[Gasification] energy for villages

[Thomas Reed]

Dear Ken and All

Several years ago I urged the Community Power Corporation (CPC) to increase the compression ratios of the engines they sold with their gasifiers.  My memory is that they tried 17/1 and found a considerable increase in both efficiency and power output.  

I am copying this to RobbWalt, head of CPC in hopes that he will have comments on this. 

Tom Reed 
The Biomassenergyfndn.com

Thomas B Reed 


On Apr 24, 2012, at 12:59 PM, Ken Boak <ken.boak at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear A.D. Karve & Gasification Colleagues
> 
> Is there any documentation of this village scale electrification project?  Is the project currently running?
> 
> I have read the IISc Papers on the Hosahalli Village project - but that was more than 20 years ago.
> 
> I have been working on an experimental spark ignition conversion of the Lister type single cylinder engine - so that it can be run either on woodgas or diesel/biodiesel.
> 
> The intention is a diesel start-up (for convenience) and then a rapid switch over to woodgas, when the gasifier is up to temperature. This minimises the amount of diesel needed over the whole run time - yet provides the convenience of a quick start-up cycle.
> 
> We have retained the 17:1 compression ratio of the Lister engine - and are currently re-tracing the work - initially done in India to prove that woodgas can be used at these compression ratios - without pre-detonation (knock). So far, the results look promising and we have achieved between 2500 and 3000 electrical watts from the 6HP Lister engine running in this mode. 
> 
> The project has been ongoing for some time now  - and we hope that it will result in a spark ignition kit being offered for owners of small diesels.  The Lister type engines are particularly suitable for conversion - but we hope that other small diesels - such as Kirloskar are also fairly easily converted - with the addition of the sparkplug.
> 
> This work is being undertaken at All Power Labs in Berkeley, California - and was recently demonstrated at a Weekend Workshop earlier this month.
> 
> 
> 
> Ken Boak
> 
> Principal Electronic Engineer
> All Power Labs
> Berkeley 
> CA 94710
> 
> 510 684 2640
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Gasification mailing list
> 
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> Gasification at bioenergylists.org
> 
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org
> 
> for more Gasifiers,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/