Out of curiosity what is the feeling about the future of the industry out there. I have friends who have been out and it sounds brutal even now. The tarsands only make sense in a high cost oil world which seems to be gone as every third world country pumps it as fast as possible to avoid their own financial collapse. I wonder if it ends up being a stranded resource myself. We should have been shipping it out east to our own refineries twenty years ago but that’s another story. Someday provinces will stop bickering like little children.
Best regards, David Baillie
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Dependent on the project . The bigger established players like a Suncor or syncrude can be profitable at $35, but most of the projects need at least $65. Can’t say good or bad but a lot of us are starving and even after busting my hump for the last 20 years , educated, skilled …Can’t find a job at even Walmart…lost my welding business and seriously looking at Trump land , he seems to care about jobs
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Tesla is looking for skilled labor to build batteries at the new factory in Nevada. It is warm enough there you can ride your bike year around probably…
Moving isn’t easy but sometimes it is what you have to do to find work. I switched jobs about every 5 years myself mostly because I worked at small companies. They have a tendency to come and go around here even in high tech stuff.
Seriously I think if I was a good welder looking for work I would find the nearest farm community and start going from farm to farm. Farms almost always have a need for good welder to fix something. Look for the people like me running old equipment. It isn’t fun to fix but those of us who need it and can’t weld well have to pay somone. I happen to be lucky that I have a good friend who welds for a living. But a good welder who can also look over something and fix it so it doesn’t break again is hard to find on a farm.
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I think a global economic cycle is bigger then any single country can counter even if he’s “Huge”. All I’ll say on that one for fear of breaking the no politics rule. China slowed down oil prices went down end of story. Things are brutal here too. Rural Ontario has been hammered flat for 20 years.
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I played around with coal for a few years. My dislike was that it is on the acidic side and tends to rot/rust stuff out. Plus it is expensive to buy and I cannot grow it. I was using anthracite coal to boot. In the past all town gas was made with coal in addition to a lot of pollution. But now a days the tar pollution could be cleaned up. The other thing that I hated was the fine ash dust.
Putting coal aside, the down side of a forums is that someone itching with an idea will get shoot down possibly without knowing all the fine details.
Good luck.
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Welcome Craig, Come on down we can use skilled workers here, there is a shortage of welders because for the last 40 years kids have been pushed to go to college, but not trade schools. Here in this area of PA. WV Ohio natural gas has gone crazy, companies are all looking for any skilled workers.
Sorry about your business, but you are nuts to even think about coal, when Alberta is giving rebates. The Rebate Program Will Pay 75 Cents Per Installed Watt, Up to 30 Percent of Cost.
Sounds like a good business installing solar to me…
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Here is a video where they are taking cardboard and making briquettes out of cardboard with a homemade screw press. Then the next one is a commercial unit doing something similar but with round baled straw. If you are in a city, you might be able to put a “recycle” bin somewhere and people will fill it up for you. A lot of businesses will use them, to save money in trash disposal costs.
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I DON’T FUCKING BELIEVE THIS. CHRIS SHUT DOWN THE BULL SHIT CONVERSATION ABOUT CLIMATE WARMING AND YOU GUYS HAVE ALREADY STARTED IT UP AGAIN UNDER FLUIDIZE REACTOR. I DON’T KNOW WHAT CLIMATE CHANGE HAS TO DO WITH FLUIDIZE REACTORS AND FRANKLY IF I HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU ARGUE BACK AND FORTH ABOUT A SUBJECT THAT THE WORLD SCIENTISTS CAN’T AGREE ON. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW. IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE SO MUCH IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO SHARE ON CLIMATE CHANGE, GO GET YOUR OWN WEB SIGHT. T;HIS IS DRIVE ON WOOD!!! CHRIS IS LENIENT ALLOWING ELECTRICITY GENERATION ON THE DRIVING PART. SO BUZZ OFF!!! TOM C strong text
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Easy, Tom. Leave the moderating to me.
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Getting back on track…
We (mostly me), were discussing different combustion methods for otherwise difficult materials in Strawman’s thread. I posted links to some info on fluidized bed combustion and gasification, on the face of it, it looks quite promising. As has been mentioned above in the thread, I would forsee slag issues with coal, and likely corrosion over time. Agreed, Alberta coal is amongst the cleanest regarding heavy metals. The slagging would probably require extracting and pulverizing the fluidized bed material to sort out the clinkers, or continual replacement, heat exchange, etc. It works quite well on stream plant scale, but sounds like a real mechanical and technical challenge for home use.
Doesn’t Alberta have a sunset on the use of coal anyways? I believe most Canadian provinces have already banned it, or will imminently, so it’s a bit of a lost cause to invest in. I know Manitoba has already done so to meet carbon targets, and also probably keep people from fumigating their neighbourhoods… 
Edit:
Relatively low in heavy metals isn’t necessarily so great either, when we are talking about a system in a residential area, without any scrubbing. I don’t need any extra exposure to mercury, or cadmium, or whatever, especially when research keeps cutting safe exposure limits in half every 10 years or so.
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They are shutting down our coal power plants but we can still use coal., i can buy it for $40/ton. Also got family who work the coal mines in southern Sask ( lower grade coal ), which we can get for free. They actually gasifier their coal to make briquets, powers the whole operation…Thanks for the links Tait !
I just find it ironic that you want to “screw the man”, yet you are supporting the very man you are trying to screw since they own all the FF reserves. In other words, you aren’t screwing the man at all, you are supporting “the man” your money.
In an urban area for cheap fuel I would be contacting a nearby cabinet making shop, or the like, probably get that fuel for free, and greatly minimize hauling. Fluidization will also work very well with wood chips, possibly better, or even in a FEMA or Mukunda type downdraft gasifier. I am guessing that the availability of even woodchips in your area is better than the case for coal. The best thing I can say for coal is that it won’t get wet, or ever degrade. But you would probably want some kind of shed or hopper anyways, so that’s not a major factor.
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Hey Chris ! Can you please shut this thread down…I’m sorry for ever starting it. Tomc is right this should be about gasifiers, or thread related topics but there too many fucking idiots around here , opinionated jerks, name calling , arguing etc . If you don’t im done with this forum.
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I haven’t seen any name calling beside TOMC and from you. All I have seen is a bunch of ideas to help you get back on your feet which is a very positive input.
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Is this a thermal application or are you trying to fuel an engine? Why fluidized reactor, small particles? Soft or hard coal?
Since the OP requested, and the original question has been answered, I will indeed close the thread. However I will make two points first.
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The discussion of coal gasification is not against the rules, or even off topic. It’s not our primary focus for various reasons stated, but those same reasons are useful to people who find this site later. This is why I didn’t shut it down earlier, there was no wrongdoing here.
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If someone doesn’t want to “listen to you argue back and forth” then they can simply… stop reading the thread. Also if someone is “done with this forum” they are welcome to leave - quietly. Don’t try to stir up trouble on your way out.
Some useful reading:
Thread closed.
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