[Bioconversion] Grass Pellets
Les Blevins
lbj4 at mindspring.com
Wed Feb 8 16:43:12 EST 2006
Roger & List,
> The main advantages of densification are better control on combustion
I'm not suggesting no densification. I'm suggesting the farm baler
densifies the material and this makes it easier to gather from the field and
if you can eliminate further densification (as in pelletizing) you can save
not only the time it takes to handle the material again but also the cost of
the pelletizing equipment and the energy cost of pelletizing. I believe the
baler densifies at the rate of around 10 to 1 and you pretty much have to do
that anyway.
My furnace can be manually stoked with bales or can be automatically
stoked with bales, can be equipped with an auger feeder that can feed any
size material such as sawdust, wood shavings, corn cobs, aspirin or larger
sized pellets, cigar shaped pellets, beverage can size cubes, or 48 oz.
juice can sized logs. It can also burn rolled up newspapers, scrap wood,
tree trimmings, waste oil, scrap tires, railroad ties etc. It doesn't have a
pot, doesn't generate clinkers, stays outside and can heat the whole house,
household water supply, greenhouse, poultryhouse, swinehouse, shop,
furrowing house etc. I can put two big bags of Christmas present wrappings
in it and then turn around and put the whole Christmas tree in it with its
one use decorations still on it. As I said it doesn't use a pot, only the
burner/grate I designed and made myself and it doesn't ever need cleaning.
> (less emissions and better efficiencies), ease of feedstock handling, and
> less storage requirements.
These attributes are of course more important in the city than out
in the countryside. I can store wood and so on beside the furnace and just
throw a plastic tarp over it to keep it dry. I also look forward to the day
when I get a complaint that my furnace is too efficient for someone who is
getting paid to take the fuel for it.
Sam; Say Blevins your furnace is too damn efficient for my
liking.
Me; How's that Sam?
Sam: Well I'm getting paid by the ton to take this wood waste
fuel off of this guys hands because he can't
get rid of it without taking it to the landfill and they don't
want it any longer so he pays me to take it off his
hands.
Me: So?
Sam; So I'm gettin ten dollars a ton to take it but your furnace
is so damn efficient I can't burn more than
about two tons per week. Do you suppose if I take the
insulation off of your furnace it would cut the
efficiency down to where I can burn mebbe three tons a
week?
> Risk of fire is a major issue with bulk herbaceous materials.
I haven't had my fuel supply spontaneously catch fire yet.
> The energy costs associated with densification are modest.
What about the other costs? How much does a pelletmill cost? Where
does one put it? How much is the
maintenance on it? Is there any chance it might catch on fire?
Ending here
Les Blevins
AAEC
www.aaecorp.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Samson" <rsamson at reap-canada.com>
To: "'Les Blevins'" <lbj4 at mindspring.com>; <bioconversion at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 1:53 PM
Subject: RE: [Bioconversion] Grass Pellets
> Les
>
> That looks like quite a device you have developed.
>
> The main advantages of densification are better control on combustion
> (less
> emissions and better efficiencies), ease of feedstock handling, and less
> storage requirements. Risk of fire is a major issue with bulk herbaceous
> materials. The energy costs associated with densification are modest.
>
> Co-firing wet wood and herbaceous feedstocks might be a promising approach
> to use these feedstocks without densification especially in bigger
> combustion units.
>
> It maybe that bulk handling of biomass before densification can help
> reduce
> costs. This is something we would like to see done rather than handle
> bales
> and break bales before densification. Cubing is also cheaper than
> pelleting
> and fits well with commercial boilers.
>
> We have some farmers baling flax straw and burning it. Maybe if you could
> high density bale this material it would have even more potential for a
> unit
> such as yours.
>
>
> Regards
>
> Roger
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bioconversion-bounces at listserv.repp.org
> [mailto:bioconversion-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Les Blevins
> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 2:09 PM
> To: bioconversion at listserv.repp.org
> Subject: Re: [Bioconversion] Grass Pellets
>
> Roger & List,
>
> As you said; "Necessity is the mother of invention" and "The grass pellet
> fuel cycle can produce 7 times more net energy gain from an acre of land
> than a corn ethanol fuel cycle."
