A little off topic question

Hi,

I need to compress 3000 ft^3 of a syngas(synthetic gas) made up mostly of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and a little methane. I cannot seem to find a company that sells appropriate holding container and compressors. The pressure that this can be compressed to does not need to be very high, 5 - 10 psi will do. However to get this quantity to a manageable size, I assume that the pressure will be significantly higher.

Does anyone have any experience in dealing with pressurized combustible gas, and the compressors to compress this gas.

I know I am off topic but I am a little stuck.

Thanks

Richard

Try Googling "natural gas boosters".

Check with local compressor vendor Ingersoll Rand, Gardner Denver, Joy etc. I would bet the major compressor manufacturers have something for your application.

How often are you going to be compressing this gas volume?
When you have it compressed what are you going to do with it then?

Are you the same guy who is drying wood chip and then doing the separation of oil and water??

Dan Bentler

Hi Dan,

Yes I am the same guy with the wood chips. When the wood chips go through a process called pyrolysis they give off an uncondensable gas, this gas is used to provide the electricity to support the unit, through an electrical generator. What I need is to at the end of the day compress an hours worth of operating gas for the generator so that they can start up the next day before they are able to produce more gas and go to a self stable state.

Richard

From your three posts I get the following

You are basically a coal gasification plant - just doing it with wood as raw material / energy source.
Wood is destructive distilled
gas goes to boiler to make steam and drive turbine driving generator.
OR you have a gas turbine
Still bottoms are separated from water and sold as oil
Some gas is compressed for storage for tomorrow lite off.

I am gonna pour a bucket of cold water on your head.
1. You said engineering is all done for you.
2. Yet you have the compressor question for which you need some support.
3. The AB control question. This can be some nasty stuff and the correct controls are needed to ensure survivability of contols themselves - so you need materials engineer to make sure your controls can survive their environment.
4. Some of the byproducts will be highly carcinogenic. You need some occupational safety and health guidance support.

I say this because this kind of project is one I could easily get into and find myself in over my head. Do NOT be afraid to tell management when you need help and do not know.

You stated you are the guy who is supposed to get it going.
When it does not run
somehow you will be the only guy standing there trying to explain how you created this mess.

Dont let your management let you let yourself make this disaster
- when you get good at preventing this come and teach me.

Dan Bentler

Combustible gas High Pressure compressors are available, most of them are diaphragm type, very very expensive. We just bought one last year, cost was 250,000 USD. Cheapest models are still six figures.
Since your pressure is so low, I would look at Propane gas equipment.