[Gasification] Fluidyne Update

Fri Feb 27 13:16:58 CST 2015

Doug and coolleagues 
Congrats on all the work. Nice update. I'm looking forward to the photos.  Biochar certainly is the  trend we are watching closely. 
As for us, our 3.5 mw chp plant commissioning is suppose to be in ~5 months. We'll know more in a month barring any other unforeseen problems. 

Posted are some pictures 
Some boiler repairs

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  Boiler
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Glycol lines and cooling towers
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> On Feb 24, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Doug Williams <doug.williams.nz at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Fluidyne California
> 
> Shasta 2 Gasifier.
> 
> Since the Shasta 2 Gasifier at CalForest Nurseries in California was put
> work in February 2014 for the Winter heating, it's operation completed over
> 1,000 hours of daily operation without failure of any component. The next
> 1000 hours had failures of fuel lock seals allowing leaks into their
> actuating motors so will be now replaced with separated actuators. The
> system was able to demonstrate a push button start from cold (after checks
> to all the fuel feeding conveyors) and walk away operating reliability for
> the day/night operation.
> 
> The boiler pipelines have now been extended into a second greenhouse for the
> 2015 Winter heating, and indications are that there is still plenty of
> additional heat in reserve. The first start of this year did bring surprise
> however, in that the wood chip being gasified had a moisture content of 40%.
> The Shasta 2 still made a combustible gas, but initial ignition of the
> burner nozzle was difficult on the standard air setting, so less air and it
> ignited immediately. Wet wood isn't an option but the log pile was left open
> without its covers, and a lesson was had by all concerned.
> 
> Biochar Making Project.
> 
> It's been almost two years since my last visit to CalForest, and my visit in
> the last week of January 2015 was of special significance to commission a
> new concept of continuous charcoal manufacture. The conceptual process was
> first proposed in 2007, but put on the back burner as the focus was on
> gasifier development for heating and engine power generation. While biochars
> have a role to play within the Nurseries of CalForest, as a commercial
> product, it's production costs are an inhibiting factor for those consumers
> who need large quantities. With forest fires a problem in many countries,
> fuel reduction programmes within forests sees large amounts of green forest
> chip becoming available, with a potential for char making.
> 
> As stated, the target fuel is green forest chip, which at best does not make
> good quality char for barbecue or cooking applications. The cost in time for
> retort type charring to capture the pyrolysis gas cannot be justified if the
> end result is only a char that then needs briquetting before it can be used.
> As a tonnage production, it's application as biochar is of course dependent
> on price to the end user, and our project is designed to explore the
> potential to reduce costs of the production cycle. 
> 
> Starting in November 2014, the original char maker design concept was
> reviewed and a few changes made as to how the char extraction was
> accomplished, but to first prove these changes, a wooden model was built.
> Char collected from the Shasta 2 waste clean outs were used to obtain the
> fluid flows expected from forest chip fine char providing a visual
> demonstration that the extraction process was very stable across the length
> of the bed. As a base line specification, we were looking for 5-7 m3/hr, or
> roughly 1 ton/hr from about 5 ton green chip. Availability was set at a
> reasonable 1,900 hrs/year depending on location which would see a reduction
> of forest fuel of roughly about 9,500 tons/unit. With fuel flows of that
> order, we had to use the main fuel feeder conveyor of the Shasta 2 gasifier,
> combined with a lot of observation (and shouting) to run it all manually.
> The proto-type was completed in the last week of January 2015.
> 
> Based on previous knowledge regarding the chars ability to retain uncracked
> pyrolysis oils and tars (creating a strong acetic or acrid smell), the need
> for a char of consistent quality and evenness of carbonisation, identified a
> design need to even out all these variables. Linked with a dwell time
> between the refuelling cycles, we soon discovered that anything less than
> complete carbonised char created operational problems to the extraction
> system, but once we learnt to start the system correctly, these issues were
> resolved.
> 
> Built as a test of concept, the charmaker was proven to function within our
> pre-set design parameters, which now justifies the next phase of
> development.
> This includes a internal fuel pile leveller/refuel sensor, heat resistant
> air nozzles, and change to the extraction auger design. Flare stack closures
> will facilitate the shut down procedure, as will fuel feeder locks on the
> fuel input end to exclude all free air entry. The start-up from ignition to
> gas burning at the flare stack was faster than anticipated once we found the
> ideal air flow settings, and 5-10 minutes gave us time to be closely
> watching all the visible phenomena, especially the oxidation colour through
> the air nozzles creating temperatures well over the 1,000C. The pyrolysis
> gas was burnt to waste cleanly, demonstration that it could become a
> reliable source of close coupled heating as required.
> 
> Although we have designed a charmaker for chips, it's performance factors
> should also apply to any nut shell or fruit stone/pip, which in time will be
> tested with results shown on the Fluidyne Archive files. Also to be tested
> is tar free gas extraction to run an auxiliary engine generator for stand
> alone operation of the system.
> 
> Photos of this project can be seen on the Fluidyne archive
> www.fluidynenz.250x.com and will be available to see in about 7-10 days from
> this posting.
> 
> Hope this is of interest to those following our development programme.
> 
> Doug Williams,
> Fluidyne.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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