[Gasification] Mr Charcoal PDFed

[Jeff Davis]

Hi Dick,

Impressive project ! ! !

Also an interesting quote below your signature. Any idea who wrote it?


Jeff



On Sun, 2012-02-05 at 13:14 -0600, Dick Gallien wrote:
> Hi Jeff, 
> 
> On your Mr. Charcoal.  Larry Dobson did a design for gasifying brush
> with the rr tank I have, but it cost the guy I got the 80 hp. 150 psi
> Milwaukee Boiler from, $10,000 to have steam fitters hook it up, over
> 20 years ago, so I didn't have the money to follow Larry's plan.
>  Recently I spent $4500 for welding, knowing that at 80, if I don't
> experiment now, the tank will just be another dust collector.  In that
> the tank is 30' X 10' dia X 1" thick, a 7' X 7' door, at 2200 lbs. was
> cut, with a neat, simple hinge, that swings and latches securely, for
> unloading biochar, with a skid loader.  The top of a 11' dia fuel
> tank, that hangs over the 10' dia tank, was cut off, so it can be
> easily removed with the log truck.  The end of April, when I can get
> the old log truck running and more brush comes to this compost site,
> I'll start experimenting. 
> 
> When I put a 10' dia. tank, 8' in the ground, started a burn at the
> base and added brush every 15 minutes, for 6 hrs., until it was full
> of red coals, then put a lid on, with only a 4" dia. hole at the top
> and obviously no air from beneath, the cover was too hot to touch, for
> 4 weeks, there were no visible emissions, just an acrid smell, down
> wind and it charred all the brush.  I put a  10.5' dia X 16' fuel tank
> in the ground and  started a fire at the base, which also burned,
> where as a 55 gal. drum doesn't burn well, without bottom air, so it
> will be interesting for me to see, if with a 10' dia. tank, full of
> dry, compacted brush, what a TL, without the lid on and no updraft,
> will do, in that with the large dia., it makes it's own top draft.  I
> assume that if that works, then with another batch, after it is
> started, the lid, with the 4" dia hole at the top, can be put on,
> which should put the pyrolysis out, but maybe not.   
> 
> Will quench whatever, from the top, with compost tea, knowing that
> when the door is opened, the ensuing dust and blaze would be
> unbearable.  There are pictures of the tank on the web page. Would
> appreciate any thoughts. Thanks for listening,  Dick 
> 
> Dick Gallien  
> 22501 East Burns Valley Road
> Winona  MN  55987
> dickgallien at gmail.com  [507]454-3126
> www.thefarm.winona-mn.us 
> 
> Prison bars do the confining, allowing the prisoner a mental freedom
> not possible in schools, where an endless barrage of assignments,
> lectures, questions and tests, serve the same purpose, under the guise
> of education, while distracting as efficiently as the cracking of
> whips, keeping the imprisoned from discovering and pursuing their
> passions or noticing that there are no real bars------and by the time
> they might realize the purpose of their confinement, it is too late.
> 
>