[Gasification] BIOCOAL - THE WOOD FUEL OF THE FUTURE

[Anand Karve]

Dear Stovers,
I found it very easy to torrefy biomass, using the oven and retort system
of charcoal making. However as far as I understood the process, one does
not remove all the volatiles from the wood during the process of
torrefaction. Can we use torrefied wood in a charcoal burning stove? Would
it not produce smoke and soot? Or does one need a different type of stove
for torrified wood?
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Greg Manning <a31ford at gmail.com> wrote:

> Greetings Tom, Leland Jeff, Mark, List, Etc. (and anyone I missed).
>
> The Idea of torification is a good one, IF, (and only IF), one can also
> use the byproducts of that torification process.
>
> I for one, am (have been) moving in this direction, as it is much easier
> to control, and run a gasifier running on torified product, especially when
> it comes to motive applications.
>
> Tom, I will be doing some tests on a 30 gallon drum (no 55's around here)
> within the week or so, your idea of running it from waste heat off of an
> engine is great (as long as we are only researching), I could (if one was
> currently configured) run a test from a CHP generator set that would be
> running off of torified wood in the first place, however, that will have to
> wait.
>
> until then,
>
> Greg Manning
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 8:22 AM, Tombreed <tombreed2010 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  Dear Mark, Greg and all
>>
>> Thanks for your good wishes, and I am now mobile with a walker.  Lots of
>> time to pursue thermoplastics, pyrolysis and BIOCOAL.
>>
>> <><><>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> <><><>
>>
>> Before my fall I was planning to convert a 55 gal drum of wood scrap into
>> BIOCOAL.  I hope someone will try this.
>>
>> At idle the exhaust of a car or truck is about 700C at several ATM
>> pressure.  Two taps, before and  after the muffler should make it possible
>> to withdraw a 300C stream of gas through the barrel of wood and heat the
>> wood to BIOCOAL without allowing overheating.
>>
>> By heating with a 300C gas, one prevents the exothermic continuing of the
>> wood to charcoal at 400 C.
>>
>> Looking forward to a BIOCOAL future,
>>
>> Tom Reed
>>
>> Thomas B Reed
>>
>>
>> On Jul 15, 2012, at 2:59 PM, Greg Manning <a31ford at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>  Greetings Tom, (and list)
>>
>> Tom, It's great to hear that the fall was not really bad, even though
>> still an inconvenence though.
>>
>> I have one question/answer I would like to pose, and that is....
>>
>> Every pelletized product I've gasified, all have done the same thing,
>> they expand in heat/moisture of the hearth.
>>
>>  One solution I've come up with (even though it lowers the total output
>> of the gasifier) is using parasitic power to run a torification process,
>> instead of a partial combustion process.
>>
>> All in all, when one looks to both methods of gas evolution, the later is
>> a cleaner method (torification). With the losses of available mass for gas,
>> when partial combustion is applied, the parasitic power difference, in
>> torification is much less, (because of more mass being torified, instead of
>> combusted).
>>
>> Torification is a much easier method of controlling the hearth's internal
>> temperature, IMO, and handles pelleted products much better, as it gets the
>> moisture level to a level that does not expand the pellets as much (air
>> moisture ??).
>>
>>
>> Greg Manning
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Tombreed <tombreed2010 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>  Dear Mark and all
>>>
>>> Thanks so much for your warming words, twice as warming, here in the
>>> Fairview Recovery unit of the Worcester Memorial Hospital system.   I fell
>>> down 13 stairs, bound to be unlucky, BUT no permanent damage!  I'm
>>> recuperating in my daugher's guest suite, dreaming about a Fall cruise!
>>> <><><>
>>> Here's a puzzle for all to chew on.  "Gasification" of wood implies the
>>> complete conversion of both the cellulose (80%) and lignin (20%)
>>> components.  The tars from the lignin are basically aromatic due to the
>>> aromatic structure of lignin, and may be the principle component of the
>>> smoke and tar.
>>>
>>> The primary fuel is then the cellulose smoke, various volatiles that
>>> burn cleanly, leaving no solids.
>>> My expert Friend, Mike Antal, Coral Prof. At the University of Hawaii,
>>> could give chapter and verse on the nature of the volatiles from burning
>>> celluloses.
>>>
>>> Paper and high cellulose paper products could be a much cleaner biomass fuel
>>> and are easily pelletized.  Wood pellets have become a major fuel source in
>>> the past decade.  Is it possible that paper pellets could be even more
>>> important and cleaner and cheaper?
>>>
>>> Best wishes to all of you from Tom Reed, back from a bad fall.
>>>
>>> Tom Reed
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thomas B Reed
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 12, 2012, at 3:42 AM, "Mark Ludlow" <a <mark at ludlow.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>   Dear Dr. Reed,****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> You are a mainstay and inspiration to us all. How frustrating it must
>>> have been to feel yourself fall! There’s really no reason why the Universe
>>> chose you. It certainly was not Karma.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> I know you must feel miserable. But I hope that you know that many
>>> people love and admire you and are probably wishing, as I wish, that they
>>> could have taken that fall for you.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Best wishes,****
>>>
>>> Mark  ****
>>>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
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