[Gasification] BIOCOAL - THE WOOD FUEL OF THE FUTURE

Wed Jul 18 16:30:10 CDT 2012

Greg and all

The conversion of wood to charcoal is endothermic up to ~300C, but exothermic above 300c. So it is important in making Biocoal NOT to let the reaction continue over to charcoal. 

The use of a gas at 300 C prevents overheating in making Biocoal.

Good luck!

Tom Reed

> Greetings Tom, Leland Jeff, Mark, List, Etc. (and anyone I missed).
> 
> The Idea of torification is a good one, IF, (and only IF), one can also use the byproducts of that torification process.
> 
> I for one, am (have been) moving in this direction, as it is much easier to control, and run a gasifier running on torified product, especially when it comes to motive applications.
> 
> Tom, I will be doing some tests on a 30 gallon drum (no 55's around here) within the week or so, your idea of running it from waste heat off of an engine is great (as long as we are only researching), I could (if one was currently configured) run a test from a CHP generator set that would be running off of torified wood in the first place, however, that will have to wait.
> 
> until then,
> 
> Greg Manning
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 8:22 AM, Tombreed <tombreed2010 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Mark, Greg and all
> 
> Thanks for your good wishes, and I am now mobile with a walker.  Lots of time to pursue thermoplastics, pyrolysis and BIOCOAL.
> 
> <><><>
> 
> BIOCOAL (290-310C) is a very specific product of WOOD TORREFACTION (200-310C) which may become the ideal end product for wood fuel in the future.
> 
> Heating wood to 300C drives off all water and some excess H2O and CO2, giving an increaseth of energy content from ~ 8000 to 10,000 Btu/lb, a friable product easily reduced to face powder particle size for coal-like combustion, pelletization use, and conferring  a waterproof nature.  The emitted gases are combustible, and more than adequate to providerthe process heat for roasting, crushing and briquetting. It is superior to coal In lacking suffer and high ash.
> 
> I wish I was younger and richer.  I believe I would jump into Biocoal with both feet.  Conventional COAL is such an ideal fuel in many ways, and Biocoal fixes the problem areas of sulfur and ash.
> 
> <><><>
> 
> Before my fall I was planning to convert a 55 gal drum of wood scrap into BIOCOAL.  I hope someone will try this.
> 
> At idle the exhaust of a car or truck is about 700C at several ATM pressure.  Two taps, before and  after the muffler should make it possible to withdraw a 300C stream of gas through the barrel of wood and heat the wood to BIOCOAL without allowing overheating.
> 
> By heating with a 300C gas, one prevents the exothermic continuing of the wood to charcoal at 400 C.
> 
> Looking forward to a BIOCOAL future,
> 
> Tom Reed
> 
> Thomas B Reed 
> 
> 
> On Jul 15, 2012, at 2:59 PM, Greg Manning <a31ford at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Greetings Tom, (and list)
>> 
>> Tom, It's great to hear that the fall was not really bad, even though still an inconvenence though.
>> 
>> I have one question/answer I would like to pose, and that is....
>> 
>> Every pelletized product I've gasified, all have done the same thing, they expand in heat/moisture of the hearth.
>> 
>>  One solution I've come up with (even though it lowers the total output of the gasifier) is using parasitic power to run a torification process, instead of a partial combustion process.
>> 
>> All in all, when one looks to both methods of gas evolution, the later is a cleaner method (torification). With the losses of available mass for gas, when partial combustion is applied, the parasitic power difference, in torification is much less, (because of more mass being torified, instead of combusted).
>> 
>> Torification is a much easier method of controlling the hearth's internal temperature, IMO, and handles pelleted products much better, as it gets the moisture level to a level that does not expand the pellets as much (air moisture ??).
>> 
>> 
>> Greg Manning
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Tombreed <tombreed2010 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear Mark and all
>> 
>> Thanks so much for your warming words, twice as warming, here in the Fairview Recovery unit of the Worcester Memorial Hospital system.   I fell down 13 stairs, bound to be unlucky, BUT no permanent damage!  I'm recuperating in my daugher's guest suite, dreaming about a Fall cruise!
>> <><><>
>> Here's a puzzle for all to chew on.  "Gasification" of wood implies the complete conversion of both the cellulose (80%) and lignin (20%) components.  The tars from the lignin are basically aromatic due to the aromatic structure of lignin, and may be the principle component of the smoke and tar.
>> 
>> The primary fuel is then the cellulose smoke, various volatiles that burn cleanly, leaving no solids. 
>> My expert Friend, Mike Antal, Coral Prof. At the University of Hawaii, could give chapter and verse on the nature of the volatiles from burning celluloses.  
>> 
>> Paper and high cellulose paper products could be a much cleaner biomass fuel and are easily pelletized.  Wood pellets have become a major fuel source in the past decade.  Is it possible that paper pellets could be even more important and cleaner and cheaper?
>> 
>> Best wishes to all of you from Tom Reed, back from a bad fall.
>> 
>> Tom Reed
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thomas B Reed 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jul 12, 2012, at 3:42 AM, "Mark Ludlow" <a> wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear Dr. Reed,
>>> 
>>>  
>>> 
>>> You are a mainstay and inspiration to us all. How frustrating it must have been to feel yourself fall! There’s really no reason why the Universe chose you. It certainly was not Karma.
>>> 
>>>  
>>> 
>>> I know you must feel miserable. But I hope that you know that many people love and admire you and are probably wishing, as I wish, that they could have taken that fall for you.
>>> 
>>>  
>>> 
>>> Best wishes,
>>> 
>>> Mark 
>>> 
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