Re: GAS-L: Re: Papercrete insulation

[Ken Boak <kenboak@stirlingservice.freeserve.co.uk>]

Carl,

You could get a small blower fan and put it through the air hole.  If you use a dc brushless fan - PC cooling fan, you can control the draught by changing the voltage. I would us a 5" fan and make a cone out of aluminium to taper it down to the 2" holesize.

Alex English loaded his Big Top with 100kg of wood and this burnt with a 50kW flame for about 7 hours.  It was then sealed up, and the charcoal (20kg) removed when cold.

I would be interested in the possible further reaction of steam with hot charcoal to produce further combustible gas and just leave the non-combustible ash. This ash could then go on the garden. - Or be used to make refractory furnace liners. Now there's a thought?

Does anyone know what temperature the charcoal needs to be inorder to combine efficiently with steam?

I'm now trying to find a heat engine (probably Stirling) that will be well matched to the ouput of this scale of gasifier. There is a low-tech American design which may be licensable. There are a few in use in Madras - but they no longer build them there.

The engine needs a 38kW heatsource and gives about 4kW of electricity and 30kW of hot water.

An engine like this combined with a simple gasifier need only be stoked and lit in the morning, and then runs all day (7 hours or so) without attention.

You could heat and light a fair sized workshop with 30 +5 kW.

Regards,


Ken





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