[Gasification] BIOCOAL - THE WOOD FUEL OF THE FUTURE

[Peter & Kerry]

Dear Tom R,

  13 steps eh? After missing the first one the rest just followed 
naturally... Did you find you experienced a little time distortion? When 
I was hit by a truck back in 96' I recall having more than enough time 
to reflect on what was happening even though from start to finish it was 
less than a handful of seconds.

Very glad you are recovering and still thinking of the future.

A few years ago before he retired Jim Arcate in Hawaii used to have an 
excellent website on Torrefied wood as a coal replacement with detailed 
engineering calculations on energy balances etc. I still use some of his 
original spreadsheets. Together with the late Thomas Stubbing (Airless 
Drying) the three of us had many interesting and detailed discussions on 
technology approaches and applications. We were a bit ahead of time in 
terms of markets though. Plus ten years on my wife and I are are finally 
beginning to realise these plans over here in OZ. We are just setting up 
to do commercial trials of biocoal (torrefied wood) from wood chips for 
a client with lots of wood waste and customers asking them specifically 
can they tailor a product to suit their coal boiler applications that 
doesn't require anything in the way of modifications to their existing 
plant?

A happy convergence of need, knowledge and resource. The recently 
introduced Federal Carbon Tax is also spurring interest. One of the keys 
to doing this successfully at scale is a well designed gasifier, to 
provide the process control, heat and emissions management for a 
dedicated continuous retort. The former we have been working on 
ourselves with some success, and the latter we are partnering with 
another old contact who focused his efforts on pyrolysis instead, with 
equal success.

We do plan on using engine exhaust from an on site IC engine generator 
similar to what you suggest only for the initial moisture reduction 
(starting mc for the feed stock is 50%). This will allow the retort 
itself to run at optimum on pre-dried chips and lift the gas output 
quality from this so it is easier to capture its energy. The generator 
will run off the gasifier and be used to power the wood chipping and 
material handling etc.  The plant design allows flexibility in product 
output, from simply drying wood chips (uniform gasifier fuel) through 
biocoal (enhanced boiler fuel) to biochar (soil amendment) as required. 
The first plant for this should be commissioned before the end of the 
year near Canberra using radiata pine plantation residues as feed stock.

We are just 25 minutes from the Canberra Airport and we intend to make 
this plant will be available for viewing when commissioned.

Keep on recovering, the world needs more wisdom.

cheers,
Peter

"When I was young I started with nothing, and now that I am older I 
still have some of this left..."



On 17/07/2012 5:00 AM, gasification-request at lists.bioenergylists.org wrote:
> BIOCOAL (290-310C) is a very specific product of WOOD TORREFACTION (200-310C) which may become the ideal end product for wood fuel in the future.
>
> Heating wood to 300C drives off all water and some excess H2O and CO2, giving an increase of energy content from ~ 8000 to 10,000 Btu/lb, a friable product easily reduced to face powder particle size for coal-like combustion, pelletization use, and conferring  a waterproof nature.  The emitted gases are combustible, and more than adequate to provide the process heat for roasting, crushing and briquetting. It is superior to coal In lacking suffer and high ash.
>
> I wish I was younger and richer.  I believe I would jump into Biocoal with both feet.  Conventional COAL is such an ideal fuel in many ways, and Biocoal fixes the problem areas of sulfur and ash.