Technical Note SB42: Combustible gas: dryer systems hazards and best practices

Workplaces that manufacture engineered wood products or wood pellets may be at risk of fire, deflagration or explosion due to the buildup of combustible off-gas within dryers and associated drying systems during the process of drying wood fibre.

According to EnggCyclopedia, “Syngas is a mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen which is the product of oxygen gasification of organic material such as biomass.  After clean up, syngas can be used to produce organic molecules such as synthetic natural gas (SNG-methane (CH4)) or liquid biofuel such as synthetic diesel. Syngas is the term generally used for a mixture of combustible gases.  So typically a syngas mixture will constitute only of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, with possibility of having carbon dioxide content sometimes. If the gasification product contains significant amount of non-combustible gases such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide, the term used for such mixtures is ‘Producer Gas’.”  The heating value of syngas varies from 11 to 18MJ/m3  depending upon its constituents which is about 10 per cent of the heating value of Propane or Natural gas.