Water to Fuel with the OpenFire

[TroyMartz]

Hi All,

We recently fired up our charcoal gasifier, and had some success with cracking steam. Although we haven't had our gas tested, we feel we have a strong H2 component.

Here are the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJY7VsJ ... xybbSQoBWs


This project is 100% open source, and the plans an CAD files will be coming later in the year, or early 2015... We want to make sure we have a solid foundation before we call it "Version 1.0."

Thanks!

Troy

[luk]

Troy,

Thank you for posting your works. Feel welcome.

Nice builds. Here in Europe charcoal gasifiers are seldom seen. I think the mess that goes with making charcoal is scaring most of the folks off. Also woodchips are very easy to come by. It is standardised fuel, standards are sise 30 and sise 50 (more or less refering the the sises 30 and 50mm) You can even buy sacks of sorted chips in the supermarked.
Charcoal is promising in one way because avoiding the tar problem, on the other hand other issues are coming up. Anyway good there are so many way's to skin the cat, as mike La Rose used to say.

You have a hugh flare there and that is not always an advantage. My first builds produced a 120 cm flare, that is good if you want to run a big block engine but useless if you are not grid connectedonly wants to produce energy for an average one famely house. There around 5Kw electricity and some 10 to 15 kw heat is enough. Big engines use lot of fuel are producing gigantic amounts of warm water wich it is difficult to distribute isf you can not suply it to your neighbours and the electricity, not been able to suply to the net is waisted.

Since I realised that I am strugeling to find a way to produce as little as possible gas. I am constantly experimenting with smaller and smaller restrictions. Now I am at 40 mm. With pellets ok, but with woodchips still a pain. However yesterday I managed to flare almost 1.5 hour in a row producing only a constant flare of some 25cm long.

Keep posting here, you might not have much responce because as I said charcoal beeing not popular but sure everybody will follow you endeavieors with intrests.

Luk

[TroyMartz]

Luk,

I like charcoal for a couple of reasons...

1. No tar... ever
2. I have the choice of using the char for either fuel, or as biochar (Google "biochar")
3. You can't get the volume of steam cracking on an imbert. I know there is water in wood, but not quite to these levels.
4. Our charcoal retort can go from green wood chips to fuel in 1.5 hours.
5. Our wood chips (green or dry) go straight into the retort. They come out perfectly sized.
6. No grinding, no crushing, no sifting, no sorting, no dust!!

We have a variable speed blower with a venturi ejector on the way. In our tests, the only problem was the single speed blower. We have a nozzle in the works that can scale the gasifier from 6HP engines - 42HP engines on the same unit. We can adjust the air flow on the nozzle, while keeping the air velocity at a constant. We may even be able to scale the top end to 200HP with a few modifications. The problem, however, is that cyclone filters are sized to match certain flows... Trying to solve for that now



We're doing our best to set up a very flexible system... Still a long ways to go yet, but we're having too much fun.

The last item of business will be to use all the wasted BTU's we currently have going to atmosphere on our retort. If we can insulate the retort and do something useful with the heat (hydronic heating, water distillation, next batch feed drying, water heating, etc.) then we can say with confidence that we are actually using the same BTU's as the biomass guys. Currently, we will never win that argument, because our retort is rudimentary... Soon!

Thanks Luk!

Troy

[luk]

Troy,

As I said Charcoal takes away some of the troubles connected with woodgas but brings in new troubles also.
Everybody has to build the gasifier that suits his needs. One thing is for sure. In a continious running cogen system a charcoal gasifier will be not very practical i think.
Have you ever calculated how much work it will cost you to produce those huge amounts of coal for running 7 on 7, 24 hours a day with the big block engine you mentioned?
I like your work and people that go off the beaten track. Your gasifier is intresting but for me and many others limited by the charcoal making hassle.

Luk

[TroyMartz]

Luk,

You are absolutely right in that charcoal takes away some problems but introduces new ones. And I think you're right in saying every man has to build what is right for himself.

Now, I am going to try to argue my case for charcoal... It doesn't get much attention, and there are many false assumptions with the "difficulty" of making charcoal, or the inferior nature of charcoal to biomass systems. Of course, the above statement holds true... Every man needs to build what is right for him... I am simply going to make a case that charcoal is not only easier, but perhaps even superior

All in good fun, Luk... You has to make your case with the DriZzleR when it was first introduced, and I am going to make my case for OUR version of charcoal gasification...

