And on a smaller sale... has anyone ever looked into these: http://www.woodboilers.com/wood-gasification.asp ?
More to the point, has anyone ever tried BD in one of thse? http://www.woodboilers.com/multi-fuel-furnace.asp -Mike Keith Addison wrote: >http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1267007.cms > >THE TIMES OF INDIA >EDITORIAL > >Realising Gandhi's village ideal > >Anil K Rajvanshi, Ph.D. >Director >Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) >Phaltan-Lonand Road, Tambmal, >P.O.Box 44, Phaltan - 415523 >Maharashtra, India > >Ph: 91-2166-222396 >Fax: 91-2166-220945 >E-mails: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://nariphaltan.virtualave.net >http://www.nariphaltan.org > >October 19, 2005. > >This is the Age of Electricity. Yet, 55-60 per cent of rural India >has no electricity; drinking water supply is poor and a majority of >rural population uses 180 million tons of biomass every year as fuel >for cooking using primitive, inefficient and smoky chulhas. > >Rural India hasn't really changed much since Mahatma Gandhi's time. >Villages can easily get electrified if modern hi-technology >synergises with locally available resources. Biomass is an abundantly >available local resource, obtained from agricultural residues. > >The 600 million tons of agricultural residues India generates every >year can theoretically produce 70,000 MW of electric power. A hi-tech >biogas producer can generate biogas with energy of about 13 MJ per kg >of biomass, which is similar to that produced by burning these >residues in a power plant. > >Freshly harvested biomass contains about 50 per cent moisture. For >using it in power plants or gasifiers one has to reduce the moisture >content to about 10-15 per cent. Drying biomass requires energy. The >freshly harvested biomass can be directly fed into biogas reactors to >produce gas, saving considerable amount of energy and time. > >Besides, the slurry produces excellent fertiliser and soil >conditioner. For a biogas economy to succeed, it needs efficient >biogas producers. > >At present, biogas is produced inefficiently in fixed and floating >dome systems, requiring considerable amount of cowdung and other >nitrogenous material. It is not suitable for a household with less >than three to four cattle. > >Then there are problems of gas production during winter and improper >mixing of inputs like biomass, night soil and cowdung. Biogas >reactors should be so designed that the production/unit of biomass >inputs is maximised. > >This can be done by properly maintaining pH of the slurry, >temperature and other biochemical indicators. Use of genetically >engineered microbes can also increase gas production efficiency. > >A village-level microutility company can be set up in rural areas >which will buy locally available raw materials like cowdung and >biomass, and use them in these reactors for power generation and >supply the gas for cooking and other purposes. > >Europe has an installed electric generating capacity of about 2,500 >MW from biogas alone. Besides there are reports that cars and buses >are running on compressed biogas. > >The raw gas, which is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, is >scrubbed to remove carbon dioxide and the resulting methane is >compressed for use in automotive applications. In Sweden, an >experimental train is being run on compressed biogas. > >In India, extra biogas can be used for running modified autorickshaws >and two-wheelers. Biogas-powered diesel gensets can also produce >clean drinking water as a by-product. The strategy of using locally >available agricultural residues-based biogas gensets will produce >electric power, excellent fertiliser and clean drinking water for the >village. > >Besides the excess biogas can also be used to provide clean cooking >fuel. A village-level utility company can set up a 500 kW biogas >powered diesel genset which can supply enough electricity for an >average village with a population of 2,000-3,000. > >The high temperature exhaust gases from these plants can distil or >boil water via a suitably designed unit, which can be attached to the >genset. > >A 500 kW power plant can produce about 100,000 litres of clean >drinking water every day. In producing both electricity and clean >water, the power plant efficiency will jump from the 35 per cent to >around 65 per cent. > >The microutility company could own the plant, whose shares in turn >could be owned by villagers, and be managed professionally, without >the political pitfalls of a cooperative society. > >The microutility could also lease village-level transmission lines >and infrastructure from the local State Electricity Boards (SEBs) at >a social cost, based on the cost of electricity most SEBs charge >farmers. > >A national biogas technology mission should be set up to help >research institutes do R&D for hi-tech biogas reactors, provide soft >loans for entrepreneurs to set up such microutilities and to >encourage government, corporate sector and NGO partnership in this >area. > >The writer is director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Maharashtra . > >_______________________________________________ >Biofuel mailing list >Biofuel@sustainablelists.org >http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): >http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
