Arvid even does wood gas power slides with tractors!!! His stuff rocks!
Stephen
lol… thanks buddy, you’re systems rock too…
Does spinning wheel in the mud and sinking to the frame on woodgas count as a power slide? 
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close enough for me David…
Charles,
You’ve been told this a number of times now, but it bears repeating. You won’t gain any traction or respect around here until you start building something. There’s lots of pie-in-the-sky ideas floating around, and if you want to prove yours is NOT one of them, then we want to see it in action. Build this machine you speak of. Forget the high-budget parts. Just DO something right now, with what you’ve got. That’s what we’re all here for. Walk the talk.
I see no point in further discussion on this thread until you show us some progress.
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OK two years has passed. Are there any new thoughts on the Carbon Negative Combine Harvester? I’ve continued to push this idea to any professor or environmentalist I come across in my readings. It’s surprising how many foundations and such have all sorts of ways to donate or stay informed or get involved but often there is no way to introduce a new idea. Information only flows one way. This is a bump of this topic to the top for a reconsideration. Forget the messenger and just reconsider the message if you will. No I haven’t welded together any prototypes. This project is going to take quite a crew.
Charles,
Actually yes. The University of Maine(me) has taken up the challenge. That is why I got into wood gas in the first place…besides unemployment at the time. I sponsored a senior design project for the Mechanical Engineering Technology department and now I can make .50 od X 2.0 long grass/leaf/ag residue pellets. Hopefully this will allow the ash to blow through and not clinker.
I also picked up a Ford 8N which will get converted when I am sure it is safe. I do like the old girl.
Wednesday will be our first test of large ag residue fuel on my 4kW generator
Everything is moving at the speed of money.
Stephen
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They are producing jetfuel from a variety of sources using FT, and favoring the heavier alkanes, you make diesel the same way.You can also use ethanol as feedstock. There is a fairly big push from the airline industry. It is a bit different angle then steve is taking for sure.
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How about straight biodiesel?
Use the combine to harvest sunflowers, safflower, camelina or canola, press oil with a screw press (hopefully powered on wood or charcoal, or biodiesel ), and then produce biodiesel from the oil to operate the combine. That should be truly carbon neutral.
Everyone has their own reasons…$, intrigue, independence, carbon neutrality, impress the neighbors, fun, “because I can”…Personally, I want to use the technology to produce electricity for hospitals and such in remote places of the world that have no access to petroleum.
Assumptions are dangerous…
That’s what makes the world go round…The only way to disseminate a new tech is to sell the idea to the end user that he will be benefited financially. Usually this requires that the technology actually be financially beneficial to him—though there are a few suckers out there (fortunate for many multi level marketing companies). I don’t know if this tech will do that or not. But you won’t get the idea sold to Iowa farmers based on the future dread of what many of them consider “questionable” theories of global warming.
Same is true in my area of operation------introducing “appropriate technology” to developing nations/people. Have to prove it first, make money with it, live with it personally in front of the people, depend on it, demonstrate that it works long term contextually----then a FEW will accept it and prove it to the rest of the field. Only alternative to that process is to subsidize mightily. That usually doesn’t work out so well.
For better or worse, $ makes people develop new things—or the perceived promise of it. There are some do-gooders out there who spend their lives attempting to develop things for the betterment of humanity—God bless them. But they usually aren’t the ones with the pockets to get big things done without lining up for the grant money. There are notable exceptions…I would cite Dr. Larry with his rocket stove as an possible example…
The general idea of producer gas from crop residue is an intriguing one. I like anything closer to home, but I don’t really care about sequestration. I have used bio-char on small scale garden with what I believe to be noticeable benefits, but have little experience with large scale farming. Is the conversion of so much bio-matter into char a great improvement over just direct composting that same matter? I don’t know the answer.
Also, are you sure there will be that much matter to make the required fuel and also make significant amounts of “beneficial” bio-char.? In developing contexts we are constantly teaching people not to burn their crop residues for fuel (cooking) because it is more beneficial as a soil amendment. I don’t know the numbers, but it tends to flow against my grain to burn crop residue instead of using it to amend the soil. But you are trying to do both. Maybe someone has numbers, I have my doubts that there is enough crop residue in the system to both amend the soil and fuel a giant machine to process it.
Also, long term, there is probably a limit to the benefit of the bio-char agriculturally in a given location. The soil needs more than just char. Fibrous organic matter is also necessary for soil health. Hydraulics, etc…It’s probably not an immediate concern, but eventually I think using your crop residue that way will create another problem with the soil… But what do I know…?
. Someone with a passion for it should do it and see what happens. But I guess that won’t be me until I can find a way to combine pine trees…
Good luck with your project…
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Thanks Billy North for your detailed response. I read that there is a carbon deficit in most agricultural soils in USA. There are growing methods for increasing carbon in soil but bio char would also do this. I am confident there are plenty of btu’s in ag waste if you can run a fleet off of the biofuel you could make from the crop. Carbon neutral is good but carbon negative is better and will make it possible to take carbon out of atmosphere not just prevent putting it there. Glad this topic has been revisited and some of you obviously have read much of it.
