[Bioconversion] Rock'n roll for Grass balls

[Geoff Thomas]

A good question, but actually something immediately springs to mind, - I recently got some of the
chopped up vegetation that the local council produces in huge quantities around here, - and gives
to locals rather than carting it away at cost, and tried to use this mixture of wood and leaves
in my little gasifier I bought from Tom Reed, - no good, the leafy matter clogged up in sort of
non-burn clumps, causing a lot of smoke and very difficult to light properly as well, and yet I
imagine this resource is available in many places, it certainly is widely available in Oz, but to
use it in a gasifier the chopped up trees, - wood chips, may need to be separated from the fine
leaf matter, - they certainly do for the "Wood Gas Camp Stove" and what better to separate this
particular wheat from this particular chaff than a rapidly spinning cylinder covered with spikes,
that throws the heavy stuff a lot further than the light shredded leaf? (which could be put in a
digester etc)
Perhaps in years to come the local council will only be able to afford the fuel to grind up trees
under powerlines etc by using the wood to produce producer gas to power their grinders, - and
garbage trucks etc.
Just a thought.
Geoff.

> Hi Geoff,
>
> "A spinning cylinder covered with big spikes." I wonder what we could use that
> for!!!
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Jeff
>
>
> On Tuesday 07 November 2006 12:51 am, Geoff Thomas wrote:
>> Hi Jeff, I assume your post is to further the discussion on ball formation,
>> but just an aside, if you will indulge me, my father used to grow
>> mushrooms, (4 tons per week) and mushroom growers use enormous amounts of
>> compost, which they mix with special machinery, - your cement truck fellows
>> should have asked a mushroom grower. The compost mixer takes lots of small
>> chunks out of the heap and throws them on a spinning cylinder covered with
>> big spikes, which throws the by then tiny bits over a large area, -
>> different principle altogether.
>> Geoff.
>>
>> > Dear Roger and List,
>> >
>> > This summer I was reading about a compost reactor project and they did
>> > not like mixing the compost with a highlift so they tried renting a
>> > cement mixing truck to mix their compost. Sounds like a good idea! But
>> > when they tried it, the out come was all the compost agglomerated into 6
>> > inch balls.
>> >
>> >
>> > Jeff
>> >
>> > Roger wrote:
>> >> I was re-reading Thoreaus' Walden on the weekend. You always learn
>> >> something
>> >> with each re-read. I was amazed to see there are actually photos of
>> >> grass balls naturally formed in the shallows of sand beaches of Walden
>> >> Pond in the
>> >> book. He didn't speculate how they were formed but mentioned it was a
>> >> seasonal phenomena.  Some were perfectly round and up to 4" in diameter.
>> >> Seems your idea is a time proven one.
>> >>
>> >> Roger Samson
>> >
>> > --
>> > Jeff Davis
>> >
>> > Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA
>> >
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> --
> Jeff Davis
> Somewhere 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA
> http://www.velocity.net/~jeff0124
>
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