UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
,ivnifl1\, 
DEPARTMENT BULLETJN No. 1203 
Washington, D. C. 
November 30, 1923 
EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTION OF STRAW GAS. 
By Haeey E. Roethe. Associate Development Engineer. Bureau of Chemistry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Straw-gas producing plant 1 
Operation of experimental plant 4 
Results of experimental work 4 
Probable annual consumption of gas 
on average northern farm 5 
Liquefving and compressing straw 
gasl . 6 
Straw gas for automotive power 6 
Page. 
Use of baled straw 6 
Value and utilization of by-products- 6 
Impracticability of experimental 
plant 7 
Improvement of experimental equip- 
ment 9 
Impracticability of destructive dis- 
tillation of straw and similar ma- 
terial on farms 10 
INTRODUCTION. 
In 1921 the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department 
of Agriculture undertook a study of the production of gas from straw 
and similar material now often wasted on American farms. 1 
Only one of the types of equipment available for straw-gas produc- 
tion, and that not the most improved one. and only a few of the many 
kinds of material which may be carbonized were used in these tests. 
The experiments, however, were extensive enough to show that the 
type of equipment employed in these tests is not practicable as a farm 
unit, even though the gas produced can be satisfactorily used for 
heating, lighting, and stationary power purposes. 
STRAW-GAS PRODUCING PLANT. 
Straw-gas equipment was installed at the Arlington Experimental 
Farm. Va. It consisted of a cylindrical steel retort, a steel scrubber 
and condenser combined, and a steel water-seal gasometer (fiofs. 
1.2,3). 
The retort. 3 feet in diameter and 8 feet in length, with a volu- 
metric capacity of approximately 50 cubic feet, was equipped with a 
central return flue and rested on its horizontal axis. Walls and an 
arch of brick retained the heat produced in the lire box beneath the 
retort. Eight gas burners (1-inch pipes, each equipped with a single 
row of holes, and a mixing valve), arranged transversely in the fire 
1 Roethe. H. E. The Production of Gas bv the Destructive Distillation of Straw. 
•. vol. 52 <1920), pp. 853-854. 
61633°— 23 
