[Gasification] Gasification Digest, Vol 15, Issue 16

[Nikolaus Foidl]

Dear Doug!

You can mix the smoke water with charcoal but first dilute the vinegar ( up
to 20% in the smoke water) . As well you can use the acetic acid ( vinegar)
as a chelating agent to solve minerals out of rock powder. Make sure that
the vinegar concentration is below 2,5% otherwise it works like a herbicide.
Between 0.5 and 2,5 % you can use the vinegar mix as fungized.With adding of
up to 3% KOH ( potassium hydroxide) you can make all the tars soluble and of
easy access to the bacteria. Always mix some molasses to it so bacteria can
feed on it and remaining phytoxicity is counteracted. A little bit of
nitrogen to rise C:N ratio to 25:1 gives the bacteria all they need.
The liquid can be soaked into the charcoal before burring.

The substance in smoke which enhances vigor and can brake dormancy in some
seed species is called butenolide ( 3-methyl-2H-furol(2,3-c)pyran-2-one).

I see the following home made digester arising : Spill some of the liquid
into a controlled plot of soil, add some micronutrient mix and some P and N
and let it alone for several days ( make sure before spilling that the stuff
is neutralized with KOH or diluted to go down in vinegar content to below 3
%.

Prepare a tank filled with charcoal pieces up to 80 %. Mount in the bottom
some kind of air diffuser. Neutralize the liquid with KOH, add
micronutrients and N and put it into the tank, add 15 day old earth which
you get from the spilling site and start to get some air through the
diffuser in the bottom of your tank. Measure the temperature of your mix of
liquids and solids.
If in those 14 days some bacteria already have adapted to the new food you
should see a rise in temperature in your tank when they start reproducing
and feeding. In the next weeks if there is some activity in your tank try to
optimize the fermentation by changing one parameter at time. Find one
parameter which can give you a clear result over your selection progress. (
BOD or COD measurement) Biological or chemical oxygen demand.

Best regards Nikolaus

On 9/16/07 10:00 AM, "gasification-request at listserv.repp.org"
<gasification-request at listserv.repp.org> wrote:


.
: Re: [Gasification] Engine for Gasifier
 ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 8
> Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:22:51 +1200
> From: "doug.williams" <Doug.Williams at orcon.net.nz>
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Gasification Digest, Vol 15, Issue 15
> To: "Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification"
> <gasification at listserv.repp.org>
> Message-ID: <001601c7f800$19954590$0201a8c0 at dougspc>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
> 
> Hi Nikolaus,
> 
> You suggest some interesting possibilities:
> 
>> The " black water" or smoke water is used for seed dressing because there
>> is
>> a vigor enhancing substance in the smoke water.
> 
> I'm not sure that the smoke water you and I know is the same as gasifier
> condensate, or it might be heavily diluted. Gasifier black liqueur as
> drained, will kill growing weeds and grass.  I am referring to condensate
> that has tar or oily rainbows floating on the surface.
> 
>> The contaminated soil easily
>> can be de contaminated by adding some nitrogen and molasses dissolved in
>> water. Bacteria rapidly clean up the mess. Most of the tars are like
>> sugars
>> to certain bacteria an energy source.
> 
> Could you advise how this might be done in a tank, so that we might say,
> fill the tank with charcoal instead of soil, and pore the black stuff in the
> top, and then drain the clean water out the bottom?  Is this a possibility,
> or do we need soils bacteria to make it work, or can we seed the charcoal
> with bacteria from some source?
> 
> The reason I ask these questions, is to help identify effective, but basic
> solutions for gasifier condensate disposal.  As I have some capability to
> develop this type of application, it will be interesting to see how it
> works. The only problem, is I don't make black liqueur (:-)
> Regards,
> Doug Williams,
> Fluidyne.
> 

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 10
> Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:12:43 +1200
> From: "Ken Calvert" <renertech at xtra.co.nz>
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Smoke water for seed dressing!
> To: "Gasification" <gasification at listserv.repp.org>
> Message-ID: <001b01c7f807$11395ce0$0202a8c0 at martha>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
> 
> Gentlemen,   In years bygone we used to have a disinfectant product on the
> market called Jeyes Fluid.  It was a semi refined bleed  off from  Coal tar
> refining, Impure Carbolic acid, smelt like tar,  and proverbially would
> clean the spots off your Grandmothers conscience.  It was renowned for use
> as a soil sterilising agent when well watered down.  What it did was kill
> off  lots of  the fungal and bacterial disease organisms in the soil,
> particularly those that caused damping- -off , Root rot and and stem wilt.
> Its acknowledged  stimulation to seeds was
> seen to be in reducing the pathogen load that they had to contend with.
> Cheers,  Ken C.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "doug.williams" <Doug.Williams at orcon.net.nz>
> To: "Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification"
> <gasification at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 1:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Gasification Digest, Vol 15, Issue 15
> 
> 
>> Hi Nikolaus,
>> 
>> You suggest some interesting possibilities:
>> 
>>> The " black water" or smoke water is used for seed dressing because there
>>> is
>>> a vigor enhancing substance in the smoke water.
>