>Walt you out there? If so, would you care to chime in and add any new
>information?
Haven't blown myself up yet :-)
Don't know that there's anything I'd call "new" but it's more along the
lines of the saying that "the only thing new is the history you don't
know." There have been so many interesting developments over the past
decade that it's a challenge to sort them all out.
For example, the development of pressure swing absorption (and it's newer
sister vacuum swing adsorption) now make it possible for micro plants to
generate low cost oxygen on site, something which makes processes ranging
from the old Union Carbide Purox process to auto-thermal steam reforming
feasible for small plants.
Another example is torrefication, a process which increases the energy
yield when converting wood chips in char, but also offers significant
improvements in material handling.
Here's a pic of our latest test reactor without its shroud.
http://www.windward.org/notes/notes64/stfrm01.jpg
The reactor will be encased in castable refractory insulation, so the
angle iron welded to the outside is there to create channels through the
insulation for hot gas to rise from the lower section to the upper, thereby
heating the char in the reactor.
Here's another shot that shows the heat exchanger a bit more clearly.
http://www.windward.org/notes/notes64/stfrm02.jpg
And another showing the shroud being put in place prior to pouring in the
castable insulation.
http://www.windward.org/notes/notes64/atr02.jpg
The heat exchanger may not be needed, but it's an option we wanted to
build in while it was easy to do so. This is a research reactor, and as
ever, research is what you do when you don't know what you're doing :-)
The Plan at this point is to fill the reactor with wood chips
http://www.windward.org/notes/notes64/wdchip01.jpg
produced by our PTO mounted chipper
http://www.windward.org/notes/notes64/wdchip02.jpg
and torrefy them into char, and then auto-thermally reform the char into
syngas.
Those unfamiliar with torrefication might want to start with this
description.
http://hem.fyristorg.com/zanzi/torrefaction.html
Through the summer we've been busy with a variety of construction
projects, but as the winter rains set in, we're looking forward to getting
back to working on weaving together the many strands that go into a project
like this. For example, we've built a 20'x40' workshop that will be getting
a hydronic slab floor so that we can utilize the low grade heat coming out
of the heat exchangers.
with best wishes from Windward,
Walt
http://www.windward.org/
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