[ExI] [hackers-l] LinkedIn weirdness

[Keith Henson]

 FOn Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 5:10 PM Simon Quellen Field AB6NY <
simon.field at gmail.com> wrote:

> Heating municipal solid waste (MSW) to produce town gas (via gasification
> or pyrolysis) releases several toxic gases, including hydrogen sulfide,
> hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, and various volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
>
> The process also generates dioxins, furans, and vapors of heavy metals
> like mercury and lead.
>
> These gases require extensive scrubbing and purification to convert the
> raw gas into usable town gas.
>

Ever the chemist and mostly correct.  The whole process is reducing with
very little free oxygen, so there is no reason dioxins would form.  The gas
cleanup heats the gas and smoke to 1500 deg C with more steam making it all
syngas.  Very much correct in that you have to clean up the gas stream.
H2S, HCl, HF are not too hard to get out.  You have to get them out to
protect turbine blades or downstream F/T plants.  The Great Plans Synfuel
plant does this at a huge scale 16,000 tons of coal per day and it has been
operational since 1984.

Keith

>
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> On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 1:59 PM Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 8:13 AM Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Could it be that it looks like you are *burning* waste? (With toxic
>> gases being produced,)
>> >
>> In Europe, they mostly do burn (incinerate) waste.  This makes dioxins
>> and other nasty stuff, which is hard to get out of the stack gas.
>> This process makes syngas out of the carbon in waste and steam.  The
>> gas it makes is toxic, being half CO, but after going through a power
>> turbine, the exhaust is the same as natural gas exhaust.
>>
>> Or you can run the gas through an F/T process and make liquid fuels.
>> It seems that LA trash could make about twice the fuel that LAX uses.
>> As a downside, I can see public campaigns to do your part and make
>> more trash. :-)
>>
>> Keith
>>
>> > --Guido (mobile)
>> >
>> >
>> > On Thu, Mar 19, 2026 at 15:47 Keith Henson via Hackers Discussion <
>> hackers-l at lists.hackersconference.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I posted this on LinkedIn.
>> >>
>> >> The biggest problem with renewable energy is large scale, long term
>> storage.
>> >>
>> >> "A Victorian gas-making technology might solve this problem. About
>> >> 1860, they made gas by burning coke till it got white hot, then
>> >> shutting off the air and blowing steam through the mass of coke. This
>> >> made CO and hydrogen, which was distributed as town gas.
>> >>
>> >> "For carbon, we can use municipal waste, which is 40% carbon. For
>> >> heat, renewable electricity from wind or solar. 4 MWh will vaporize a
>> >> ton of carbon in steam, making about 11 MWh of syngas. The syngas can
>> >> be stored and then burned in a combined cycle turbine, giving over 6
>> >> MWh of electricity.
>> >>
>> >> "This scales to a rather large size. LA makes 100,000 tons per day, of
>> >> which 40% is carbon. Run 1/3rd of the day, the gasifiers could absorb
>> >> 20 GW, producing 240 GWh of syngas. This sounds like a lot until you
>> >> realize California is putting in 13 GW over the canals."
>> >>
>> >> According to LinkedIn, almost 1000 people read it, including people in
>> >> the utility industry.  There were no comments except my comment,
>> >> giving my email.  No emails.
>> >>
>> >> Is the idea so strange that people can't understand?  75 years ago,
>> >> the US made town gas from coke at a similar scale.  Is invoking
>> >> chemical reactions from the Victorian era simply rejected?
>> >>
>> >> Any thoughts on the results?  I am mystified.
>> >>
>> >> Keith
>> >>
>> >> PS March 24, I am giving a talk on this topic to the local IEEE
>> >> chapter.  If it is not closed, I will let you know.
>> >> --
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