Welcome!
We are so glad to have you join us this week in learning about micro-gasification and biochar.
For benefits of understanding each of our backgrounds and objectives as we grow together, please add a short biography of where you came into the world of biomass -
Thank you,
Kathy Nafie
Yesterday I was able to obtain good heat, good stack gases, and good biochar from Jatropha seeds in my iCan D design. Not perfect, but good. And all in the spirit of Open Knowledge. OK!
I converted 132 grams of cracked jatropha seeds into 38 minutes of flame and a reasonable amount of biochar that sank very quickly when quenched in water. There were some oily floater too. I scooped these out with a sieve. Note: This run used twice as much jatropha and ran about 2 minutes faster — the can was significantly larger. Coffee can vs a 15 oz bean can.
Cracked Jatropha: I put each seed into a pair of pliers and cracked the shell. Eliminated explosions. Also may help the oils vaporize more easily and evenly.
I also added a 4>3 reducer and a short length of 3 inch stove pipe to the draft system for a total of 15.5 inches of draft enhancer. See photo.
The burn was quite clean. Some soot from time to time. The extra draft creates much more vigorous turbulence/mixing of the secondary air with the pyrolytic gases for better combustion.
Note the iCan D has 27 primary air holes. They were made with a 5/64th drill bit. See picture.
So some progress today.
Cheers,
Jock
Occasionally the short term goal conflicts with the long term goal. Agricultural use of Biochar is a plus. However the goal of REDUCING global warming CO2 is muddy at best.
Wood (CH.4O0.6) is fifty percent carbon by weight. Production of Biochar yields typically 20% Biochar at most. Therefor, for every ton of Biochar put in the ground, 1.5 tons of C or 3.7 tons of CO2 are put into the atmosphere! So Biochar production enhances CO2 and global warming.
Unless you can find a use for the 75% of the energy in the off gases. With the TLUD stoves those gases replace fossil fuel and represent a second reduction of CO2 production. But wasting that energy definitely makes production of charcoal enhance global warming further,
Tom Reed
Welcome to the updated Biomass Energy Foundation (BEF) website.
Welcome to the Biomass Energy Foundation (BEF) website. The Biomass Energy Foundation (BEF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation dedicated to biomass energy and specializing in micro -gasification.
Since 1997, BEF has been developing a knowledgebase in multiple categories of biomass:
• liquid fuels from biomass (especially Biodiesel and methanol),
• solid fuels from biomass (especially wood chip or agricultural waste)
• advanced WoodGas stoves (not wood stoves),
• BioChar and charcoal
• all aspects of biomass energy, particularly high temperature conversion, pyrolysis and gasification that can produce heat, power and fuels.
In 1997-98 Tom Reed and Sid Gaur studied over 100 different fuels for the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and developed a thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), a powerful tool for analyzing the thermal properties of biomass and other fuels. Marcel Dekker published a seminal book Thermal Data for Natural and Synthetic Fuels. The book is no longer in print and the rights have reverted to the authors.
Because of our experience with biomass analysis and Thermo Gravimetric Analysis, we have added a new section to the book, describing what we’ve learned about this powerful technique. The Biomass Energy Foundation Press has now published an updated 2nd Edition with a new Preface and new Table of Charcoal properties.