I think you may be overestimating the effort it takes to make charcoal. For us, with our retort, we simply chip wood with an average wood chipper (not a special PTO size chunker), throw the chipped wood (even somewhat green/wet wood), light it and walk away. In 1.5 hours, we have charcoal, ready to be used... No drying time necessary, however dry feedstock takes the least energy to pyrolyze. So, I can't help but think that there is not much difference at all with a wood gasser chipping wood, vs. our method. No more hassle at all... I can't say that for other peoples retort, however. Just ours.

As I stated in my last comment, our retort is not ready yet to make use of all those extra BTU's... But it will be. And when that happens, we can stand up against any "BTU" argument with traditional wood gas systems. The BTU's from our retort can go to many useful things:

- Hydronic heating (house)
- Water distillation/sanitation
- Wet feedstock drying (radiator with fan)
- Refrigeration (adsorption refrigeration)
- Etc.

If you are following me so far, I am saying that once we re-design our retort to make use of the waste BTU's, we will be on par with wood gas systems. Wood gas BTU's from the pyrolysis gasses are kept and used in the actual gasifier, while ours is detached, and not exactly tied to the gasifier. We have the option to be tied with an auger, but it isn't necessary. Flexibility.

Now, wood shrinks about 40% in size when it's turned to charcoal. But the energy density of charcoal is greater by volume. So when considering a hopper of wood, and a hopper of charcoal, the charcoal has the greater energy, even though we need an additional 40% raw wood to fill the same hopper. I prefer to use the BTU argument because it's easier.

Here are a few more items that might persuade someone thinking about using charcoal:

- Our advantage over wood gas systems is that our reduction zone has 100 times the surface area than wood chunks.
- We use MUCH smaller charcoal chips (less than 1/2"), and the gas reduces through the entire hopper, not just in the "hearth" zone.
- We can stick a nozzle anywhere we want, and get perfect reduction, which is why our "dynamic gas flow nozzle" will work. Having one gasifier be able to match a vast range of needs is very appealing.
- We are able to use water for 30-50% of our fuel. This alone puts us back closer to wood gas, even though we brought in an outside element. Can't do this with a wood gasifier.
- We also don't need a radiator, if we can balance the steam as a coolant.
- If we insulate the core / copper coils, the heat will be tremendous! That simply means we use more steam (which makes more H2)... i.e. more free fuel.
- When enough steam is used to cool the exothermic reaction, the steam displaces the ambient air that would have been drawn in. This means much less nitrogen in our gas flows. Maybe as much as a 20% reduction.
- We can recirculate the exhaust pipe gasses as a coolant, and as a fuel... CO2 + C --> 2CO. Can't do this with a wood gasifier.
- Recirculation with the exhaust gasses results in longer lasting feed levels (less carbon is needed if we are converting CO2 to CO)... See the "Boudouard reaction"
- Charcoal will store for 10,000 years without rotting. How long will wood last?
- Charcoal can be used as biochar, an amazing soil amendment
- Etc.

So, in summary...

I think I've made a strong case for charcoal... It's not much more work to make the char than it is to make wood chunks. And it can be used quite effectively in CHP systems with an auger and airlock. If the retort heat is used wisely, the BTU's are put to use, and on par with wood gas. And lastly, charcoal is versatile!

Thanks Luk for letting me passionately state my case for charcoal!

Troy

[luk]

Troy,

You have an intresting gasifier and made an intresting set of arguments in favour of a charcoal gasifier. Making charcoal is still something I do not see me doing. Maybe OK for some day's testing but not if I will have to run my automatic system. Day in day out. With woodchips I have no hassle. It is a waist product delivered to my home poored in my bunker and thats it.
The DriZzleR beeing an open gasifier do not need airlocks, wich you will discover as you start using them are very vunerable and not trouble free devises, except for the expensive ones.
Of course the imbert type gasifier need them too, and of course an imbert gasifier is a troublesome gasifier but therefor I looked further and ended up finaly with the DriZzleR a child can operate.
I once was thinking of using a charcoal gasifier. That was some 5 years ago when the winter charcoalmakers still came down from the mountains to work in my region for some weeks making heaps of charcoal for practicaly no money. Now there is no alternative. You must make it youself because it is to expensive to buy in the tons amounts you need for continious production

Well it is good we both have a system that gives us satisfaction because that is the bottom line to keep beeing pasionated.