>
> How about leaving out the pelletizing, cubing or briquetting stage
> altogether? Wouldn't that up the ratio to around eight times more net
> energy
>
> per acre of land than using the corn ethanol fuel cycle? By eliminating
> the
> densification a farmer for example can avoid the need for any equipment
> for
> pelletizing, cubing or briquetting and also avoid the time, space and
> energy
>
> expense required and farmers are the ones that already have bale making
> capability. Very simple and reliable is sometimes a necessity too.
>
> My company is offering stove and furnace technology that can use whole
> bales
>
> of fiber fuels. Small square bales or large round bales can be used in our
> system, and there are several ways to automate the system as to loading
> bales into the furnace and achieving automatic ash removal. Slag removal
> can
>
> also be automated into our system. Other fuels such as tree stumps, waste
> oils, railroad ties and scrap tires can be used in place of bales if
> needed.
>
> We are not a manufacturing firm so we are looking for companies that want
> to
>
> get into manufacturing and offering renewable energy systems for the
> rural,
> farm, commercial, demand side, distributed and On-site energy markets.
>
> Les Blevins
> AAEC
> 785-842-1943
> http://www.aaecorp.com/ceo.html
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Roger Samson" <rsamson at reap-canada.com>
> To: "'Tom Miles'" <tmiles at trmiles.com>; "'Clinton M'"
> <clintonmeyer22 at gmail.com>
> Cc: <bioconversion at listserv.repp.org>; "'GASIFICATION'"
> <GASIFICATION at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 3:02 PM
> Subject: [Bioconversion] Grass Pellets
>
>
>>
>> Tom and all
>>
>> We have been working on grass pellets and other agrifibres for energy
>> since
>> 1991. We have had to wait for the combination of high energy prices and
>> advances in combustion technology to get the industry commercial.
>>
>> Agri-fibre pellets/cubes from the crop milling residue industry are now
>> commercially being used in Ontario and Manitoba for applications
>> including
>> greenhouse and farm building heating applications and crop drying. In
>> Canada
>> we can pellet/cube and burn oat hulls, pin oats, wheat bran, soy hulls,
>> corn
>> fibre, flax shives, corn cobs, sunflower hulls and combinations of these
>> fuels. Whole plant corn has also been harvested mid winter (after
>> leaching)
>> and direct burned without processing by one Canadian geeenhouse producer.
>> Corn cobs can also be used without densification. I have been burning
>> late
>> fall and overwintered switchgrass in my house for the last two winters in
>> a
>> gasifier pellet stove. Canadian farmers will be planting small acreages
>> (the
>> most I have heard is 150 acres) of switchgrass and prairie sandreed this
>> year as we anticipate that the cheap crop milling residues are soon going
>> to
>> be used up. With energy grasses in Eastern Canada, delayed harvesting
>> reduces the potassium content to about .35% at the time of late fall
>> harvesting and 0.06% if spring harvested. Summer harvested switchgrass is
>> like wheat straw about 1.2% potassium. I don't know anyone that can burn
>> summer harvested switchgrass or wheat straw over an extended period.
>>
>> Wheat bran or middlings is a cheap binder for difficult to pellet fuels
>> using standard pellet equipment. Switchgrass needs a little more energy
>> to
>> pelletize than alfalfa but less than wood fibre. The energy aspects of
>> growing grasses and their grinding and densification was recently
>> reviewed
>> in our recent paper: "The potential of C4 grasses for developing a global
>> Bioheat industry".
>> Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences Publisher: Taylor & Francis
>> Issue:
>> Volume 24, Number 5-6 / September-December 2005 Pages: 461 - 495
>>
> http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/(4nmnk455r4ngnnnkx1r22u45)/app/home/contri
>>
> bution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,7,7;journal,2,72;linkingpublicationr
>> esults,1:103858,1
>>
>>
>> Necessity is the mother of invention. There are now about a half dozen
>> Canadian combustion technology companies selling a range of small to
>> medium
>> sized equipment (10 kw to 2 MW) with the ability to efficiently burn
>> agri-fibre feedstocks with moderate levels of potassium and chlorine.
>> Some
>> equipment has more fuel flexibility than others, you need to shop around.
>>
>> The grass pellet fuel cycle can produce 7 times more net energy gain from
>> an
>> acre of land than a corn ethanol fuel cycle (If George Bush is listening
>> this is 7 times faster a way to find energy independence). Even direct
>> combustion of grains is getting more popular in Canada this winter. If
>> oil
>> can stay around $65/barrel and natural gas at $10 mmbtu, we are going to
>> see
>> an enormous industry evolve which will drive up grain prices to about
>> $200/tonne. Great for crop producers but it will put an end to the grain
>> burning and ethanol industries. The green energy revolution from grasses
>> is
>> poised to replace king corn as the energy champion of farmers.
>>
>> Roger Samson
>> Executive Director
>> Resource Efficient Agricultural Production (R.E.A.P.) - Canada Box 125
>> Centennial Centre CCB13 Ste. Anne de Bellevue, QC, Canada H9X 3V9
>> E: rsamson at reap-canada.com
>> W: www.reap-canada.com
>> "Working to create ecological energy, fibre and food production systems"
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org
>> [mailto:stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Tom Miles
>> Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 9:41 PM
>> To: 'Clinton M'; stoves at listserv.repp.org
>> Cc: bioconversion at listserv.repp.org
>> Subject: RE: [Stoves] Grass Pellets
>>
>>
>> At Andrew's suggestion let's migrate this to bioconversion. It's really
>> more
>> germane to developed economies but may be of interest to this list as
>> well.
>>
>> Production of grass pellets.
>>
>> Specific power consumption for fuel pellets is about 50 kWh/ton plus
>> straw
>> preparation and processing which absorbs another 50 kWh/ton. Power, labor
>> and extrusion die wear are usually the main costs. A 250 Hp pellet mill
>> will
>> produce about 4 tph in straw pellets, 5 tph in wood pellets and up to 7
>> tph
>> in recycled paper pellets.
>>
>> REAP Canada has done quite a bit of work on switchgrass pellets. So Roger
>> Samson can give us a clue about production. Their papers can be found on
>> the
>> REAP website. The REAP reports show both production and burning
>> equipment.
>> http://www.reap-canada.com/bio_and_climate_3_2.htm
>> http://www.reap-canada.com/library.htm
>>
>> Joe King and Richard Nelson at Kansas State University have also studied
>> switchgrass pellets.
>> http://www.engext.ksu.edu/biomass/_Background.htm
>>
>> Iowa State University has reported on switchgrass pellets. There is a
>> small
>> pellet mill in Southern Iowa that makes them.
>>
> http://www.agmrc.org/agmrc/commodity/biomass/switchgrass/switchgrassprofile.
>> htm
>>
>> That mill and the Chriton Valley Biomass Project (
>> http://biomass.ecria.com/
>> )got a lot of attention this week after President Bush mentioned
>> switchgrass
>> in his State of the Union message. If you saw ABC World News Tonight on
>> Wednesday you saw about 10 seconds of our fields and equipment.
>>
>> Here in Oregon we pelletize seed cleaning from our grass seed production.
>> Since they are already sized they are pretty easy to pelletize. But the
>> outer plant parts have high concentrations of nutrients which cause
>> slagging
>> in the hot firebox. So they have only been used in local pellet stoves in
>> combination (50:50) with wood pellets. I don't know of anyone who is
>> using
>> them on a regular basis as fuel these days. Not many feed pellet mills
>> are
>> set up for whole straw in our area. One that was closed his doors when he
>> retired some years ago. His pellets sold at prices competitive with grass
>> hay which has about the same (low) nutritional value.
>>
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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