Downdraft

University of Montana Bio-Energy Project: Energy Tech Practicum(5.4 MB ppt)
Brian Kerns, University of Montana, Alternative Energy Research and Development, brian.kerns@umontana.edu August 4, 2008
Biomax 25
Biomass Project
Sponsored by USDA
3 year project, begun 10/2006
Utilizes Community Power Corp.’s BioMax® technology
Custom-built portable trailer
$500,000 for BioMax & trailer
Convert wood residue to
Electricity
Thermal (heat) energy

Project Concept:
Is it economically viable to transport portable distributed energy generators into locations that are producing biomass residues?

BioMax 25
- 25 kilowatts electrical
= 200,000 Btu/h heat
- Elec. & heat energy for 15 avg. MT homes
- 50 lbs/hr wood chips
- 1,750 scf/h prod. gas
- Char/ash production 0.75 lbs/hr
- Soil amendment
- 70% overall efficiency

Fuel Equivalents
1 hr operation = 50 lb wood = 400,000 Btu
= 3.3 gal gasoline
= 8 gal diesel
= 4.5 gal propane
= 2.9 gal crude oil
= 33.3 lbs coal
= 387.9 cubic feet natural gas

BioMax Emissions
Complies w/ CA air stds
Lbs/kWh
NOX 0.00065
CO 0.0000295
VOC 0.000031
PM2-5 0.0003
PM10 0.0000
CO2 7.7260
Hg 0.0000
Pb 0.0000
SO2 <0.0030

See also:
Woody Biomass Lights Up Researchers Capitol Press, 8/22/08

Prototype gasifier turns wood chips into versatile fuel source

Barbara Coyner
For the Capital Press

MISSOULA, Mont. - With a flip of a switch, Brian Kerns can turn wood chips into energy for a car, light at a remote work site, or electricity for the energy grid. . .

For the economics see:
Fuel to Burn: Economics of Converting Forest Thinnings to Energy Using BioMax in Southern Oregon. E. M. (Ted) Bilek, Kenneth E. Skog, Jeremy Fried, Glenn Christensen, USFS General Technical Report FPL-GTR-157

Frank Shields Demonstrates the Gasifier Experimenter's Kit (GEK)
Tom Miles, August 8, 2008

Frank with GEK at ETHOS Stove Camp 2008
GEK and Burner

Frank Shields demonstrated Jim Mason's Gasifier Experimenter's Kit (GEK) at the ETHOS 2008 Stoves Camp in Cottage Grove, Oregon, August 5-9, 2008. Frank gave the gasifier it's first trials at the Stoves Camp which is held annually at Aprovecho Research Center to train people in making improved cooking stoves for developing countries.(See Biomass Cooking Stoves http://www.bioenergylists.org)

See the kit at All Power Labs: http://allpowerlabs.org/gasification/gek/index.html

Jim has done a very nice job of designing and fabricating an Imbert style gasifier that can be used for learning about gasification. The gasifier is larger than it appears on Jim's website. It is built so that it can be easily loaded, adjusted , disassembled, poked, shaken, and all the things necessary to learn about how fuel moves in a downdraft gasifier. It has a removable hopper for extended running. It's a great way to get a number of people familiar with gasifiers. I think Frank was pleased as he tried different fuels - chunk wood, chips, almond shells, manure - and different firing rates. He was able to easily stop gasification, disassemble the gasifier and inspect the fuel, charcoal and reduction zones after each run. The gas burner was simple and ran with a clear and self sustaining flame.

This is a great tool for anyone wanting to explore downdraft gasification. Thanks to Frank for trying it out for everyone to see at Stoves Camp.

Tom

Woodgas.net
Jonathan Spreadborough,Nebraska, May 11, 2008
1990 Ford F-250 fuel injected 5.0L

My truck is a dual fuel truck. I can run on wood or gasoline. I am now working on a hybrid mode, I purchased a chip and chip burner from moates.net and am using Paul Booths ECC Editor to work with my fuel injection and spark tables to allow me to meter in some gasoline for better acceleration and to make up for any varying woodgas production conditions. Many thanks are due to Paul Booth for not only writing the ECC Editor program but for the time he personally put in making a definition file for my trucks ECC. The process of running in a hybrid mode is still in the development stages, I have met with some success. This page will be updated as things progress.

See Woodgas.net

Farmall "H" powered by downdraft wood fired producer
Bruce Jackson,. Michigan, January 17, 2008

Jackson Gasifier and Farmall H

Some of you may remember me from three years ago when I was in Iraq. These days I am back in Michigan working on producers again. I have a Farmall "H" with a buzzsaw attached to the front of the tractor. The engine is powered by a hand built producer of Doug Williams' design (see Fluidyne pioneer class) which is fueled by blocks cut by the saw. I am sawing scrap slab wood for home heating and power production. Now that the "H" is up and working, I am proceeding to build a producer to power a 1964 GMC 1-ton pickup (305E V-6 engine) to be fueled by blocks from the "H".

