[Gasification] Burning man festival gasifier

[Philippe Raufast]

>this was ours.  you can see more details here: www.mechabolic.org.  it
>is called the "mechabolic", not "metabolic".  it is suggesting we
>consider our HC based machine energy systems in biological terms.
>such makes the energy transactions of machines more easy to relate to
>the larger biological/climate systems around us.  the HC energy
>economy works on the same packing and unpacking of carbon based
>molecules as the energy transport system of nature does.
>
>there were two gasifiers on the rolling sculpture.  a traditional
>downdraft with the tube in tube hearth design i posted here awhile
>ago.  then a fluidized bed related design of my development.  the
>downdraft was running walnut shells.  the fluidized bed coffee
>grounds.
>
>the gas was used to run a lister genset and a blown big block chevy,
>which was the motive power for the "sculpture".  the char/ash output
>from the gasifiers was used as terra preta soil amendments in two long
>planter beds.
>
>this is all still very much in the early stages of development.   the
>sculpture is very far from done.  we did not get any of the overhead
>sculpture done for this round.  just the platform.  but all the tech
>got done well enough for basic demos.
>
>there are two main skids, one with all the size reduction related
>machines: chipper, hammermill and blade discintegrator.  the other is
>all the gasifier related machines.  the engines are unfortunately
>still independent.  but otherwise it is a reasonable, "lift it off the
>trailer and go" gasificaiton demo unit.  that is the goal here: an
>inspirational and easy to demo trash to fuel and fertilizer system,
>which we can tour relevant festivals, conferences and etc.
>
>we are currently working only on the dry carbacous fuel feeds for
>this.  in the future we will add a wet fuel feed pathway through
>anerobic digestion.  the gaseous outputs of each, when combined, give
>you the correct C:H, 1:2 synthesis ratio for easier methanol
>liquification.  the longer term goal is trash in, both dry and wet,
>with methanol out the end.  the long discussed system that we could
>have at the end of our two main urban waste streams.
>
>i am very behind on the documentation for this.  all summer was
>building it.  thus my relative absence from the list.  over the next
>weeks we'll get the doc up on the site.
>
>jim
>
>

I like the anaerobic digester idea, an artist here had build a similar living sculpture,
it was like a real human  digestion system, with a "mouth"  where he feeds  real food ,mechanical tooths and
a stomach with sulfuric acid digestion, and lots of transparent plastic pipes down to the ultimate end of the system.
The output had a very realistic smelling and appearance...
It was not producing  any usefuel energy, just some heat, like our current civilization...
Philippe.