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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Hi Rolf,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your
family.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I have been very quiet as took a heart attack back
in July and am not having too much fun making the adjustments I must
make.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Hope all is very well with you,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Charles</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=energiesnaturals@gmx.de
href="mailto:energiesnaturals@gmx.de">energiesnaturals</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=gasification@lists.bioenergylists.org
href="mailto:gasification@lists.bioenergylists.org">gasification@lists.bioenergylists.org</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, December 26, 2013 7:16
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Gasification] Wood heating
in the UK - whole log gasification</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Merry Christmas Ken and list ( I am aware that I am a tad late)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>One way to burn whole logs like we do (45cm across x 55 cm long) in an
efficient way is to build a well closed ,dome shaped burning chamber out of 15
cm fire brick and have individually regulated, preheated primary and 2,dary
air , at least 2 pipes either side.</DIV>
<DIV>You build up afire with kindling as you describe it and after 15 min you
can add an entire log of pitchy pine and it will first gasify very
nicely and than burn the charcoal if you want.</DIV>
<DIV>The secret is to keep the walls of the combustion chamber warm and
do not use them as heat xchangers!</DIV>
<DIV>You build a convenient xchanger above it and use the hot exhaust gas.
Build it large enough to reduce the exhaust temp to 90 deg C or less and you
will be way above 50 % eff. Ours has been working for 20+ years and is still
doing fine with 2 mm black steel pipes.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>We never cut anything below 55 cm long and never split anything below 45
cm, believe me or come and see!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Cheers and a happy new year</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Rolf</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 100%">Enviado desde Samsung tablet</DIV></DIV><BR>Ken
Boak <ken.boak@gmail.com> escribió:<BR>
<DIV dir=ltr>Greg
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Thanks for sharing.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I want to try a few ideas for myself to see if this is indeed possible on
the small split logs I can produce locally.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Our heating needs, and indeed modest on account of the mild climate here,
but I would like to find an efficient solution for all the thousands of acres
of neglected coppiced hardwood. Cast iron victorian stoves may be
quaint, but I am sure there are ways to improve the overall efficiency with
radical redesign.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The main burner/heat exchanger on our 24kW gas boiler is no bigger than a
gallon paint tin. Perhaps there is design lesson to be learned
here</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Anything to reduce mechanical handling and processing of wood fuels has
to be a step in the right direction</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Happy New Year </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ken</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_extra><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On 26 December 2013 19:22, Greg Manning <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:a31ford@gmail.com"
target=_blank>a31ford@gmail.com</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote>
<DIV dir=ltr>Greetings Ken, and list members.
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ken, I'm going to point you to a video of the "underside" of a whole
log (or split) "cordwood as we call it here" stove that is a downdraft
gasifier.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I can speak at length privately, however only somewhat on list, as this
is a proprietary design. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Here's the link to the video:</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://youtu.be/DNYCfgEdYpg"
target=_blank>http://youtu.be/DNYCfgEdYpg</A><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Greg Manning</DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_extra><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>
<DIV class=h5>On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 12:59 PM, Ken Boak <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:ken.boak@gmail.com"
target=_blank>ken.boak@gmail.com</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR></DIV></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>
<DIV class=h5>
<DIV dir=ltr><BR>
<DIV>Happy Christmas to the gasification list.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>At this time of year, during the festive holiday season, I get a bit
more time to manage the running of our woodstove, as it rapidly warms the
room and produces a cheery effect.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Our property is fairly conventionally heated by natural gas, but a
few years back, I took the decision to invest in a woodstove with
back-boiler, to provide an alternative or back-up to the gas fired
system.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The woodstove has a flat steel tank at the rear, the "back boilerr",
in place of a couple of the firebricks lining. This circulates
heated water entirely by the thermosyphon principle to a radiator located
in the bedroom/workroom directly above the stove. So in effect the stove
heats the living room/kitchen area directly, and the room upstairs
by circulating hot water.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>No electricity is required for circulation, and if worse-case we had
an extended power outage, this stove would provide heat and comfort in the
two main occupied areas of the house. Stoking it and attending it is often
more interesting than what is being shown on TV!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>With a few days off work, I have had time to monitor the stove and
make some assessments of its overall performance. Its a fairly traditional
stove, a rectangular box,, made from bolted together cast iron
panels and partly lined with firebrick. It's described as a multifuel
stove - having been supplied with a cast iron removable grate for burning
coal - which is not used when burning wood. It's approximately 24" wide,
12" deep and 18" tall.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In the UK, a common size for firewood logs, intended for the domestic
woodstove is about 10" (254mm) long, and equal to a 1/4 round taken from a
limb that may have been 5 or 6" in diameter. The reason for this is
that there is a lot of coppiced hardwood, which has become mis-managed in
the last 20 years, so there are a lot of trees with 6" diameter shoots.
