[Gasification] 100kw Powertainer unveiling this week at University of Minnesota, Morris

Tom Miles tmiles at trmiles.com
Wed Jun 27 17:30:45 CDT 2012


Chris,

 

Thanks for the note and congratulations for surviving the first few years.
We do have you on our small scale gasifier list on the gasification website
but we are still rebuilding the site after being overloaded with traffic.
We'll be back online before long. 

 

The list I posted was a subset of the general directory, listing primarily
systems that are capable of 300kWe to 2 MWe. 

 

Tom

 

From: gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Chris
Morrison
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 12:59 PM
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
Subject: Re: [Gasification] 100kw Powertainer unveiling this week at
University of Minnesota, Morris

 

To Tom Miles, and all

 

Hello Tom,

 

We at Planet Green Solutions would also like to be added to your list of
small scale systems being commercially built.  Allow me to introduce myself,
I am Chris Morrison, President of Planet Green Solutions.  We consist of a
small group of engineers and scientists who have quietly been working in
this field.  Five or six years ago we made a list of what we considered
difficulties and deficiencies with the currently available technology and
have endeavored to bring the small scale side closer to a 21st Century type
useable product for the industrial market.  The short form of the list
included: improved reactor design for much improved fuel, far less down time
for scheduled maintenance, Better material science for greater longevity,
User friendly automation on the scale of operating a household appliance,
Consistent reliability, Dependable output performance, Cost effective down
stream gas filtration. etc.

 

We now would like to be put on record that we have achieved this with a much
improved manageable and affordable small scale commercial system.  Our
Web-site is www.Planetgreensolutions.com .  We have multiple systems
operating every day and are building more to fill orders.   I would like to
take this time to extend an open invitation for you to visit and see for
yourself of the viability of our claims.   Our price sheet is published on
our Site.  And our complete larger systems are around $ 2,00 per Watt.  We
have thousands of hours of system experience and our oldest running system
is nearly three years old. 

 

Respectfully,

 

Chris Morrison

 

 

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 10:18 AM, Tom Miles <tmiles at trmiles.com> wrote:

Congratulations, Jim.

I'm sure that your "powertainer" will be an "entertainer" for many weeks to
come. :-/

I know that you are trying to make the technology affordable which is one
goal we need to achieve. Another important goal is to make the technology
reliable.

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of jim
mason
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 10:30 AM
To: gasification at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Gasification] 100kw Powertainer unveiling this week at University
of Minnesota, Morris

Bear Kaufmann, Jeff Tiedeken and I (Jim Mason) are at University of
Minnesota, Morris this week installing the Powertainer and setting it up for
its initial runs onsite.  This has been a long haul, and we're very happy to
finally have it here and soon begin pumping power back into the grid.   A
big thank you goes to Lowell Rasmussen, Jim Barbour and Dave Aronson at the
UMM for making this project possible, as well as their general dedication to
proving small scale biomass energy for midwestern ag applications.

There is a formal opening and demonstration onsite this Thursday from 1-3pm.
 It is open to the public so if you are in the area, you are welcome to
attend.  More information on the opening and the project can be found in the
press release here:
http://www.power-eng.com/news/2012/06/23/university-of-minnesota-morris-demo
<http://www.power-eng.com/news/2012/06/23/university-of-minnesota-morris-dem
o%0d%0anstrates-new-power-technology.html> 
nstrates-new-power-technology.html

For the next 6 months we'll be learning and refining the installation
onsite, and hopefully ending with a daily running installation.  There are
many details to work out, and surely many things yet to learn.
However, we are very satisfied with the fundamentals, and the general
proving that one can compact and integrate the full gasification system
(gasifier, filtration, engine and hopper) within one 20'
shipping container.  The goal is the total system in a box, drop it off the
truck and go.  No onsite construction.  Fill the hopper with a conveyor,
skid steer or bucket tractor.

The architecture for this system is essentially the TOTTI vessel and heat
exchange relationships scaled up, with an additional stage of using the
engine radiator blast for predrying the fuel.  The hopper is open to
atmosphere, with a louvered base, so we can pass the hot radiator blast
through the bed.  This should significantly extend the fuel moisture range
beyond the 30% or so top we can tolerate in the standard TOTTI on the Power
Pallet.  We'll be running corn cobs at UMM.  Most of the testing at APL were
on wood chips.

As usual, what started as a gasifier project turned into a fuel handling
project.  Getting a 24hr hopper integrated into the shipping container, with
airlock and secondary heated auger to the gasifier, turned into a
non-trivial 3D LEGO puzzle.  See the galleries for the details for how we
finally solved it.  Thank you to Nick Monahan for the CAD sheet metal
origami that rendered it to real.


See here for the full gallery of photos from the install at Univeristy of
Minnesota, Morris
http://gekgasifier.com/wpgallery/powertainer-at-university-of-minnesota-morr
<http://gekgasifier.com/wpgallery/powertainer-at-university-of-minnesota-mor
r%0d%0ais/> 
is/

See here for the full gallery of photos from the testing at APL in Berkeley
http://gekgasifier.com/wpgallery/100kw-powertainer-at-apl-june-2012/


We get many people asking us when we can offer this unit to other projects.
 The answer is not yet.  We are not yet at a point of maturity in the design
and details to offer this as a regular commercial unit.  We expect to be
there in about one year.

To help us get there, we are looking for additional projects where a still
in development system is an appropriate fit.  This will be a research or
entrepreneurial setting that can tolerate a
not-yet-fully-hands-off-24/7-running-systyem, in return for the ultimate
reward of a much compacted and price optimized total solution vs other
current options on the market.   Write us at gek at allpowerlabs.org if you are
interested.

Hope to see some of you in Morris this Thursday.


Jim






----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Jim Mason
Website: http://www.whatiamupto.com
Current Projects:
   - Gasifier Experimenters Kit (the GEK): http://www.gekgasifier.com
   - Escape from Berkeley alt fuels vehicle race: www.escapefromberkeley.com
   - ALL Power Labs on Twitter: http://twitter.com/allpowerlabs
   - Shipyard Announce list:
http://lists.spaceship.com/listinfo.cgi/icp-spaceship.com

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