Wow, that is good news. A few years ago I was orientating about woodgas. Because of the hastle I let go. If it is possible to have it automated it is worthwhile the effort.
Thanks for the feedback. Super.
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I really appreciate this MissouriWoodGasifier. pdf having the metric numbers converted to what ever it is we use over here. I have just gone through a long process that didn’t work out, of calculating the air velocity in the nozzle. When I get time I will go back to the pdf and try again. TomC
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I saw this coal fired power plant where the coal was pulverized as it was burned. This was a very big system. I forget how many megawatts.
I just wonder if a smaller version of this has been tried to produce woodgas from sawdust. I suppose the grinders would be powered by a power take off (PTO) from the engine. Might also work with rice hulls, spoiled grain, dried brewers grains, & etc.
Rindert
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Thats interesting. Saw dust when airborne is very flammable. Maybe add a fluidized reactor into this mix?
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Please explain the thinking behind the fluidized bed. Would this be to eliminate the ‘flame out’ possibility? Perhaps some form of a catalytic honeycomb would be more suited to a small/ mobile system?
Im looking that horizontal tube right? That is where the combustion process starts? So feed this into a swirl burner like a fliudized bed gasifier. Should produce the same results but this allows you to control it.
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That I see working, I see this working quite well!! Also this would allow for a very compact design.
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The more I think about this the more I want to build it. Lets we have this little gasifier, however lets say we dont want to use saw dust, we dont want to use chips, we dont want to use chunks. We want to use logs!!
As Steve was saying we want to cut out as many processes as possible. So why not make a built in grinder to process fire wood to dust. This could certainly be done.
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Matt, logs or sawdust. I know of many places to get waste sawdust for the labor of loading / hauling. Some of it would benefit from a drying and re-grinding operation.
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Yeah same here, however, This could do both if you dont have premade dust and rather than chip or chunk. just throw the logs in it and let it make its own. I have pellet manufacture less than a mile from me I can get all the dust I would ever need. But trust me Ive ran this across clients and they claim they cant get a source and I find this very hard to believe. I think they are dead set on cutting their trees down on their property just so they can be “self sustaining from the land” lol
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Some inside info on manufactured saw dust waste. At least this is the case here in our county. The wood products manufactures have to pay to dispose of the saw dust as the land fills are claiming it is a problem. They can not sell it I cant remember if it was for tax reasons or if it was just plain forbidden.
So these companies will very happily give you this dust for free.
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A lot of cabinet shops around here, making wooden interior trim parts for dee-luxe (high dollar) RV’s. [Fleetwood /REV built on city bus frames].
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I think Im going to try and mod my existing reactors to work on dust. I may need to just replace the grate and short the reduction.
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Another reason for trying this log idea. Logs are pretty much the only wood fuel that is denser than pellet fuels. The more fuel we can cram into a small space the longer the run time. So the energy input for the grinder is well spent here. Besides you would put this same energy into other processes creating other fuels.
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I worked in the maintenance department for a large particle board furniture manufacturer. The particle board had some kind of chemical in it that forbid selling the sawdust. Landfills would not take it. But there was a loop hole. If this dust was made into pellets it could go to the land fill, go figure. The pellets could not be sold to be burned because of the chemical.
Real saw dust from a real sawmill should not be a problem. It is sold here as animal bedding.
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Ok I whipped this together. So this is my version of it all are free to build it as an open source project. This is just a concept at this point so dimensions are just driven to the size of pipe reducer Im using for the design. This pipe reducer is what makes up the hearth and is a Stainless Steel butt weld pipe reducer, (4" x 1.5")
The tube bellow the hearth is welded to it to extend down and create a reduction zone. We may need to tune this some. it is 3" in diameter and 4 inches in length.
The grate is solid with cut outs around its perimeter. This grate will need to be automated to control how it flows through it is not passive as dust I found in the earlier experiments was very difficult to control thru any passive grate system. Too much it flies right through it, too less is clogs as sets harder than concrete.
The lower outer skirt is a chamber that controls the gas flows once leaving the reduction tube redirecting it up and out the cut outs in the upper section of the skirt. This allows to contain the dust but also allows for over flow and the dust can also flow out those port holes.
This is just the core, so you will need to contain this inside a containment vessel for char ash collection and porting the gas out.
You can also chamber the jet rings add air preheat etc. But you can run with out doing that if you just run it in batch runs.
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Yes. You make drawings faster then Lucky Luke. Did see them. But if I don t know what I am talking about, better keep my mouth shut. Lets see if I can read in. Maybe in a few months i can contribute.
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Hi Joep, being able to ask questions and voicing our input of our best understanding, is what makes this site the best gasification site there is.
I have learn 99 % of the gasification knowledge that I have from the people on this DOW site. I wish we had a 100 more people like you on this site wanting to know more about gasification. My advice to people is always just start with some small like a Simple Fire Charcoalgasifer and make a engine run on it. After you get the SWEM off your face by eating a lemon. Work with it and learn the other 75 % of how to run it effectively every time. Then move on to other proven design projects that work. This will save time on building projects with out failures and monies. KISS builds. Keep It Simply Simple builds, at first. Then you can add on all the extras. If you can make a IC Engine run with the KISS methods that is the best way to go for the monies and labor.
Bob
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Matt, can you point me to a good schema or something of this? I’m lost in the dark.
Rindert
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