The popularity of the "firewood processor" machine, means that a lot
of this wood is now coming on the market as domestic firewood, and sold to
suburbanites at vastly inflated prices (about $0.50 per kilo).<BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I am burning a mixture of kiln dried Silver Birch, and air dried
other species which includes ash, oak and sweet chestnut. The silver birch
splits well and makes excellent kindling. One log is split into 8 or
10 kindling sticks and these are built into a pyramid around 2 or 3 sheets
of scrunched up newspaper. Lighting is quick and easy - as the birch is
kiln dried, and within 5 minutes you will have a roaring fire and the
larger logs can be added.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The logs have an average weight of approximately 1 kg. I have
found that a normal burn rate of these is two per hour. I burn two
at a time, and each hour, add a further two to the burning char bed from
the previous logs. With firewood having a calorific value of
approximately 4kWh/kg - I estimate the fuel input is in the order of 8 to
10kW.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Of course, with a traditional stove, so much of the heat energy is
lost up the chimney, and goes to create the draft. The efficiency of
the stove, might be in the region of 50% - somewhat better than the open
wood fire. It occurred to me that by way of a 2 stage gasification
process, it would be possible to increase the overall system efficiency,
resulting in less wood consumption, or more heat output per log.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>This leads to a question - is it possible to design a gasifier aimed
at handling whole log gasification - where a log is 10" long and no more
than 6" across? Can you recreate the temperatures, turbulence and
reactants, found within the combustion zone of the woodstove, and use this
to thermally process a single firewood log, at the rate of one every 30
minutes or so?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I've had some ideas on how this can be done, effectively using a
length of 6" diameter stovepipe/fluepipe to make a compact gasifier.
Logs would be loaded in from the top, and the length of the pipe
chosen to perhaps hold 4 logs at any time - about 1m (40") tall.
The bottom log would sit in the combustion zone - so the end of this
log is constantly under the action of the air nozzles. The logs above are
subjected to the elevated temperatures and begin to pyrolise, char and
split on their descent down the tube.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Beneath the combustion zone would be a fairly conventional hearth,
and reduction zone, with the char supported by a grate below that. For an
overall idea of the system - think of HS Mukundas open top gasifier.
</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Use of twin-wall stainless flue pipe would allow the air to be
pre-heated in the outer annulus - adding to the overall efficiency.
The hot syn-gas could be burned in whatever appropriate burner
geometry deemed necessary for either radiant space heating or water
heating with a suitable heat exchanger coil.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I hope to try to build a prototype of this over the next 10 days (a
working gasification holiday?) and to see whether a log can be
reduced in this manner. If all that is needed is heat, then the
restrictions to produce a tar free gas need not apply. If one can use
whole logs, without having to resort to woodchip - then this will be a
considerable saving in mechanical handling and wood processing.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>At the end of the day - this gasifying stove needs to be as simple to
operate as the existing woodstove. Reloading with a couple of logs
each hour, and no sophisticated need for fan- forced draft or electricity
to operate. Draft would come from the chimney as per now - about 25 to 30
feet, 6" diameter.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>If anyone has experience of something similar - please let me
know.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Happy Holidays</DIV><SPAN><FONT color=#888888>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ken</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
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