WATER GAS

Presented By:
GANGARI GIRISH (O190489)
M SURESH (O190519)
Introduction:
• Early water gas plants were based on retorts used for coal carbonisation.
• However, later water gas plants more closely resembled producer gas
plants in the design of the generator and in their mode of operation.
• Water gas plants were popular in the UK and worldwide, particularly in
the USA where they were first successfully commercialised.
• One of the major issues with water gas by carbonising coal was the
length of time taken to get the gas plant operational and water gas.
• An alternative method to meet peak demand for gas was required, leading
to the development of water gas plants.
• Water gas plant could produce gas much more rapidly (within 1-3 hours)
than traditional coal carbonisation plant.
• This process was commonly employed on many larger town and city
gasworks to produce gas rapidly and supplement coal gas supplies, plant
was also developed for smaller gasworks.
• In Britain, water gas was mixed with coal gas (30% water gas to 70%
coal gas) prior to distribution.
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Photograph. 1 The inside of the water gas plant

building
1
The Early development of water Gas:
• The discovery of water gas was attributed to the Italian
physicist Felice Fontana in 1780.
• He discovered that when steam was passed through
incandescent carbon, the oxygen of the water molecules in the
steam had a greater affinity for the carbon than the hydrogen to
which it was bonded.
• This led to the formation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen
from the water and carbon in the reaction:
C + H2O = H2 + CO.
• In 1824, John Holt Ibbetson made the first attempt to utilise
water gas on a commercial scale.
Different systems used for the manufacture of Water Gas
• A wide range of different systems were developed to manufacture water
gas, many unsuccessful or impractical.
• Systems for making water gas could be classified under three headings:
(1)The Intermittent System
(2) The Continuous System
(3) The Neat Oxygen Method.
• In reality, only the intermittent system was a commercial success.
• The intermittent system with ‘run’ and ‘blow’ phases succeeding each
other at regular intervals was the most widely used and thought to be the
only practicable method.
• The continuous system was heavily investigated in the early
development of water gas as it sought to make the process more
efficient (by independent external heating of the vessels) and
enable the continuous production of gas
• The third system was the neat oxygen method which produce a
gas practically free from nitrogen, but containing 65-70 per
cent carbon monoxide.
• All water gas processes were gasification process where
fuel(coke/oil) was converted into gas.
The ‘Run’ and ‘Blow’ processes:
• The ‘run’ and ‘blow’ were the principal components of the manufacture of
water gas, each working in sequence to produce the water gas in a cyclical
fashion.
• The object of the blow period was to store the maximum quantity of heat
in the generator fuel bed(usually coke) which could then be used in the
endothermic steam : carbon reaction during the run stage.
• During the blow, air was blown by fans into the base of the fuel bed,
providing oxygen to allow the fuel to burn and heat the generator.
• The following reactions occurred within the fuel bed, which overall were
highly exothermic.
(i) C + C– exothermic
(ii) C + C c 2CO – endothermic
(iii) 2C + O2 2CO – exothermic
(iv) 2CO + c 2C– exothermic

• This would form carbon dioxide in much larger proportions to carbon

monoxide.
• As the carbon dioxide rich gas passed through the remainder of the hot fuel
bed, some of it was partially reduced to carbon monoxide.
• This was formed by a secondary reaction between the carbon dioxide and
hot carbon which was endothermic, in effect cooling the generator.
• During the run, steam was injected into the generator and reacted with the
carbon.
• As the run proceeded, the fuel bed started to cool, and gradually the
proportion of carbon dioxide in the gas produced increased.
• This had the effect of increasing the amount of inert substances in the gas,
reducing its heating qualities.
• During the run, within the lower part of the fuel bed, the water (steam)
reacted with the heated carbon forming carbon dioxide, and some carbon
monoxide as shown.