Unfortunately, I had to quickly slap this producer together to cut wood for heating our house.The high fuel prices have cut me off from my own supply of wood at the bush. So I had to shift to heating with slabs from a sawmill. The Farmall is merely a way of processing the firewood for the house and also a way of making blocks for a truck mounted producer. Its not a pie in the sky type project but more of a practical necessity for our continued survival. Regardless of the source of inspiration, I am riding a euphoric crest and proceeding as fast as I can.

Two other related endeavers are the compression and storage of gas while simultaneously burning gas from the same producer, in a generating plant. I have most of the pieces but am proceeding with securing my fuel source first.

I would like to thank Thomas B. Reed for making available the peripheral information and also the fellows at VEDBIL.SE for their inspiring U-tube videos, and of course G. Bush Inc. for their motivational fuel pricing.

I am one of the poorest citizens of the US so I am the first to feel the change in the US culture with regards to transportation costs. I grieved my truck and walked for a while. Then realized I would rather do something about it rather than despair and watch TV. So this is a message from the bottom to the more affluent yet still vulnerable folks on the list, you too can continue on with minor inconvenience. Its unfortunate that most people won't do anything until its too late.

Thanks Bruce P. Jackson

SMALL-SCALE LUMBER DRYING USING WOOD GASIFICATION AS A HEAT SOURCE
Richard D. Bergman, USDA Forest Service, Madison, Wisconsin, Western Dry Kiln Association, May, 2005

ABSTRACT
Small, rural forested communities have the economic need to develop a wood products
industry to replace the loss of large sawmills and maintain forest health. The main
objective of this study was to explore the potential of using producer (wood) gas to fire a
hot water boiler for a small dry kiln capable of drying both softwood and hardwood lumber.
A BioMax wood gasifier, a hot water boiler, and dry kiln were integrated as parts of a
whole lumber drying system for a field test in southwestern United States. Results so far
found the amount of gas heat produced from the wood chip-fed BioMax 15 and 50 is
250,000 and 1,000,000 Btus per hour respectively, while the hot water boiler provides
109,000 Btus per hour for a 3,500 board foot dry kiln.

Small Modular Biomass Gasification
Rob Rizzo,Mt Wachusetts Community College,Biomass Combined Heat & Power For Delmarva, Dover, Delaware, June 12, 2007

Biomax 50
-50 kWe combined heat and power
-Thermal energy for heat
-Thermal energy for absorption chiller
-Electricity: 8.1 liter GM turbocharged stationary engine with genset
-24/6 operation
-No additional staffing
-transparent
-1.5 tons/day green chips consumption
-Seeking funding for other prime movers

Operating the BioMax 50 System
(Emergency Shutdown)
-Emergency Shutdown
-Kills power to all electrical devices
-Shuts the feed gate
-Emergencies
-Gas Cooling Blower Failure
-Engine and Roots blower failure
-System clogged

We are a fast growing medium scale engineering company catering to the needs of the Power Industries of both thermal and hydro power. We are in the field of Renovation & Modernization of Hydro / Turbo Generators for the past four decades having good clientele support from the nation’s power giants like BHEL, NLC, NTPC, KEB, KPTCL, TNEB, KSEB, APGEN etc.

In addition to this, we are expanding our activities into the bio energy sector by promoting the usage of non conventional energy sources. We are convinced ourselves that this could be the only solution to safeguard our nation’s environment, economy and also face the consequences of the depleting crude oil deposits. To realise this dream and give practical dimensions to our endeavor, we had enter into agreement with a premier R&D Institute for technology transfer to design & fabricate biomass gasifiers. Based on this agreement, we undertake turnkey biomass gasifer projects for power generation and thermal applications.

We are extremely thankful to you for the interest shown in our biomass gasifier based power project. This technology of ‘Future’, finds wide acceptance from small, medium and large industrial sectors by its uniqueness of lowest cost of production, simplicity in operation, absolutely free from air and water pollution.

See attached documents

S. Adhavan
Aruna Electrical Works (P) Ltd.,
Kongampattu - 605 105,
Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu, India
Mobile:91-9443274749

Email: arunabiomass@rediffmail.com

www.arunabiomass.com 

The Gasifier-Powered Cafe Racer: The Car of Yesteryear . . . Today!

Chicken John converted his 1975 pickup truck to run on coffee grounds or walnut shells or pretty much any other trash you can burn. And not only does it run on trash, but it's a carbon-negative vehicle. Seriously. The truck itself is completely unmodified. Chicken just added a gasifier to it. It can run on gasoline with the flip of a switch. Gasification isn't some new-fangled technology. In Europe during World War II, over a million vehicles ran using wood burning gasifiers when gasoline and diesel were unavailable. The Cafe Racer: the car of yesteryear . . . today! How does it work? Watch the video . . . "at

http://www.chickenjohn.com/mayor/innovation.html

Charcoal Gasification No. 5

Doug Willams, Fluidyne, August 23, 2007