Introduction - Biomass Gasification, Pyrolysis and Torrefaction - page 20

The history of gasification may be divided into four periods and are as
described as follows:

1850 1940: During this early stage, the gas made from coal was used

mainly for lighting homes and streets and for heating. Lighting helped
along the Industrial Revolution by extending working hours in factories,
especially on short winter days. The invention of the electric bulb
ca. 1900 reduced the need of gas for lighting, but its use for heating and
cooking continued. All major commercial gasification technologies
(Winkler's fluidized-bed gasifier in 1926, Lurgi's pressurized moving-
bed gasifier in 1931, and Koppers-Totzek's entrained-flow gasifier) made
their debut during this period. With the discovery of natural gas, the need
for gasification of coal or biomass declined.
1940 1975: This period saw gasification enter two fields of application as

synthetic fuels: internal combustion engine and chemical synthesis into oil
and other process chemicals. In the Second World War, Allied bombing
of Nazi oil refineries and oil supply routes greatly diminished the crude oil
supply that fueled Germany's massive war machinery. This forced
Germany to synthesize oil from coal-gas using the Fischer Tropsch

(see Eq. (1.13) ) and Bergius processes [nC (n 1)H 2 - C n H 2n 1 2 ].

1 1

Chemicals and aviation fuels were also produced from coal.

During the Second World War, many cars and trucks in Europe operated
on coal or biomass gasified in onboard gasifiers ( Figure 1.4 ). During this
period, over a million small gasifiers were built primarily for transportation.
The end of the Second World War and the availability of abundant oil from
the Middle East eliminated the need for gasification for transportation and
chemical production.
The advent of plentiful natural gas in the 1950s dampened the develop-
ment of coal or biomass gasification, but syngas production from natural gas
and naphtha by steam reforming increased, especially to meet the growing
demand for fertilizer.

2000: The third phase in the history of gasification began after the
Yom Kippur War, which triggered the 1973 oil embargo. On October 15,
1973, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) banned oil exports to the United States and other western coun-
tries, which were at that time heavily reliant on oil from the Middle East.
This shocked the western economy and gave a strong impetus to the
development of alternative technologies like gasification in order to
reduce dependence on imported oil.
Besides providing gas for heating, gasification found major commercial
use in chemical feedstock production, which traditionally came from petro-
leum. The subsequent drop in oil price, however, dampened this push
for gasification, but some governments, recognizing the need for a cleaner

1975