Thanks to sean and wallace for the coke making videos.
i use coal coke when I do forge welding and have still got about a ton of the “4 X 6” size that I break up as needed.
Change of subject, a bit:
Back to charcoal- Somebody asked how charcoal was made in “the old days”. I don’t know how “old” 1960 is, but here is a pretty good look from the US forest service on how it was done back then, and earlier:
Back in the mid 1970’s this booklet was free, on the bookstand at most Ag extension offices in Wisconsin.
The charcoal making pdf worked for me just now. is that the site that you found to be down for maintenance?
I see that whole link address wasn’t posted by this forum’s system, but it did work anyway. I just tried to repost the complete link but I got a message saying the i already posted it.
I think there was a commercially wood gasifier for cars in England during WW2 that only used one fuel, wood cubes all from the same wood cut to the same size , I am not sure if they were polished or had tax stamps on each one .
I was only thinking of using Blackwood technology black pellets and they would have to only provide pellets of a specific size . for the Freightliner
Blackwood said their enterprise would fail if they continued to be the only company to produce these pellets . In order for their pellets to succeed they would have to have universal availability .
What is the energy density of the torreified pellets? The son of a friend of mine says that semi tractors that run on CNG have pretty short ranges already. I thought he said something under 100 miles between fuel stops. So he went on to say that CNG fueled trucks are only good for local deliveries. By the way, I haven’t seen any LNG pumps at gas stations in our area, but I do see a few CNG setups.
My point: If CNG makes for local use only, then pellets or even charcoal would limit range even more.
***I did look at the Freightliner link. I note that they said:
“Cleanest engine available when using renewable
natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions”
I didn’t know that natural gas was a “renewable” energy source.
Dumb Me.
I would suggest a rotating kiln for torrefaction. But it would be nice to have a purpose for the excess energy produced- space heating seems a good fit. Graded wood chips, or pellets.
I think the green reference is related to the hydrogen content. Natural gas comes out ahead of all alternatives when analyzed this way for bang for buck, and emissions.
Anyways, a highly engineered CNG engine of that scale and robustness will definitely be a boon for syngas.
Also, regarding limited range on CNG, no doubt true due to the nature of the fuel. But wood is more energy dense, so will compare favourably.
blackwood said to contact them regarding specifics about their black pellets tortified pellets . They have not posted any news in two years . So they may no longer be in operation . These pellets were meant to be co fired with coal . Or that was the market they were looking to . The UK bought a huge amount of wood pellets to burn with coal to meet emission standards . I think this practice has stopped . Now they are adding scrubbed sewer gas to natural gas and calling it , Renewable natural gas .
So you would have a Truck driver and a Fireman , Like on a steam locomotive you would have the Engineer running the train and the Fireman shoveling coal into fire box .
My fuel level switch keeps getting stuck , breaking off the left hand metric screw on auger motor , meaning I have to turn auger by hand with 3/8 ratchet . Kind of hard to do that driving down the road at 65 mph .
