You’re right, at work we use super heated steam on-line to dry the junk mail paper we produce. I guess in a genny/chunk-bucket application it’s all about engine vs bucket size - not to fill the bucket up with condensation.
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Yup with dry heat you can case harden the wood and actually lock the moisture in; instead of drying it.
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Not sure this is a company . A group of engineers who have built wood power plants .
The best fuel I made was in 55 gallon drum with fire underneath . I had so much steam I thought I was making the fuel wetter then dryer . Syncraft uses one gasifier flowing into another gasifier .
I remember a huge failed gasifier that did produce woodgas and did produce charcoal but also had water pouring out of it .
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Well I have been making quite a bit of charcoal lately mostly because when I’m splitting my firewood some of the knotty pieces end up looking like a badly carved turkey carcass so I just throw them in the barrel. Haven’t taken the time to grind or size it and just sticking it in trash bags sitting just folded over so probably picking up moisture. Before I do anything else with it I’m going to put some window screen in the chunk dryer I made with the rocket heater and dry it that way for a while before I process it. Hopefully I find enough sealed containers to store it in. Still going to pump that exhaust into a can filled with wood or char. Any decrease in generator noise is a plus in my book.
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I remember years ago I read in Popular Mechanics about a guy that buried a 55 gal drum filled with 6 inch rocks and sent his noisy generator exhaust near the bottom and with a outlet at the top.
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Well I noticed I have some motorcycle mufflers hanging in a shed. I’ll try one of those first. They are off a Honda so they must be good right?
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If you really want quiet. Dig a pit like for a well pump and put that noisy rattling thing in there. Wire a remote start button and you mixer above ground.
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Well if I ever figure out what you guys are talking about as far as charging with automotive alternators and BMS, charge controllers, what not, I’m still wanting to use the four cylinder Honda Civic engine I have as a power source. Noise problem solved, plus hopefully enough power to run a compressor. My musings about combo engine/compressor was mostly mental masturbation. In any event I still want to end up with some water cooled engine.
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Hello!
This sounds like a very good idea !
Do you have any picture ir diagram?
Here un Venezuela we know nothing about Wood gas.i want yo be the first in It and make the simplest and cheapest gasifier to start.
By now i am reading here and there
In some papers and found a lot of excelent ideas innovadoras this forum.
Thank you for reading!
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I would look into bamboo .
Unless you have something very specific for your area that you need to use . I have silver maple .
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Generator exhaust for drying wood fuel has been in my thoughts for the last couple of weeks, so funny to me that it comes up here. Beyond simple drying, engine exhaust should be hot enough to torrefy the wood fuel.
I’ve reviewed some research papers on gasification and torrefaction. The tests showed an 80% reduction in tars for torrefied wood vs dry, untorrefied wood. That would leave more tar than charcoal but maybe little enough tar that engine grade wood gas is still easy (vs untreated wood). The papers also suggested that torrefaction can still work in the presence of some oxygen, something that is avoided in the textbook process.
So if the temperature is there for torrefaction and some oxygen doesn’t ruin the process, could you use exhaust directly? That would be convenient for sure! The water vapor in the exhaust was my last concern and it’s a big one.
I have a solution for dropping out the water vapor out of the exhaust but it’s bulky. My focus is on stationary use cases so bulky can still work but direct exhaust would be much simpler.
If anyone has links I’m happy to explore some rabbit holes. My expectation is that water vapor is fine and maybe even beneficial as long as the exhaust gas mixture is well above condensing temperatures. In fact steam drying is common and steam torrefaction is a thing as well.
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I was wondering if torrefied pellets exist . I found this
Whapmagoostui Cree Nation in Quebec is located above treeline and thus does not have access to a local biomass. It uses black, or torrefied, wood pellets as fuel. The torrefied pellets are produced by Airex in Trois-Rivières, Que., and transported via winter access roads once a year in half-full containers (due to weight restrictions), which are then stored in a warehouse for up to two years. Both white and black wood pellets were tested and it was found that the black pellets stored better with no degradation during long-term storage
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Size scale matters in these things.
