Jock,
I did not understand
Not having any secondary air introduced into the pyrolysis chamber is
brilliant. I wish I had thought of it
Please explain, or re-send how you explained it before.
Paul
Paul S. Anderson, PhD aka "Dr TLUD"
Email: [email protected] Skype: paultlud Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website: www.drtlud.com
On 5/5/2013 10:05 AM, Jonathan P Gill wrote:
Fellow stovers,
This morning, I loaded my Rim Fire iCan TLUD with 1500 grams of
Vermont wood pellets. Powered with a muffin fan, it runs like a champion.
1,000 grams of 14C water in an open top can set on top of the
grate boiled in 10 minutes . Old school.
520 grams of 14C water in a Swiss Volcano style unit set on top of the
grate, boiled in 3:20 minutes. The boil was so vigorous that the water
spilled over the top and put out the gas fire. New school.
Re-lit the gas with no problem as the water merely splashed on the
burner grate and never made it into the pyrolysis chamber. Not having
any secondary air introduced into the pyrolysis chamber is brilliant.
I wish I had thought of it.
The syngas flames are still orange, but it sure works like gang
busters with no holes in the burner plate. I observe that after the
yellow wood gas flames vanish at the end of the run, a deep blue flame
is present on top of the burner grate. This lasts for a few minutes
and then it too vanishes. Even with the fan on full, the unit self
extinguishes with zero smoke. With wood pellet feed stock, there is
only minor ash residue. The quenching water does not turn milky.
Notes:
1. After the second boiling test, I replace the open top can on the
burner. It reboiled and kept boiling boiling until the feed stock as
exhausted at about the 45 minute mark. Approximately 95% of the water
was evaporated, as only 49 grams of water were left in the can. The
water had been out all night and had stabilized to ambient
temperatures. It had quite possibly not yet warmed up to the air temp
of 14C.
2. The pH of the quenching water was about 7, ie neutral. Grass
quenching water tests at about pH 11.
3. The resulting charcoal has an extremely clean nose and easily
passes Hugh's "no soap test".
4. Wood pellets are a lot nicer to work with than grass pellets. The
exhaust gasses of grass pellet pyrolysis tend to be messy. This
possibly indicates that the temperature in the system is not hot
enough to crack the oils and tars peculiar to grasses.
5. The Rim Fire iCan is based on the fan powered TLUD work of Prof.
Bolinio, described in 2005, and subsequent work by Paul Olivier. Like
their designs, no secondary air is introduced into the pyrolysis
chamber. My basic departures from their designs are that 1] I use a
burner plate whose diameter is slightly LESS than the diameter of the
pyrolysis chamber; 2] I use no holes at all in the burner plate; 3] I
use fewer and smaller primary air holes in three concentric rings.
The burner plate is essentially the opposite of a concentrator ring
often used in TLUDS that introduce secondary air into the pyrolysis
chamber.
6. Currently I am working with a fixed speed muffin fan. Clearly, a
variable speed fan will offer many advantages. I hope to have one
latter this week. The design goal is a fan than can be powered by
either a 9 volt battery or a small solar cell. A key goal is a free
standing unit that is not grid dependent. I am working on this with a
friend who is former General Dynamics engineer.
If you want more details and photos, please send me a note.
More as it is.
Cheers from VT,
Jock
Jonathan P Gill
Peacham, VT.
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
ExtractCO2 from the atmosphere.
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