I know this forum is mainly for automotive usage of wood gas, but since heating season is coming, we also need wood gas for furnaces and boilers.
A grid tied wood gasifier has the convenience of:
(1) draft flow control using inducer fan
(2) inner temperature sensing and control using electric igniter / heating elements
(3) being able to have water/steam in addition to air intake
How can we fully exploit these conveniences to build better gasifiers than automotive? Are we able to use bigger chunks of wood, or a broader choice of fuel?
See my latest post that is exactly what I am developing. This stove is designed to yield a daily allotment of char pellets for an off grid charcoal gasifier. So this goes a bit farther than your proposal as it takes all the work out of producing charcoal for an off grid gasifier for power.
The intent is combine with solar and use the char coal production for fuel to power, to top off batteries as needed. This stove has a dedicated cook top making it EPA exempt. It also has a hot water coil revision to produce hot water.
There is a chemistry issue I don’t see you mentioning: wood gasification has two stages,
stage 1 is endothermic pyrolysis: wood → C + CO + H2, no air is theoretically needed with electric heating.
Stage 2 is town gas production: C+O2–>CO (exothermic), you need air intake for this reaction to happen.
Your controller need to recognize which stage the system is in and add air or heat accordingly.
The stove has a three stage air intake system. Primary combustion to oxidize the fuel, then two other modes for second stage full burn. This stove is not ah engine grade gasifier it is for heat, hot water, cooking and to produce char pellets. The later is what the third stage is for to by pass the grate to keep the char pellets in tact for later harvesting.
You use those pellets for a char coal gasifier plant for engine running. You should never ever use a gasifier indoors ever unless you have a reactor that will not produce combustion gases into the hopper. When you open the hopper you let those gases out inside your home and if it light off it can burn your house down. This is where I differ from anyone else, my reactors do not emit gases into the hopper. Many here on the forum have seen this gasifeir a few years ago.
I guess your reactor has the same design with a pellet stove, using a draft inducer fan to create a relative vacuum in the combustion chamber, so the air can only flow from hopper to combustion chamber?
You do realize I build some of the most sophisticated controllers in this space right? No need to school me on this chemistry Ive been building these machines for over 10 years and am one of the most developed companies in existence.
I have some $50 thousand spent on such system . Allpowerlabs grid tie power pallet , $ 35 thousand . $ 15 thousand on grid tie inverter , battery , Three phase battery charger was only $160
Allpowerlabs grid tie had no approvals and does not work . I have given up on this ALLPOWERLABS
I am building small charcoal gasifier for dc generator to power solar inverter overnight .
Allpowerlabs sized wood-chips was not possible for me to dry chips enough or maybe this process just does not work . I was sold version 8.0.0 prototype fail . works with walnut shells only
I should be out cutting down trees that are getting in power line going to my solar panels .
I used trees shading solar panels to fire retort . I used wood-chips undersized for allpowerlabs to make charcoal .
Your not the only one and APL is not the oniy manufacturer to fail there customers.
Now you get why Ive gone to standardized fuels You can not put fuel product in the hands of the user and expect linear results or for them to match what you have done in a lab period.
I will most likely completely phase out all direct wood gas system as it is impossible to guarantee excessive tar production will never occur. For a consumer product this must be 100% bullet proof and must never be allowed to happen.
I wish you the best of luck, with your new charcoal endeavor
This stove has a dedicated cook top making it EPA exempt.
I would like to see a link to the document that defines this. (I’m not doubting you, just curious.) Also, I wonder how long this will be the case. The EPA has been moving the goalposts on wood burning stuff.
Pellet stoves are similar in external appearance to woodstoves but burn a fuel made of ground, dried wood and other biomass wastes that are compressed to form pellets. Owners pour pellets into a hopper, which feeds the pellets automatically into the stove. Unlike woodstoves, most pellet stoves need electricity to operate. EPA estimates that about 88,000 pellet stoves will be sold this year.
Most pellet stoves were exempt from EPA’s NSPS for Residential Wood Heaters, which was issued in 1988. Under today’s final rule, all pellet stoves will have to meet the same emission limits as for woodstoves, in the same two-step process.
Step 2: All woodstoves and pellet stoves
2.0 grams per hour for catalytic and noncatalytic stoves, if emissions are tested using cribs
Alternative limit: 2.5 grams per hour, if tested with cord wood; method must be approved
manufacturers will be required to test emissions using fires that burn lumber assembled in standardized configurations known as “cribs” – the same type of testing used for the 1988 woodstove standards.
EPA has determined that the agency does not yet have sufficient data to require hydronic heaters to be tested using fires that burn cordwood (split wood) at this time. Instead, manufacturers will be required to test emissions using fires that burn lumber assembled in standardized configurations
Go down to your local wood stove retailer and they will fill you in. My patent attorney plus people I know that are affiliated directly with EPA let me in on that loop hole.
I need rotary kiln to dry wood chips . In pellet production there is regulation of every part of process to make wood pellets from wood delivered . Matt you already went over a lot of this . Something about a shipment of wood pellets that were not considered wood pellets . Company paid charges of hundreds of millions . Paid hundreds of millions to upgrade plants , so the plants could make wood pellets . Company facing class action from shareholders . Company sold pellet plants .
Yup EPA does have their paws into those standards here as well. At least this is what I have gathered from my acquaintance from the EPA. His name John Ackerly Im not exactly sure of his position that he held with in the EPA but I think had worked directly in testing and certification. He has counseled me with some of the process and the equipment we will need to get certified. He and another guy have a facebook page here. Redirecting...
Note the prototype stoves I am working on will be beta when and if I bring them to market. A potential buyer will need to sign a waiver releasing us for liability and legalities in order to purchase. We will first need UL certification and then EPA testing. I will make revisions to the stoves so that they fall within exempt status at first. But they will have revisions where they can be updated later.
This stove along with the Fusion gasifier and engine power unit will be in a design challenge that they sponsor. This is the plan anyways.
Title 40. Protection of Environment Chapter I. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Subchapter C. AIR PROGRAMS Part 80. REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Subpart M. Renewable Fuel Standard Section 80.1426. How are RINs generated and assigned to batches of renewable fuel?
D7 For renewable fuel oil that is heating oil as defined in paragraph (2) of the definition of heating oil in § 80.1401, renewable fuel producers and importers shall not generate RINs unless they have received affidavits from the final end user or users of the fuel oil
Some where in that huge plant is an electrical generator run on wood gas or one was on the schematic .
Pro-Fab Industries Inc., founded in 1989, is North America’s premier designer of alternative heating
products. With five manufacturing facilities across three countries, Pro-Fab Industries has the widest range of EPA qualified clean burning units on the market.
Manufactured by:
Pro-Fab Industries Inc.
Arborg, MB, Canada
R0C 0A0
Pro-Fab offered a 10 or 20-year prorated warranty, depending on the model. However, since the company went out of business in 2016, the units are no longer covered under the warranty.
Close Out Auction Sale Pro Fab Mfg Sat May 26th 2018 At 10 AM Arborg MB
I was most likely wrong about who this company was ? It is just a widely used name .
The Acme name was used for a fictional corporation in many Warner Bros. cartoons, such as Road Runner/ Wile E. Coyote in the 1940s onward. Acme was a popular name for businesses at the time. The name was not only used for fictional markets, but drugs, delivery services, anvils, and even traffic signal companies. Today, the Acme name is most commonly associated with the Northeastern supermarket corporation, Acme Markets.
