Hi Guys, it very much depends on the size and situation, I am a
designer, so I use a different mix of products for each situation
according to the total energy required per day, the available
resource, the Peak load, required storage, (ie days without input, -
more relevant with Wind and Solar because of the potential long eg
wind droughts) possibility of different input sources and such.
For the smaller systems, - up to app. 20kW I use the Australian
company Selectronic's SP Pro series, www.selectronic.com.au of which I
am an accredited installer.
I have yet to succeed in a tender for gasifier powered power, - tried
for one in the Kalahari in Africa, - they had endless thorn bushes, to
burn, - 250kW planned to use Bill Klein's machine, and a slightly
smaller one on an Island to the north of Darwin Australia, both using
conversion and inversion equipment you would not expect me to divulge.
The Oz site is still running on diesel, so that one may still happen,
- I put in a 75 kW wind powered system using the same concept on
another site for those folk and it is working fine..
Possibly best if you contact me about particular situations, I want to
make known the general principles but not my suppliers and trade
secrets as it has taken years of severe slog to build this all up and
only now does bankruptcy start to look like receding to a more relaxed
distance.
I will say that larger situations, - 150kW up, are in many respects
much cheaper in equipment than the smaller ones, although battery
banks are close to proportional, - Battery banks, app. 25cents/watt/hr
using C10.
The name I give this design concept is Battery Centric, it is already
reasonably widely used for small stand-alone solar and wind systems,
and I have helped to a degree Selectronics develop their units in that
area, - like almost everything in this whole renewable energy area,
the real driver is product development.
What I can tell you is that the control and conversion equipment is
available to do amazing things, you don't have to tailor your gasifier
to a specific requirement, you just have to make it reliable, - I,
(and probably others) can do the rest.
For example control the output power from your generator according to
inputs you can specify, - temperature or volume or hydrogen content of
your output gas or whatever you have found to be critical.
Hope I haven't made it all sound complicated, - it is really a
simplification process, batteries are like O blood group blood, - the
universal donor, once you put your however variable power into the
battery bank it can power anything.
(Also I guess the universal acceptor, you can throw any sort of
variable electrical power at it and it will be accepted).
All sorts of possibilities open up.
Cheers,
Geoff.
On 21/11/2010, at 6:00 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Gasification Digest, Vol 53, Issue 1 (JHasty)
2. Details please Geoff in Australia (Max Kennedy)
3. Re: Details please Geoff in Australia (Rolf Uhle)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:57:49 -0800
From: JHasty <[email protected]>
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Gasification] Gasification Digest, Vol 53, Issue 1
Message-ID:
<[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi Geoff from Australia,
Curious, what is the brand and cost of your stand-alone and grid
connect
controller you are using for your gasifier/battery bank system?
Thanks,
Jay
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 5:05 PM, Geoff Thomas IMAP <[email protected]>
wrote:
Answering Doug and Greg, on the topic of getting your gasification
produced
power on to the grid, I use an Inverter that is a combination of
Stand-alone
and Grid connect, - this draws from a battery bank, and when the
bank is
full, legally (yes, approved) exports the incoming power to the
grid. - It
is a response to customers who want their Solar input to continue
when the
Grid is down, and also those who want to use their own power when
the Peak
grid power charges are occurring.
This sort of system is also a whole house UPS so delivers very high
quality
power to all your appliances without spikes.
Yes, it is more expensive, the Inverters are more expensive than a
straight
grid connect inverter, and depending on the size of the battery
bank, the
batteries can cost a lot as well.
(Just to pre-empt a discussion on batteries, I use high quality 22
years
design life lead acid Tubulars, 16.4 years life if you cycle 20%/
day, they
are not expensive and the manufacturer will take back any old
batteries and
re-cycle them, - lead acid battery technology has come a long way
the last
few decades).
The point of this system is you can use it for any input at all, your
electrical output from your gasifier only needs to be put into the
battery
bank, - ideal for batch gasifiers, and other intermittent
renewables such as
Wind or Solar, raining time only Hydro, (run of the river, er um
gutter:-)
and the Inverter can also charge up the batteries from a petrol,
diesel or
gasifier genset or even use the grid power at off peak times.
This is like putting an incredibly flexible gear-box between your
power
usage and your generation system.
Obviously, for a gasifier it takes all the worry out of meeting
specific
demand criteria, changing generator speeds and the like, all you
need is a
maximum power tracking type of rectifier, several now widely
available, and
you are ready to roll.
Hope that helps,
Geoff Thomas.
Australia.
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