Pyrolysis - Biomass Gasification, Pyrolysis and Torrefaction - page 149

FIGURE 5.3 Abraham Gesner, inventor of kerosene and his kerosene lamp.
Abraham Gesner, a physician practicing in Halifax, Canada ( Figure 5.3 ),
began searching for a cleaner-burning mineral oil to replace the sooty
oil from whales, the primary fuel used during those times on the eastern
seaboard of the United States and in Atlantic Canada. By carefully distilling
a few lumps of coal at 427 C, purifying the product through treatment with
sulfuric acid and lime, and then redistilling it, Gesner obtained several
ounces of a clear liquid (Gesner, 1861). When this liquid was burned in an
oil lamp similar to the one shown in Figure 5.3 , it produced a clear bright
light that was much superior to the smoky light produced by the burning of
whale oil. Dr. Gesner called his fuel kerosene—from the Greek words for wax
and oil. Later, in the 1850s, when crude oil began to flow in Pennsylvania and
Ontario, Gesner extracted petro-based kerosene from that.
The invention of kerosene, the first transportable liquid fuel, brought
about a revolution in lighting that touched and is still the case in even the
remotest parts of the world. It also had a major positive impact on the ecol-
ogy. For example, in 1846, more than 730 ships hunted whales to meet the
huge demand for whale oil. In just a few years after the invention of kero-
sene, the hunt was reduced to only a few ships, saving whales from possible
extinction.
5.2 PYROLYSIS
Pyrolysis involves rapid heating of biomass or other feed in the absence of
air or oxygen at a maximum temperature, known as the pyrolysis temperature,
and holding it there for a specified time to produce noncondensable gases,