On Thu, 26 Feb 2015 14:49:36 +0100 "Energies Naturals C.B." <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Rolf and Gasification Colleagues, Sorry about the brief reply: > congratulation! It seems that you and your co-workers have done more than > your homework. The CalForest team have done a fantastic job under difficult operating conditions and in between running a busy tree Nursery. What you see now is the accumulated knowledge obtained from testing procedures that work or destroy. The back yard junk pile is now considerable in size(:-) > > The failures you report seem to be located and solvable at a reasonable cost, > I guess. We found that you still need to make your own specifically designed components as off the shelf products cannot cope with pyrolytic condensates, especially seals. > > What I would like to know is your estimation on replacement periods and cost > of the main wear parts, the "hot spots", I presume. I assume you mean the Shasta Mk2 gasifier. Nothing has been replaced internally for the 2,000 hrs, but the grate is gradually eroding from the gas exit temperature of around 900C. The only obvious hot spot is the ends of the lower char chamber which are not insulated with refractory, but this would need another Mk3 model to be built, which of course would improve again due to the experience gained regarding key points. Replacement spare parts would not be unreasonably expensive, and could be made any where using the correct material. > > Today I have a guest here who has developed a novel system to convert granite > sawing sludge into good and hard tiles and other objects. For this, she needs > baking the pressed "cake" at 1200 °C .Sometimes oxidizing, sometimes > reducing, she says. Updraft pyrolysis gas will give you the 1200C, and we know from glass furnace experience, that by adjusting the air ratio to your burner, you can have both reducing and oxidizing atmospheres in the furnace as the process requires. > > Do you have any experience/reference on how to do this with e.g. pine chips > or almond shells? As you know we only built downdraft gasifiers for engines, but in the early days (1977/8) when we just sold the hearth modules, DIY artists blew them both up and down. Any workable updraft design will do the job for you, but it will depend on fuel feeding and waste clean-outs working continuously for stability using both chip and shell. > It could be an interesting use of biomass and reduce cost of eliminating what is considered a hazardous waste. All I can say at this stage of our charmaking project, is that we now have very useful experience in the controlling mechanisms that will help overcome all the issues of using difficult ash forming fuels that we have available as biomass. From my own perspective, I can see considerable change to how gasifiers might be built for toxic applications at some future date. In the mean time, we do the best we can(:-) Hope this might be of assistance. Doug Williams, Fluidyne. _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/