Luk

[TroyMartz]

Luk,

When we build a biomass gasifier, it's going to be a DriZzleR. In fact, we almost built one before I was pulled into charcoal... I even made a couple of contributions to the Wood Gas forums at Yahoo with some ideas on "drop in" hearths:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Woo ... /410300563

Also, I was Drizzling (by accindent) a long time ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_c67NeWVdA



One of the thing I'd like to try with a DriZzleR is an ajustable restriction. How would we pull that off? I have a few ideas

Troy

[luk]

Troy,

Since most of my work goes into fundamental testing and I am not into producing energy yet, I build all my DriZzleR's as versatile as possible. Then I can run them long between tweaks and rebuilds. In my latest DriZzlR that is partly finihes, i build everything "click and clack" intercangable with bajonet fittings. Just a twist and I change differnt hearts, restrictions and reduction tubes. I can change the restriction in a matter of seconds. Adapt differnt fire tubes and legnthen or shorten the reduction all on the fly, sometimes while the gasifier is burning. Same with the three thermocouples. The latter a bit more tricky because if all elements to measure changes they must also change places and heigths with it. To complicate things even more they have to penetrate the watermantle this one not only must then be high gas temperature tight but also water at 5 times bigger than gas pressure tight.
The biggest problem was making the grate agitator universaly adaptable. The unit has a gimmick too.Oone can see the whole insight through a 100mm quartz glas periscope.
The pyrotouch give me still some trouble and endless adaptions are needed. With pellets no problem but chips are somehow difficult. I work on that and have almost a solution.
Feeding too is troublesome when you connect a very small generator. You almost have to feed every single chip one after another. I lack a workshop and tools. I have to give all my works outdoor and it takes ages. very frustrating.

I need still some parts lasered and when it completely is finished I make a video tour on my latest DriZzlR.

Nice you posted your video. I Once asked Stephen If he would try DriZzlinG in one of his little gasifiers and he did. He even made a DriZzleR version of one of his gasifiers. Named her LENA, after my granddauchter. He reported all went well but he never made a video. Now I finaly see it in yours.

Luk

[Pascal Kirchner]

Hey Troy
I like your System very much
But read some of my notes about charcoal gasifiers.

Here is an interesting report.
A blacksmith makes his own charcoal.
Therefore he needs 23kg wood. To create 6kg charcoal!

http://www.schmiede-handwerk.de/holzkohle.html

Wikipedia in german talking about other amongs for creating charcoal from wood. About 1kg Wood -> 0,5kg charcoal.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holzkohle

The actual volume by the average carbon yield amounts 47.6 percent.
Furnaces in the Ore Mountains for the production of charcoal
Historic charcoal ovens in Heligan

Comparing the apparent volume (without deduction of spaces) of wood with the coal, the types of wood supply following percentages by volume of carbon:

Oak 71.8% to 74.3%
European beech wood 73%
Birch 68.5%
Hornbeam Wood 57.3%
Pine 63.6%

The following percentages by weight of carbon is obtained with different types of wood (at 150 ° C dried and carbonized at 300 ° C):

oak 46%
of spruce 40.75%
Elm 34.7%
Hornbeam 34.6%
Birch 34.17%
Faulbaum 33.6%
Ash 33.3%
Linde 31.85%
Poplar 31.1%
Buckeye 30.0%

If you have enough time and had enough wood.
you can not go far wrong with a charcoal gasifier.
no matter how he is oversized/undersized. he will never produce tar!
However, the efficiency of which he is always behind in terms queue.
When you consider that can produce 1kW electricity from 1kg wood already.
Then the charcoal gasifier with 0,5kg would get along to generate 1kW power.

regards Pascal

[TroyMartz]

Pascal,

I also like the DriZzleR very much. When we build a biomass gasifier, it will be something like the DriZzleR. What I really like about charcoal is the MASSIVE surface for cracking steam, tar, etc. If we can figure out a way to get the volume of charcoal that we do in our unit, with a DriZzleR, then we have something special.

I'm wondering what might happen if we increased the hearth and neck to 1 meter, or something like that. I would assume all the charcoal would be there for reduction, or heat absorption.

Interesting...

Troy