THE PRELIMINARY PROJECT OF THE RIVER TOW VESSEL POWERED BY A PYROLYSIS GAS GENERATOR POWER PLANT

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the one of many options of a practical application of the pyrolysis gas generator, which is its installation on the typical river-class tow vessel. The essence of the idea is the installation of the pyrolysis gas power plant that includes gas generator, gas filtering system, power plant and electric engines that would drive the vessel. The gas generator of the inverted type is able to create flammable gas out of either wood, or charcoal, or so-called RDF (the RDF should be taken of specific proportion of its ingredients, corresponding to the ecologic laws of the operator’s country), thus, allowing the vessel to be powered by typical industrial and household wastes, delivered from all the city.  Since such types of ships are mostly used within the range of a city and more often even within ports only, the fuel for the vessel would always be available in sufficient volumes. The vessel itself should be able to reach the necessary velocity (taking into a count the flow velocity of the river) and also be able to push the certain barge or another vessel in order to do some practical tasks. This vessel will be independent from fossil fuels and it could be powered even by wood chops, collected in any forest near the river or by a big pack of charcoal, purchased in the supermarket. The presented calculations show some possible technical solutions for the given task, taking into a count the lowest possible price and availability of components. However, there is no limit in pyrolysis technology improvement and the project of this vessel can be improved as well depending on the available funding.