[Gasification] Charcoal Gasifier No 2.

Thu Jul 26 00:09:54 EDT 2007

Hi Ken,

Simple (maybe stupid) question: You say no ash w. charcoal. Where does it
go? Is it assumed that all of the mineral content is volatilized during
charcoal production?

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Ken Calvert
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 10:05 PM
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
Subject: Re: [Gasification] Charcoal Gasifier No 2.

Hi there folks,  I have been listening in to the discussion about charoal 
gasification
and I have a contribution from a generation ahead of me, and the boom time 
for this technology during the last World war.  When I was running a 
technical school for my Church out in the Pacific islands OPEC 1, in the 
early seventies put up the price of petroleum fuels to the point where we 
were in trouble, largely because of the increased shipping costs to get 
hydrocarbon fuels to our remote end of the world.   I was pointed to
a chappie whom I have mentioned before, Cliff Pederick,  whose company had 
built 10,000 gasifiers to keep the motor traffic running around Western 
Australia in the tough times.   His words were go for charcoal,  its a clean

and very concentrated fuel and weight for weight you will drive a vehicle a 
lot further on charcoal than anything else.
It has instant ignition and lightup  and I have already shared the story 
that was quoted out of  the text book at that time as to how one could back 
out of the shed on petrol and be running on gas within a mile down the road.

Because there were no problems with
ash and worse still slag,  one could run at a lower temperature and still 
get good gas.  And the way to control the temperature was with steam 
injection.  If the charoal was dry, and thats another whole story in 
hydrophylosis??,  there was no chemical water in the fuel and so it was O.K.

to add in a lot of extra energy to the solid fuel load in terms of a small 
tank of water.  Something there is no point of doing with wood carbohydrate 
fuels.
   Because one could control the temperature  there were no meltdowns and 
slagged up hearths.  Cliff's one tuyere was  a  slab of 1/2"  steel plate 
accross the side of the hearth with a 1" hole in it. That made it a cross 
draft model.  The thick mild steel plate conducted heat away from the tuyure

and  spread it out accross the bottom of the fuel hopper.  We never saw any 
deterioration of any part of the setup and it was all made of mild steel. 
Remenber there was a war on!
     There was no grate or need to remove ash. After a days work the fire 
was allowed to die out and  part of the start up next morning was to dig 
into the charcoal fuel, and if you were smart you ran the hopper down at the

end of the day so that you reached down and removed a birds nest shape of 
ash charcoal sinter which sat just opposite the tuyure and then tipped in 
some charcoal, half a cup of your favorite ignition
agent, threw in the match and then the rest of the bag of charcoal.  That 
took two minutes or less and then you jumped in the car and you were away!

   The one problem  that has already been mentioned here was that of gas 
filtration.  Everything was dry and dusty and  to save weight on a motor 
vehicle they used dry tube filters. Maybe they should have used an oil bath 
one as well.   I have told the story of Cliff  taking the oil control rings 
out of  a Ford V8  so that they could run for 10,000 miles virtually non 
stop to prove to the Govt. boys  that they should back the technology.  That

was one of his favorite stories.
    The model that Cliff sent over to us in the Islands was made out of a 
couple of  44 gallon drums, plus about  2ft of  6"x 1/2" steel bar  and we 
ran a  Toyota landcruiser engine  that powered our workshop for over a year 
before we had to do anything much to it.  We got the steam by dropping water

onto the back of  that 1/2" steel plate.     However, be warned!  Turning 
wood into charcoal, and its got to be good solid wood to get a fast burning 
clean charcoal, that is a lot of dirty smoky work, which your next door 
neighbours will not love you for.     Thanks for those memories, when we did

it all for the Lord,  35 years ago!   Actually we moved up to the Capital, 
Port Vila, and did it all again 5 years later when OPEC 2 hit us in the 
late seventies. That one ran for 15 years and only stopped in 1996  That 
time it was with green wood blocks, and a much more sophisticated plant, 
which is another story.  Ken C.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Chisholm" <kchisholm at ca.inter.net>
To: "Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification" 
<gasification at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 1:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Gasification] Charcoal Gasifier No 2.

> Dear Harmon
>
> If the charcoal can be produced on the farm, and if the gas can be used
> productively on the farm, then clearly, that is the way to go.
>
> Roughly 80% of the biomass energy comes off as pyrolysis gases. If the
> Farmer cannot find a reasonable use for the energy on the Farm, it makes
> sense to use it in a central location, or at a location that has a need
> for significant quantities of purchased energy.
>
> Obviously, if the Farmer wished to sell his excess pyrolysis gas, he
> would have to do the charring operation near the Customer for the
> pyrolysis gases. This would incur the cost of setting up the charring
> facility, and of hauling the raw materials the extra distance. As long
> as he could sell his pyrolysis gas energy for more than his setup cost,
> and the extra transportation costs, then he would be ahead.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Kevin
> .
>
>
> Harmon Seaver wrote:
>>    Yes, indeed! Any scheme which involves transporting biomass very far
>> is problematic. Of course, if the truck -- or better yet train -- is
>> running on woodgas, it becomes less so, but still there is going to be a
>> serious problem of diminishing returns. Even the densest of biomass
>> creates economic problems right now.
>>    How far would you drive to get your Winter supply of firewood?
>>
>>    But what's wrong with making that charcoal right there on the farm?
>> Have you seen Dr. Karve's very simple and effective method of making
>> charcoal from crop residue? Search the archives, the video was available
>> on the net from someone here. or you can buy the CD (which also has his
>> digester design) for $30 -- cheap, and also furthers ARTI's research.
>>
>> http://www.arti-india.org/content/view/50/48/
>>
>>
>
>
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