I looked for an “Introduce yourself” thread and did not find it. So I will introduce myself here. This will be kinda long. Sorry I am a old man with nothing better to do than flap my gums.
Admin’s and Mod’s please be gentle.
I am a retired engineer. Living in an Earth-bag dome in a remote corner of the Philippines. We have 4.2K off grid PV system.
Our battery bank is a 1920ah bank of Edison/Saft NiCd cells and Changhong NiFe cells. We have been off-grid for 7 years now.
I have been aware of gasification for most of my life. Close relatives in the Ozarks used it off an on for decades. But I do not yet know much about it.
My current interest in gasification is as an adjunct to Anaerobic Digestion. I have worked out a feasible in the tropical boonies method of extracting nutrients from agricultural wastes. Weeds, grasses, leaves, etc.
AD produces a modest amount of fuel gas. Most importantly is serves up digester effluent which we have found to be a concentrated, superior, fertilizer. I have two aero-ponic grow barrels growing leaf lettuce / cabbage off of nothing other than diluted effluent.
But we are left with mountains of wood / branches / stalks / and shredded “empty” straw. A relative suggested that it might be able to gasify this biomass and extract even more fuel, and be left with a “char” for a soil amendment.
My target is to fuel existing 5 → 7hp diesel/petrol engines for irrigation and generation.
Please bear with me while I lurk/learn and ask the inevitable silly question. Thanks for letting us in.
Hello Mark and welcome along , if you want to run small engine’s and also enrich your soil , then your best method in my eyes would be to charcoal all your biomass waste and then crush it down to a size between 3 mm and 15 mm then you will have engine grade fuel for your engines and all smaller than 3 mm can be used for your soil enrichment , maybe even use the captured heat from burning the biomass to heat water for cooking cleaning or helping your digester although i guess where you live its warm enough not to need more heat .
Look up Simple fire by Gary Gilmore , and look on this site for the small engine or charcoal posts .
We are not so much concerned with soil amending. Being in the tropics you have to constantly clear fence rows, fields, gardens, roads, etc. Other wise the jungle takes over. It’s a constant, ongoing battle.
Most of what we “harvest” is high in cellulose/lignin. For the most part it is a very powerful AD feedstock. Just not completely digestible. There is a lot of solid residue left over. Which plugs up the digester and generally creates problems.
So I am looking for a way to utilize / reduce this material. Char is just an added benefit.
first, welcome aboard! I think your interest is going to be in charcoal gasification.
This video, which @taitgarry00 posted earlier in a different thread and giving his expertly demonstrated language skills, he can probably translate it for you ducks, is pretty much down your alley, since it makes wood vinegar along with your charcoal production. If you want to get an engine up and running faster there are other ways to make it, but ultimately, I think you will want the wood vinegar.
Today I got my allpowerlabs 20 Kw power pallet running under load from wood gas from logs , from empyre pro series model 400 wood gasification boiler . Ran 45 feet of flex exhaust pipe from tube placed in door of boiler to filter stack of generator . Opened door of boiler got fireball , closed door , got gas to flare of generator . Started generator with starter fluid , Close gas to flare crack open gas to generator , very fine range of adjustment for throttle , gas , air . Ran for half hour , could have run longer , Throttle slipped out of position before I could export power to utility . I am missing clothes pin used to hold throttle .
Im from Indiana and I would love to go to argos some day. Im currently learning how to weld and a few months ago I picked up a push mower off the curb I may try to run on on wood.
Hi Corey, welcome to the site. If you want to run a lawnmower engine, it would be best to build a charcoal gasifier. Look up Simple Fire Gasifier by Gary Gilmore. Lot of great ideas there.
That is good you are learning to weld, it will save you monies in the long run of doing it your self, instead of having to pay someone.
Bob
