[Gasification] Can small wood-gas systems lower rural energy costs?

[Tom Miles]

Jim Mason and mill personnel installed two All Power Labs Power Pallets - 10
kWe and 20 kWe - this week at a sawmill in SE Alaska as part of a project
for Sealaska Corporation to demonstrate small scale power generation. Owner
Wes Tyler and Thomas Deerfield chipped the fuel while I did the arm waving
and entertained visiting locals. We ran the 20 kWe unit on wet (35% MC)
spruce chips. It ran very well. We did collect a lot of condensate in the
final trap before the engine but there was no sign of tars or sticky char in
the filters.  

 

See the Coast Alaska news story at
http://www.krbd.org/2012/10/19/can-small-wood-gas-systems-lower-rural-energy
-costs/  

 

Mill personnel will run the gasifiers this winter. If all goes well we may
install one of the gasifier at the Icy Point resort where cruise ships visit
an old cannery. The resort is owned by the Hoonah tribal corporation.
Businesses in Hoonah pay up to $0.67/kWe without subsidy so fuel/power is a
substantial cost. Locals are looking for opportunities to generate power and
heat greenhouses to grow fresh vegetables.  

 

Andy Soria, Professor of Wood Chemistry and Applied Environmental Science
and Technology at University of Alaska has had GEKS's for a couple of years
and Bernie Karl in Fairbanks has run a small GEK with an engine but these
are the first gasifier-gensets to be installed in an Alaskan village since
the Alaska Village Electric Coop project by Marenco (Joe Marks) in the early
1980s. 

 

Tom Miles

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20121019/8a128797/attachment.html>