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mathane gas burners

updated wed 23 dec 98

 

Tracy Dotson on mon 21 dec 98

I have become involved with a conservation group working with the EPA setting
up a project using mathane from a local landfill to fire kilns. Not much
information on the net about this except that the BTU's are about i/2 of
natural gas and that the gas is very corrosive. Does anyone have any
information on this?

Tracy Dotson
Penland NC

orion on tue 22 dec 98

FYI, Natural gas is about 97% methane.

Bill Aycock on tue 22 dec 98

Tracy- I dont know about the gasses evolving from landfill, but the classic
"natural gas", from the fermenting of feedlot byproducts, has a lot of CO2
in it, which degrades the heating value. The normal way to get around this
is to bubble the gas through Lime water (CaO), which gets the CO2 to
combine to make CaCO3 ( also known as whiting).

If the gas is corrosive, there may be sulfur or chlorine compounds in the
fill. Is there any distinct odor to the gasses? If so, there may be a clue
about the contaminant. Methane has no odor of itself, so any you smell is
from contaminants.

Bill

At 02:57 PM 12/21/1998 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I have become involved with a conservation group working with the EPA setting
>up a project using mathane from a local landfill to fire kilns. Not much
>information on the net about this except that the BTU's are about i/2 of
>natural gas and that the gas is very corrosive. Does anyone have any
>information on this?
>
>Tracy Dotson
>Penland NC
>
>
-
Bill Aycock --- Persimmon Hill
Woodville, Alabama, US 35776
(in the N.E. corner of the State)
W4BSG -- Grid EM64vr
baycock@HiWAAY.net

Bill Amsterlaw on tue 22 dec 98

Hi Tracy:

The following articles appeared in Studio Potter regarding the use of
methane gas from organic wastes:

1. Lanman, Robert: "Firing Ceramic Kilns with Methane Gas Generated from
Organic Wastes." Studio Potter 3(1): pp 57-61 (Summer 1974).

2. Zamek, Jeff: "Methane Gas and Sewer Sludge: New Routes to Energy
Efficiency in Firing Clay." Studio Potter 13(1): pp 85-86 (December 1984)

- Bill Amsterlaw (wamster@slic.com)
Plattsburgh, NY



Tracy Dotson wrote:
<< I have become involved with a conservation group working with the EPA
setting up a project using mathane from a local landfill to fire kilns. Not
much information on the net about this except that the BTU's are about i/2
of natural gas and that the gas is very corrosive. Does anyone have any
information on this? >>