GAS-L: Now some gas experience questions.

[David Reynolds-Lacey <d.rl@virgin.net>]

Dear All,

As  a follow up to Tom's questions plus a couple
of my own about engines, I have a few gas
questions.

Is there an optimum temperature at which to
produce gas i.e. if you make it a too low a temp
or too high a temp what happens to the quality of
the gas ? (I do realise that at a much too high
temperature it would spontaneously ignite)

What pre-processing of the gas is required before
use in a reciprocating engine?

Is it cost effectively possible to recover any
other wood by-products (apart from char) from the
process?

I am particularly interested in ending up with
gas,  lumpwood charcoal and heat  all of which I
have use, in fact, a need,  for. Would I therefore
require to use small wood "lumps" to produce
minimum charcoal fines. Is there a optimum size
for the "lumps" and could say, 150 mm X  400 mm
long  logs split into 4,  be used.  I produce
charcoal from logs of the size stated and larger
at the moment and find that most fines are created
when physically breaking the charred logs into the
required sizes for charcoal. To what  size would
these (lumps or logs) naturally  break down in the
process, assuming careful handling when emptying?
It seems that the production of smaller wood lumps
is quite labour and energy intensive how ESSENTIAL
is it.

What is the optimal desired mc of the wood I
presume bone dry - but what is the drying trade
off considering drying costs.

 I am considering indirect heating of the wood in
a retort type process by using the flue output
(around 700C) of a lightly forced draft ,woodchip
(or forest debris) burner. The burner, based on a
Andrew Heggie design, will burn woodchip at up to
50 percent mc and give an output of  >50kW(t) with
CO at around 150ppm, will burn for around 5/6
hours on a batch feed. This will dispose of my
forest debris in a useful way whilst keeping
separated from my lumpwood charcoal. I have done
this on a small (200 litre oil drum) scale with
good results but in this case the container was
housed inside the burner. I now propose to upscale
to a 1.5 M diam X 1.5 M high container made from
8mm thick steel housed in an insulated "cosy"
about of about 15 percent greater volume. Has
anyone done anything like this? It would be good
to know of any problems especially with the
transfer of heat into a container of this size
with a total surface area of about only 12 Sq M.
Any available heat transfer figures would be
invaluable.

I also take this opportunity to set out below my
plans, aspirations and implementation ideas
referred to in my recent (also lengthy) post

Unlike many off you, my Web site is not up and
running yet,  thus I have nowhere to refer you,
therefore permit me to give below a brief details
of who I am and what I am doing in order that you
can get a " feel" for what I am all about.

I retired from business 10 years ago at the age of
48 and since this time I have engaged in
restoration, conservation and environmental
activities.  Most of  my own work now is of an
altruistic nature. I am well known locally to be
passionate and outspoken about environmental
matters and appear occasionally in the press but
rarely on TV,  preferring the visual anonymity
(most valuable in a small community) of radio
where I have recently completed a short series ("A
walk in the woods") with  the BBC.  I am currently
preparing another series "Woodland Biomass Energy
- the real world" (working title), thus my
interest in getting a combined charcoal, heat and
power system up and running, although I do have a
personal need for such a system in any event.  I
am (inter alia) a competent amateur (some say
frustrated) mechanical engineer and have a well
equipped CNC toolroom and fabrication shop.

Five years ago I purchased a 60 ha much neglected
and derelict Ancient semi-natural woodland and
Site of Special Scientific Interest on the edge of
the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, England, I am
hoping to acquire a further 100 ha shortly.  I
have set about restoring and conserving this
woodland using traditional methods including short
rotation coppicing. The work is being carried out
through a not-for-profit organisation (Areley Wood
Enterprises)  founded and funded by me. The Wood
has a long  history in charcoal production,
especially for use in  iron making when the
Industrial Revolution started a few miles away
and  gunpowder production, along with other
traditional woodland products. Later coal was
produced from the several mines in the wood, one
of which was worked until the late 1920's and is
believed to still have a workable seam. Charcoal
and later, coal was also used to fire the brick
kilns in the Wood, bricks and tiles made from the
clay on the site were widely distributed
throughout Worcestershire from the 16th C until
the late 19th C.

My  own energy requirement and current plans.

