[Stoves] Rice hull gasifier milling rice

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Gasifying Friends

I just stopped at a rice milling plant that is about 20 km outside Battambang. It processes about 1.9 tons per hour. It is all flat belt driven and a lot of it is made of wood. 

The power plant is an internal combustion engine of about 200 HP. It runs on gas. The gas is supplied by a rice hull gasifier at the back of the building where there is literally a mountain of rice hull. 

The gasifier looks quite modern and operates in a way that is day-and-night continuous. The rice hull is fed into the vertical reactor by an auger. The reaction zone position is not exactly constant but is maintained within certain limits. 

The ash/char is dropped off the top into a shallow pond to quench it. 

I see no reason why a small stove could not be operated in the same manner: TLUD with episodic feeding from below via a plunger of some sort. Rice hull flows easily. If the primary air control is adequate a range of 1 to 4 kW would be perfect. 

If anyone is interested I took pictures of the whole gas system and power plant. 

Regards
Crispin at km post 271 outside Battambang