[Gasification] Fluidyne Update Video

Doug Doug.Williams at orcon.net.nz
Sat Feb 15 01:30:47 CST 2014


Hi Charles,

Appreciate your operational comments:

> Ran one of these for a bit back in 70's making fuel chips.
> Good machine for what is going through it now.

The current supply of 40' tops are smaller than we started with, which had over the maximum 10" butt for the machine. We had to cut them into man size lengths and feed by hand.

> Make certain you have the power so they do not stall out.
> I was running 225 hp into the drive end. Stall it out and it's no fun!

We had a 300HP tractor hooked up for the first trial, which had a major stall problem. It's an important point to understand that the engine governor must be like one used for power generation, a constant speed specification which responds to the sudden change of loading.

> They seem to have good power.

I don't have the engine specs, but it is out of a truck with a modified governor which has no droop when loading. It has a specially built hydraulic clutch to remove the issues of direct driving.

> One thing they want to do is keep the sticks out of that gravel pile.

What you cannot see is the ground covered in shed bark and chips over the hard rock base. All that you see, including the gasifier installation, is temporary in order to be able to obtain all the knowledge required. Fuel chips may be eventually supplied from a yet to be built facility for all the gasifiers to be installed on this site.

> Rocks sticking to the " to be chipped material " will soon make you wish you 
> had eliminated that issue.

I am sure you are right when the bark is fresh and so is the mud etc. These logs are stripped in the forest and placed on landings, then lifted directly into the logging trucks. A lot of effort went into making sure the suppliers knew of our need for clean logs. Stones are no longer an issue.

> I did not keep the machine as I was doing fuel wood and whole tree.
> For fuel you get so much out of the limbs and needles that it is not funny.

In this respect, this type of forestry waste could be used and returned to the soils as biochars, and there is a lot of diverse interest in doing just that. It is probably more suited for landowners using their own waste/char systems, that trying to sell it to distant markets, but in saying that, it depends where you live in the World!  

> Gasification for power this is the machine.

A very big investment, but resolves the issues of hand made wood block fuels. The fuel chip specification is where serious gasification begins, not the other way around.

> Gasification for heat with the right unit chuck anything combustible at it.

We are all onto it Charles, not that anyone cares (:-)

Doug Williams,
Fluidyne Gasification.





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