(i) C+2 C +2- endothermic

(ii) C + CO + - endothermic
• The carbon monoxide generated could also react with the steam, forming
carbon dioxide and hydrogen, which was an exothermic reaction.
(iii) CO + H2O CO2 + H2 – exothermic
• As the carbon dioxide formed passed up through the bed of coke, it was
reduced by further hot carbon higher up the fuel bed forming carbon
monoxide through an endothermic reaction:
(iv) C + CO2 2CO – endothermic
• This reaction was reversible and the amount of carbon dioxide converted to
carbon monoxide was highly dependent on changes in pressure and
temperature.
• A decrease in pressure and increase in temperature made the formation of
carbon monoxide.
Up-run and Back-run:
• As the water gas process became more advanced and sophisticated, the run
became split into two separate phases:
1. The up-run
2. The back-run
1. The up-run
• The up-run was the phase during which all the enriching oil was added to the
gas. It was the main gas making phase, analogous to the ‘run’.
• After reaching a temperature of approximately 1200ºC during the blow
phase, steam was admitted to the base of the generator forming blue-water
gas as it passed upwards through the fuel bed (by the processes described
earlier).
• As gas passed through the carburettor, oil was sprayed; this vapourised in
the chamber and on the chequer brick, becoming fixed in a gaseous state in
this chamber and the superheater.
• The gas then passed through the washer and other auxillary processing
plant.
The Back-run:
• During the back-run, the plant was run in reverse.
• Steam was admitted to the top of the superheater, travelling down and up
through the carburettor, and absorbing heat in the process.
• It then entered the fuel bed (generator), returning the heat and also
producing blue-water gas.
Properties
Blue-water gas had a calorific value of 10.8-11.1(MJ/or 290-300 (Btu/)
which were the standard units of measurement at the time.
The enriched CWG had a calorific value of approximately 14.1-18.6
MJ/m3 (380-500 BTU/ft3)
• Water gas burns with non-luminous blue flame & hence is called “Blue
water Gas”.
• The temperature of the flame reaches up to
• Due to presence of CO, it is poisonous gas.
• When mixed with hydrocarbons, it is called carburetted water gas.
• It contains little amount of non-combustible gases( & ).
• Composition of water gas:
The average composition of water gas is:
Carbon monoxide : 44%
Hydrogen : 48%
Carbon dioxide : 4%
Nitrogen : 4%
• Uses::
 Water gas is a good heating fuel because of high calorific value.
 A good source of hydrogen on commercial scale.
 Used in manufacture of methyl alcohol.
 Used for welding process.
 Carburetted water gas is used for heating & lighting process.
• Types of Fuel used
• Coke was the preferred fuel source for water-gas plant in Britain. Coke
used for gas making would be egg-sized lumps of uniform coke and free
from fines. If the coke was produced on a gasworks to make water gas, it
would be screened to remove breeze below 2cm diameter size. Denser
coke would allow more fuel to be stored in the generator, but less dense
coke was thought to be more reactive. The important factor was a low
sulphur content and low ash content.
• Anthracite was the most dense form of carbon that could be used in
water-gas plant. It was also used at an egg size, with minimal fines,and
contained approximately 10% ash, although the lowest possible ash
content was preferred.
• Bituminous coal could be used in water-gas production, but was avoided
where possible given the complications it would cause within the
generator and in the gas purification.
 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Water Gas
Systems in Gas Manufacture

• The advantages in using water gas were:

• 1. Water gas plants required a relatively low capital outlay, estimated
by the gas engineer Alwyn Meade to be about one-third of the cost of
a coal gas plant.
• 2. The footprint of a water-gas plant was considerably smaller than
that of a coal gas plant, requiring only a ninth of the space,
approximately. Water-gas plants were effective in reacting to sudden
increases in demand and could produce gas within 1-3 houprs of
starting operations, compared to much longer timescales for a retort
bench.
• 3. The calorific value of the gas could be easily adjusted by regulating the
amount of oil added for gas enrichment.
• 4. Coke use could be reduced by not having to have retort furnaces
operating on a slow burn.
• 5. Coke could be used for water-gas production; as coke was a by-product
of coal-gas manufacture, it gave greater flexibility and independence with
regard to coal supplies.
The disadvantages of using water gas were:

• 1. Water gas contained a very high percentage of carbon monoxide,

three or four times the amount found in coal gas. Carbon monoxide is
highly toxic and therefore water gas posed a greater risk of poisoning.
• 2. At times of high oil costs, the manufacturing costs of carburetted
water gas were higher than for coal gas. The relative costs of oil and
coal varied throughout the history of the gas industry, with coal
eventually losing out when the price of oil fell.
• 3. The process required good quality coke or it was liable to fail.
• 4. As the CWG process used oils, it made the water-gas process much
more potentially polluting, especially if using heavy oils and/or
bituminous coals; these made the tar much more difficult to separate
and dispose of.
• 5. CWG was dependent on the availability of reasonably priced oil or
oil by-products