?

another idea-no engine at all!
look at the galleys that used to be used in the Mediterranean before the sail was perfected!float downstream, and make em' row the other direction

if u have full loads, then 2-3 men on each oar, 40-60 oars on each side-no need for fuel costs at all. u just couldn't run a trip up-stream without a minimum of able bodied passengers.