[Gasification] Report from Pacific Nut Producers Expo

[jim mason]

This week APL had a booth at the Pacific Nut Producers Expo on
November 16th, 2010 in Turlock, CA (Stanislaus County).  Photos from
the event are here in the forum:
http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1675

We brought the Kubota Power Pallet there, and had it running outside
on walnut shells with the other nut harvesting and tree care equipment
on show.  The power pallet ran without issue from 8am to the end of
the show around 1:30pm, powering an array of halogen lights.

For many of the farmers, it seemed this was a new idea, but there was
a good deal of interest. A few thought the contraption was some sort
of still. A few knew about cars running on wood in Europe, but the
idea seemed largely unknown.

Process heat is needed for drying walnuts, electricity or torque for
water pumps, and there are large supplies of walnut shell and tree
trimmings available (one nut processor generates 15 million pounds of
walnut shell annually).  That's 6,000 MWh per year, or 700kw of power
run 24 hours a day, 350 days a year.  At $0.15/kwh, that's US$900,000
in electricity.

The California Air Resources Board has been phasing out the open
burning of agricultural residues (like rice straw, orchard trimmings),
so the materials that used to be piled up and burned, are either
getting mulched, sold for polishing media, or going to cogen plants
hundreds of miles away for $16/ton.  As electricity, the shells are
worth $120/ton.


bear and jim




-- 
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Jim Mason
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