[Gasification] Prouction of Wood Chunks for Gasification

[Steve Carroll]

David,

When I looked into wood chunkers a long time ago I was
only able to find a few companies that made them.  In
a more recent search I wasn't able to find those
either.

Does anyone remember there being a website belonging
to an older gentleman on gasification that had a
chunker?  He showed how to make a gasifier out of some
garbage cans and then went into detail on how he went
about gathering wood.  He had an electric chainsaw and
special cart he used as a mobile workstation.  His
chunker was a rotary device.  It looked like a chute
with a spiral blade inside that could cut 3" chunks. 
The blade was similar to reel mower but much sturdier.

Anyway, I may be faced with a similar need for
chunking wood in the near future and I have a little
plan in my head.  I would basically build a modified
log splitter because it would be cheaper than buying a
log splitter and modifying it.  There is a guy on ebay
that sells a modified splitting head that allows you
to split the logs into 4 pieces instead of 2.  I was
thinking of making a similar splitting head for
chunking purposes.  First, start with a log hopper at
the end of the splitter.  The logs should fall through
the hopper and rest on the beam.  The bottom of the
hopper should be just above the splitting head that
you would make.  The splitting wedge is the type that
is just a large iron triangle.  It is shaped exactly
like a big ole cheese wedge.  To the top of this you
would weld a blade that you would make out of a piece
of 3/8" plate.  Weld the blade bevel side up with the
cutting edge leading the wedge by an inch or two.

In action, the blade should start to split the bottom
side of the log off.  It would push the rest of the
log slightly upward back into the hopper.  The wedge
would then follow and split the resulting plank in
two, allowing the pieces to fall off to either side. 
You should be able to set the machine to run
automatically until your hopper is empty.  You should
be left with a bunch of kindling which will be a lot
easier to turn into chunks than  cordwood.

I haven't thought about how to chunk it from there but
I imagine that could modify your hopper so that you
could load the kindling in vertically and have the
same blade cut it into chunks.  Shouldn't be any
problem for a hydraulic cylinder capable of generating
30,000 pounds of force.

Maybe you can build it first and let me know how it
goes.  ;]

Steve
--- David Shackleton <david at gripmagazine.org> wrote:

> I to develop a wood gasifier feeding a stationary
> engine for electricity generation for a local
> ecological center, and a similar system for my home.
>  Approximately 30kWh per day.
> 
> I have been following the list for several months,
> and have purchased some books (Handbook of Biomass
> Downdraft Gasifier Engine Systems, by Tom Reed, and
> others).  I feel ready to proceed, except for one
> detail.
> 
> Both installations will be run from wood cut from
> trees on site.  I understand that the gasifiers need
> wood chunks of 1" to 1 1/2" in size.  How are these
> chunks best manufactured from logs?  Is there a
> machine that can do this?  I will have mechanical or
> electrical power from the wood gas powered engine
> available: can this be used?
> 
> Thanks for any help you can give me with this.
> 
> David Shackleton
> Workshop leader and co-editor/publisher, GRIP
> Magazine
> PO Box 4617, Station E, Ottawa, ON  K0A 3M0
> Phone (613) 832-2284
> www.gripmagazine.org
> Fax (613) 832-9082
> _______________________________________________
> Gasification mailing list
> Gasification at listserv.repp.org
>
http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_listserv.repp.org
>
http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/gasification
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com