Re: Fw: Methanol from biomass

[Keith Addison <keith@journeytoforever.org>]

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tom Reed" <tombreed@attbi.com>
>To: "Keith Addison" <keith@journeytoforever.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 8:35 PM
>Subject: Re: Methanol from biomass
>
>
> > Dear Keith:
> >
> > Making methanol is like making steel - hard to do at back yard level.
> > Minimum size plant that could break even is about 5 t/day because of the
> > instrumentation requirements, compressors, gas cleanup etc.  (See our
>books
> > on methanol and synthesis gas production at www.woodgas.com).
> >
> > Sorry,    TOM REED              BEF GASWORKS

Thankyou Tom. As feared. :-(

On the other hand, the Zulus, and most African tribes, used to make 
very high-quality steel on a less than industrial scale. I have 
somewhere a tale written by an English traveller in Mozambique a 
hundred years ago or more who much admired the quality of the steel 
in the hand-hoes the people were using in their fields. They told him 
it was poor-quality steel, they kept the good steel for spears. 
Nonetheless he bought a couple of their hoes and took them back to 
England, where he had them forged into a pair of fine hunting rifles. 
This was in one of Basil Davidson's African history books. I've been 
told the traditional African steel techniques have been lost. Indian 
steel? Japanese swords? Damask swords? Toledo? This was all 
small-scale stuff I think, certainly very high quality.

No such lost Eldorado with methanol though, I fear.

Many thanks once again.

Best wishes

Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
Handmade Projects
Osaka, Japan
http://journeytoforever.org/

 


> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Keith Addison" <keith@journeytoforever.org>
> > To: <bioenergy@crest.org>
> > Cc: <gasification@crest.org>
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:31 PM
> > Subject: Methanol from biomass
> >
> >
> > > Hello all
> > >
> > > I quite often get requests like this, and it's also of great interest
> > > to people making biodiesel, but none of us knows of a good way of
> > > doing it.
> > >
> > > >I'm looking for info on producing wood alcohol from Juniper, Pinion
> > > >Pine or Sagebrush.  I live in the mountains of southern Utah and
> > > >have an abundance of these.
> > > >Thanks
> > >
> > > Does anyone know of a good method of producing methanol from biomass,
> > > on a scale that a farmer or a backyard mechanic could use, rather
> > > than a corporation?
> > >
> > > Many thanks
> > >
> > > Keith Addison
> > > Journey to Forever
> > > Handmade Projects
> > > Osaka, Japan
> > > http://journeytoforever.org/
> > >
> > >
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