A BIG mill or manufacturing plant and the statioary engines exhaust in sheer numbers of BTU’s and kCal is large.
A home stand a-lone system engine? Not so much so.
And the actual traveling vehicle guys with their V-8’s woodgasssed? Oh, they have the exhaust energy alright. But size, weight and added complexity is their set backs.
Ain’t easy going from idealizing noodling to practical useable.
Why I have just said from discovery that fuel bits input baskets open frame engine gen head hung simply gets the job done.
Ha! Hand decisions labor.
Not the automation and electronics-fing most lust after.
With a Good Cook, with any meat, you will eat.
S.U.
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Oh yeah it will work, Ive caught fuel on fire a few times. The issue is you make plumes of smoke if you take it that far. If you could figure out what to do with the smoke this would be a great solution. But I have not figured that one out yet.
I think the best way would use some sort of feeder at the level where the exhaust feeds in. Heat to a point to get the fuel to a desired grade and then feed it out into a catch container;; its done. The rest of the exhaust heat then flows along to preheat the rest of the fuel. If we can consistently produce dry fuel on demand then you have a viable system. This also simplifies your gasifier build as you no longer will combat hopper moisture issues.
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Matt as you’ve experienced wood bits lose weight as dried down.
Use this as your triggering parameter. This is the decision point in manual baskets shifting.
Ha! Ha! I think we can assume a gravity constant. (joke) EMP and CME and Polar Shift event proof.
S.U.
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I could try to make this work . I have so much concrete panels from taking down silos I can build anything . I had a dozen 55 gallon drums and lost all but one . bought one 35 gallon drum for cost of 3 , 55 gallon drums . making baskets sure just need to weave 5/8 steel rod have plenty
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As fuel sounds good. However, here is not widely available. We have instead a variety of tropical wood.
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Your trees have more of a right to live then you do . Do you have any hydroelectric power . Maybe you can use that with out complaints .
Category IV protected areas usually help to protect, or restore: 1) flora species of international, national or local importance; 2) fauna species of international, national or local importance including resident or migratory fauna; and/or 3) habitats. The size of the area varies but can often be relatively small; this is however not a distinguishing feature. Management will differ depending on need. Protection may be sufficient to maintain particular habitats and/or species. However, as category IV protected areas often include fragments of an ecosystem, these areas may not be self-sustaining and will require regular and active management interventions to ensure the survival of specific habitats and/or to meet the requirements of particular species. A number of approaches are suitable:
- Protection of particular species : to protect particular target species, which will usually be under threat (e.g., one of the last remaining populations);
- Protection of habitats : to maintain or restore habitats, which will often be fragments of ecosystems;
- Active management to maintain target species : to maintain viable populations of particular species, which might include for example artificial habitat creation or maintenance (such as artificial reef creation), supplementary feeding or other active management systems;
- Active management of natural or semi-natural ecosystems : to maintain natural or semi-natural habitats that are either too small or too profoundly altered to be self-sustaining, e.g., if natural herbivores are absent they may need to be replaced by livestock or manual cutting; or if hydrology has been altered this may necessitate artificial drainage or irrigation;
- Active management of culturally-defined ecosystems: to maintain cultural management systems where these have a unique associated biodiversity. Continual intervention is needed because the ecosystem has been created or at least substantially modified by management. The primary aim of management is maintenance of associated biodiversity.
Active management means that the overall functioning of the ecosystem is being modified by e.g., halting natural succession, providing supplementary food or artificially creating habitats: i.e., management will often include much more than just addressing threats, such as poaching or invasive species, as these activities take place in virtually all protected areas in any category and are therefore not diagnostic. Category IV protected areas will generally be publicly accessible.
If only one account exist it is only account I can give . I can not say I know more or saw more then he did .
A very interesting and important discussion, imho. Perhaps some of you that really know about this could put something about this in the thread Wood Drying Methods?
Rindert
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