two alternating operations, viz. first “blowing-up” by means
of a current of air, by which the heat of the mass of fuel is raised
to about 1200° C.; and, secondly “steaming,” by injecting a
current of (preferably superheated) steam until the temperature
of the fuel had fallen to about 900° C., and too much carbon
dioxide appears in the product. During the steaming the gas
is carried off by a special conduit into a scrubber, where the dust
mechanically carried away in the current is washed out, and the
gas is at the same time cooled down nearly to the ordinary
temperature. It is generally stored in a gas-holder, from which
it is conducted away as required. It is never quite free from
nitrogen, as the producer at the beginning of steaming contains
much of this gas, together with CO or CO2. The proportion of
hydrogen may exceed 50%, in consequence of reaction (c)
setting in at the close of the steaming. Ordinary “blue” water
gas, if, as usual, made from coke or anthracite, contains 48-52%
H2, 40-41% CO, 1-5% CO2, 4-5% N2, and traces of hydrocarbons,
especially methane. If made from bituminous coal,
it contains more of the latter. If “carburetted” (a process
which increases its volume 50% and more) by the vapours from
superheated petroleum naphtha, the proportion of CO ranges
about 25%, with about as much methane, and from 10 to 15%
of “illuminants” (heavy hydrocarbons). The latter, of course,
greatly enhance the fuel-value of the gas. Pure water gas would
possess the following fuel-value per cubic metre:
| 0.5 | cub. met. | H2 | = 1291 | calories |
| 0.5 | ” ” | CO | = 1522 | ” |
| 2813 | ” | |||
Ordinary “blue” water gas has a fuel-value of at least 2500 calories. Carburetted water gas, which varies very much in its percentage of hydrocarbons, sometimes reaches nearly the heat-value of coal gas, but such gas is only in exceptional cases used for heating purposes.
We must now turn to the “blowing-up” stage of the process. Until recently it was assumed that during this stage the combustion of carbon cannot be carried on beyond the formation of carbon monoxide, for as the gas-producer must necessarily contain a deep layer of fuel (generally about 6 to 10 ft.), any CO2 formed at first would be reduced to CO; and it was further assumed that hardly any CO2 would be formed from the outset, as the temperature of the apparatus is too high for this reaction to take place. But as the combustion of C to CO produces only about 30% of the heat produced when C is burned into CO2, the quantity of fuel consumed for “blowing-up” is very large, and in fact considerably exceeds that consumed in “steaming.” There is, of course, a further loss by radiation and minor sources, and the result is that 1 kilogram of carbon yields only about 1.2 cub. met. of water gas. Each period of blowing-up generally occupies from 8 to 12 minutes, that of steaming only 4 or 5 minutes. This low yield of water gas until quite recently appeared to be unavoidable, and the only question seemed to be whether and to what extent the gas formed during blowing-up, which is in fact identical with ordinary producer gas (Siemens gas), could be utilized. In America, where the water gas is mostly employed for illuminating purposes, at least part of the blowing-up gas is utilized for heating the apparatus in which the naphtha is volatilized and the vapours are “fixed” by superheating. This process, however, never utilizes anything like the whole of the blowing-up gas, nor can this be effected by raising and superheating the steam necessary for the second operation; indeed, the employment of this gas for raising steam is not very easy, owing to the irregularities of and constant interruptions in the supply. In some systems the gas made during the blowing-up stage is passed through chambers, loosely filled with bricks, like Siemens recuperators, where it is burned by “secondary” air: the heat thus imparted to the brickwork is utilized by passing through the recuperator, and thus superheating, the steam required for the next steaming operation. In many cases, principally where no carburetting is practised, the blowing-up gas is simply burned at the mouth of the producer, and is thus altogether lost; and in no case can it be utilized without great waste. A very important improvement in this respect was effected by C. Dellwik and E. Fleischer. They found that the view that it is unavoidable to burn the carbon to monoxide during the blowing-up holds good only for the pressure of blast formerly applied. This did not much exceed that which is required for overcoming the frictional resistance within the producer. If, however, the pressure is considerably increased, and the height of the column of fuel reduced, both of these conditions being strictly regulated in accordance with the result desired, it is easy to attain a combustion of the carbon to dioxide, with only traces of monoxide, in spite of the high temperature. Evidently the excess of oxygen coming into contact with each particle of carbon in a given unit of time produces other conditions of chemical equilibrium than those existing at lower pressures. At any rate, experience has shown that by this process, in which the full heat-value of carbon is utilized during the blowing-up stage, the time of heating-up can be reduced from 10 to 112 or 2 minutes, and the steaming can be prolonged from 4 or 5 to 8 or 10 minutes, with the result that twice the quantity of water gas is obtained, viz. upwards of 2 cub. metres from 1 kilogram of carbon.
The application of water gas as a fuel mainly depends upon the high temperatures which it is possible to attain by its aid, and these are principally due to the circumstance that it forms a much smaller flame than coal gas, not to speak of Siemens gas, which contains at most 33% of combustible matter against 90% or more in water gas. The latter circumstance also allows the gas to be conducted and distributed in pipes of moderate dimensions. Its application, apart from its use as an illuminant (with which we are not concerned here), was formerly retarded by its high cost in comparison with Siemens gas and other sources of heat, but as this state of affairs has been changed by the modern improvements, its use is rapidly extending, especially for metallurgical purposes.
C. Mixed Gas (Semi-Water Gas).—This class is sometimes called Dowson gas, irrespective of its method of production, although it was made and extensively used a long time before J. E. Dowson constructed his apparatus for generating such a gas principally for driving gas-engines. By a combination of the processes for generating Siemens gas and water gas, it is produced by injecting into a gas-producer at the same time a certain quantity of air and a corresponding quantity of steam, the latter never exceeding the amount which can be decomposed by the heat-absorbing reaction, C + H2O = CO + H2, at the expense of the heat generated by the action of the air in the reaction C + O = CO. Such gas used to be frequently obtained in an accidental way by introducing liquid water or steam into an ordinary gas-producer for the purpose of facilitating its working by avoiding an excessive temperature, such as might cause the rapid destruction of the brickwork and the fusion of the ashes of the fuel into troublesome cakes. It was soon found that by proceeding in this way a certain advantage could be gained in regard to the consumption of fuel, as the heat abstracted by the steam from the brickwork and the fuel itself was usefully employed for decomposing water, its energy thus reappearing in the shape of a combustible gas. It is hardly necessary to mention explicitly that the total heat obtained by any such process from a given quantity of carbon (or hydrogen) can in no case exceed that which is generated by direct combustion; some inventors, however, whether inadvertently or intentionally, have actually represented this to be possible, in manifest violation of the law of the conservation of energy.
Roughly speaking, this gas may be said to be produced by the combination of the reactions, described sub A and B, to the joint reaction: 2C + O + H2O = 2CO + H2. The decomposition of H2O (applied in the shape of steam) absorbs 57.6 gram calories, the formation of 2CO produces 59 gram calories; hence there is a small positive excess of 1.4 calories at disposal. This in reality would not be sufficient to cover the loss by radiation, &c.; hence rather more free oxygen (i.e. atmospheric air) must be employed than is represented by the above equation. All this free oxygen is, of course, accompanied by nearly four times its volume of nitrogen.