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You can do that, but you get more for the oil as a food product then you pay for diesel. It also has some issues with having to change injectors and such. The gen2 biofuels, which are essentially Fischer-tropsch process on the syngas from pyrolysis are drop in replacements, and are getting to be more cost competitive. Redrock biofuels uses wood waste for jetfuel, which isn’t -nearly- enough to even cover that sector, but it takes time to improve the viability of the technology and build up a business around it.
Coolplanet is doing biochar for farm fields, but mostly vegetable crops in like arizona at this point. I haven’t heard much about the fuel part of the business, and they may have cut it. I don’t know.
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I was going to go the bio diesel route back in 05 when I bought my duramax. I even had a source of waste cooking oil at the time a friend was a manager at one of the fast food places. Anyway bio diesel is a crazy good cleaner. So I was warned by several truck drivers don’t put it into am old system or you will be chasing plugged lines and fuel filters and pumps until ALL the gunk is out of the tank. A couple of them got it at a truck stop and didn’t enjoy the results.
But more importantly my mother was a chemistry teacher for years. When I was going to make bio diesel I asked her about the process and the gas they warn you about. She said yes that is mustard gas used in WWI chemical warfare. So I decided that I didn’t need to mess around with any process at home that might make mustard gas. With the right diesel motors the old diesel rabbits are one you can do a pre heater process to heat up vegetable oil and get it thin enough to flow through the injector. I would take that approach if I wanted to burn vegetable oil. But it won’t work with a 05 duramax my injectors and pump are just too fine I have the finest 1 micron fuel filter on the market and it plugs up all too fast…
Sorry, I was trying earlier when I posted this to remember this guy’s name…I finally remembered today while pulling the gasifier out of my truck…I really appreciate his marketing point—the law of diffusion of innovation at 11:10 in the video…
It has helped me to understand some of my own successes and failures at trying to “spread” technological ideas in the development world.
Please provide a citation for that. I have a book on the subject, and a brief search of the internet shows nothing like that information.
Biodiesel isn’t simple, it’s a chemical process, involving methanol and sodium or potassium hydroxide. It will produce byproducts, the wash water and the methanol contaminates and should be extracted. The methanol requires significant PPE and carries environmental and ignition hazards. Sodium or potassium methoxide pose an auto combustion risk especially as a solid.
Glycerine may be what you were recalling, If not removed from the crude biodiesel and burnt at lower temperature it is said to release acrolein, “a very hazardous gas”. But also present in French fries etc, from the bringing of fat to the smoking point.
The solvent effects are correct, said to be able to remove paint.
Garry it was about 12 years ago I looked into the process. But from what I remember you mix lye with methanol and the books all say to mix it in a well ventilate space because a toxic gas might be produced.
I found a process that uses 98% pure sulfuric acid in an additional step early on as I said it was 12 years ago. Anyway i asked my mother who was a high school chemistry teacher for here entire working life if the sulfuric acid process was in fact safer because I know how dangerous pure sulfuric acid is. She read both processes and said yes because it uses far less lye and when you mix the lye the toxic gas they say might be produced is mustard gas from WWI. At which point I decided I didn’t need to make bio diesel. If you watch dirty jobs when Mike Row makes bio diesel he comments that at one point you need to be in a well ventilated space because the gas is toxic. That is the same step I am taking about it is a very dangerous gas that is produced. I wish I could provide you more information but all I remember is mom telling me that the process that use less of the lye mix was safer and that the gas they are talking about was used in WWI chemical warfare. So I decided at that point discretion was the better part of valor and canceled my plans to do bio diesel.
I would really look into buring the vegetable oil straight with a preheater. The way I remember it you start on diesel run on preheated vegetable oil and then switch back to diesel to flush the lines before you shut down. That system doesn’t require that you do any more then filter the oil and setup the second tank in the car. There are kits for it out there here is one site that sells them.
Oh and with the preheating process you don’t end up with the byproducts of bio diesel production to deal with. I liked that process much better and might try it in one of my tractors.
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I have never heard of a process involving sulphuric acid, sounds potentially hazardous. I think the general precaution about PPE, ventilation, etc, is to mitigate the risks from the caustic lye, and the methanol.
I have heard of systems running on diesel to start and warm up, then switching over to straight vegetable oil. Rudolph Diesel’s first engine ran on peanut oil. I hear that coking of injectors and piston is likely running on straight veggie oil, but it will depend on the specific engine. Added diesel or methanol might mitigate some of those issues.
I knew somone who did the preheating system on a 80s VW rabbit. He claimed it ran perfect for years that way. I think the coking is only a problem if you don’t preheat the oil because it is too thick to flow through the system. It is my understanding that the issues come down to viscosity and at the correct temperature the old injectors will flow it without any problems. The only person I knew who had done it was the one person I mentioned with the rabbit and he said he always switched back to diesel about 5 miles from his house. Maybe that had alot to do with not getting into trouble.
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Garry I had the same reaction that is why I asked somone who knows alot more about chemistry then I do and when she said no the sulfuric acid is safer then the gas produced by mixing lye I decided that was all I needed to know. Because like you commented the acid makes you cringe and it is safer.