I require to produce 72.5 kVA, 415V, 3 phase (100
amps/phase)  to run my toolroom and fabricating
shop, which I intend to move from my home to a
building at Areley Wood, I also require heating
for the shop and for glasshouses. I have 6
dwellinghouses within 300M of the Wood and I hope
to be able to supply them with hot water for
heating etc. and possibly electrical power at a
later date. This system will be my proving ground
prior to moving on to my next scheme, which is to
build 5 or 6 small industrial units with adjacent
dwellings near to the Wood,  all of which will (I
envisage) be powered with biomass sourced from the
Wood. I realise that small scale systems with the
fuel source on the doorstep is the best, perhaps
only at present, way forward. We have 1000's of
hectares of land in the UK  for which farmers are
being paid to do nothing with and this land could
be planted out with woodland, managed as coppice
with standards and small "green field" light
industrial developments with adjacent dwellings,
of the type I plan to build, could be built
alongside. This entire enterprise will be
established and run as a not-for-profit
enterprise, funded entirely from my own resources
as I want no restrictions, bureaucracy, boards of
Trustees or committees to waste valuable time
pondering and deciding at these early stages, when
manufacturing by committee just does not work, I
just want to do it, I want to do it quickly and I
want to do it myself.  I hope to end up with a
product that is easy for a  competent person to
build from supplied component parts and in which
many parts can be easily fabricated on site from
detailed drawings by the person/organisation,  in
order to keep bought in ready made parts, thus
ownership cost, to the minimum. A value added
advantage of the system that I envisage is that I
could buy back the charcoal (from UK based users)
if this was not required by them, as I have a
ready market for it. The UK barbecue charcoal
market is around GBP40M per annum, with (I
believe) 97 percent percent imported, some from
not very environmentally or ecologically friendly
sources.

Future implementation  plans:

If a usable and reliable product results from this
exercise it is my intention, in the latter part of
2003 early 2004, to set up a fund (The
Reynolds-Lacey Bioenergy Trust)  starting with
circa GPB1M which will provide targeted, strictly
controlled (maybe in some instances matched)
funding for the construction of the system by
"qualifying" individuals or organisations. The
funding may only be used for the purchase of
components and materials for the construction of
the equipment  i.e. not for salaries, research
fees, consultancy fees, feasibility studies and
the like. Certain special tools and equipment,
like welding equipment etc., to directly aid
construction  may qualify for funding, this could
even be supplied on a loan basis and moved on to
another "builder" on completion.  The equipment
must be operated from woodland produce, such as
short rotation coppicing and the like, on or near
the site. Priority would be given to projects
where new woodland is to be planted and managed
and funding would then be available for
planting.   Funded "Builders" may build the
equipment for other "qualifiers" who do not have
the resources, at a reasonable charge for the area
(again audited), this would provide a small
business opportunity for someone whose financial
aspirations were not great, i.e someone who is
happy to simply make a reasonable living. I
emphasise that this is "hands on" funding, all
funded projects will be strictly supervised and
audited to maximise the spending of funds on ONLY
the actual production of a REAL WORKING product.
Obviously the drawings and components etc would be
available for purchase by any other non qualifying
person/organisation through a not-for -profit
company or any other company that wished to
manufacture under licence. The only reason that
any arising Property Rights or copyrights etc.
would be protected would be only to prevent
exploitation of the design etc. for purely
commercial reasons, the licence fee would be low
and based on an  reasonable percentage (audited)
of the profit generated which would have to be
deemed and proved reasonable. There is much fine
tuning to do on this and I would consider any
suggestions that you may wish to  put forward. I
would also invite interested parties who may be
interested in acting as future Trusties,
supervisors/ project auditors to make themselves
known. However, please don't apply for funds yet
there is a lot to do before we get to that stage!

Rather than clutter up the list with this matter
perhaps it may be better to contact me off list,
especially if you already have a product (or an
idea for one) or could make components that would
fit the bill, but I don't want to buy the product
ready built, I want to build it myself to start
with, that way I learn very quickly. I do have a
diesel 72.5 kVA, 3 phase generator with a six
cylinder Perkins engine, I don't know if it will
be usable for  gas conversion but it works
perfectly well on diesel.

This is my proposed contribution to try to further
biomass gasification usage. Other contributors,
where possible, may also consider making a
philanthropic gesture, perhaps if only to get
their own idea off  the ground via my scheme or to
further their own research or " market ready"
product profile (especially if it could be easily
supplied in kit form), or maybe even just to
further the gasification cause. With this in mind,
I welcome any initially free contributions/ideas
and/or physical help.

I look forward to your responses.

Incidentally, if you think it won't work, please
say so and why, I do need to know.

Regards,


David

PS
It's  3.35 AM and I've only just seen the latest
news from the Earth Summit - very sad.  I would
suggest that the compromise on the renewable
energy target certainly has the fingerprints of
the fossil fuel industry all over it.  Well, maybe
in another 10 years, who knows?







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