[Gasification] Gasifying coconuts and eating them too.

[andy schofield]

Dear Ananda,

  Coconut charcoal has very good caracteristics for removing bad things in 
drinking water. Also this charcoal has important use as a way to capture 
volitile chemicals from air. An industrial use in my country for instance, 
is when refilling a tank with gasoline, the gasoline vapors are captured in 
a bed of coconut charcoal, rather than letting it escape into the air. Other 
permutits are now beginning to compete with coconut charcoal, but you can't 
beat the cost of using them...easily.

  Community Power Corp. in Colorado, and Fluidyne in New Zealand have 
experience with using coconuts for making shaft power. Please read Dr. 
Reed's paper on gas superficial velocity. It shows certain relationships 
between gas-making/char-making in a gasifier.

  In an earlier gasifier I built, I saw a relationship between making gas 
fuel, and making charcoal from the seeds of cherry fruit. I found I could 
select and favor production of either lots of gas, or lots of charcoal by 
how fast the electric blower I used turned. This means if the blower-shaft 
is turning fast, the gasifier makes more gas, If the blower-shaft is turning 
slower, the gasifier makes more charcoal. Exactly how much of either is 
still unknown, because I have no expensive instruments, but it is a 
noticeable difference by volume, in steel-barrels after hours, and hours of 
operation.

  How big is your pile of coconut shells?

Andy Schofield
Great Lakes Renewable Fuels

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/