Big Wind Biochar Dump Load Regulation

Comment

Comment by WALTER REED on June 23, 2009 at 9:43am

Hi James:

Combining limestone and coal or coke, when heated to approximately 2200 degrees, instantly reacts to form calcium carbide; a non-petroleum fuel. Currently, this is done by electric arc furnaces approximate to coal mines, which has kept the prices higher than for say, natural gas or propane. This crystal fuel medium is what is currently shipped worldwide to converting stations which add water to produce volumes of acetylene for compression into tanks for welders, world wide. Acetylene is a non-petroleum fuel and next to hydrogen, has the highest Btu rating and lowest emissions when burned with the proper mix of air or O2.

I would think that your plasma process might be key to increased affordability of this remarkable fuel. The distribution system is already in place. Any thoughts?

Walter

Comment by Robert Schultz on June 23, 2009 at 9:17am

Thanks James. So the plasmafication will work to reduce everything to its base elements, and will greatly reduce emissions. I'm just asking some basic questions, wondering how much sorting will have to be done before and after. Will this make biochar suitable for agricultural use?

Comment by James Tracy on June 23, 2009 at 8:38am

Its actually Plasmafication, the 4th state of matter. All elements have states: gas, solid, or liquid (some have more than one state at different temperatures), but all can go to a plasma state, where some or all the electrons are stripped off the atoms.

Comment by Robert Schultz on June 23, 2009 at 8:31am

Larry, are you looking at this as a trash burning system or biomass pyrolizer?

Comment by Larry M. Aden on June 23, 2009 at 7:23am

Right on, James, I agree that plasma has tremendous application in making saleble products from exhaust gases in Zero Emissions powerplants. If you have something specific that you need built, just let me know. You have my e-mail address.

Comment by James Tracy on June 23, 2009 at 6:46am

Thanks Larry. Plasmafication is not a new process, and the gas handling aspect is very well documented, but the material handling aspect has limited research. Untill now all research was in arc plasma, which is out of patent, free art. The Plasma I use costs 1/3 the input of arc plasma. I am looking for the right partner(s). I have a lab and 3rd party testing set up. As far as biochar goes, this process used on coal or any other emissions would produce biochar: and mercury, arsenic, and any other element in the coal or input fuel, seperated to be recycled.

Comment by Larry M. Aden on June 23, 2009 at 6:28am

James Tracy wrote me: What about my tech, what do you think? Do you want to work on it?
http://www.youtube.com/PurePowercorp

Hey, James, how have you been? Glad to see you are following this discussion.
I hope you do not mind, but I am posting this on the Biochar group, as I think the others might want to get involved in this, too.
Microwaves and plasma have a great deal of potential to solve problems for us, tho', in my opinion, not for primary processing of wastes and other biomass, as this is too energy intensive, but, instead, on the back end of the fast pyrolysis, in gas reformers, first, plasma for precisely controlling the production of purer H2 and CO syngas, then, from that syngas, using lower level microwave excitation to increase, and precisely control, production of purer complex hydrocarbon and volatile carbohydrate liquid fuels, which our primary production sector will continue to find itself in desperate need of, for the foreseeable future, or until I get enough investment capital gathered together to bring modern-design steam-powered tractors, trucks, cranes and trains into commercial production.
Besides, James, there is already a company, in California, I believe, that is years ahead of you on that front, as they already have a commercial-scale plant up and running, but it so expensive to operate that it only really pays to process high-disposal-cost wastes, like toxic and hospital waste, in it.
I would request that you concentrate any further experiments on precisely controlling the reforming of syngas to diesel fuel, white gas and alcohols, preferably butyl, with microwaves, that is where the real money is at.
My brother, Doug, would be better to work with you on this, as this is more in his field than mine, and we have already discussed it, so I know he is interested in working on this.
He runs our business, so he is, of necessity, more focused on earnings than I am, but, anytime you have something concrete in this field that you need built toward that end that I described, I would be happy to take it to him. I can't, or rather won't, order him to work on it, but I have known him to pour his whole heart and soul into projects he is interested in, without any consideration for remuneration. I know he will get the job done.
Oddly enough, I cannot put you in direct contact with him, because, tho' a technical wizard, he is somewhat of a Luddite, he does not use computers, or even telephones. He won't even talk to his own brother on the telephone, if he can avoid it! Peculiar, huh? But, it doesn't surprise me, as I've known him all my life, and I love him, anyway. Plus, he is indispensable in projects like these.
For purposes of self-sufficiency, the diesel fuel is the most important to achieve high yields of, but, if we could produce massive quantities of naphthalene and butanol from wastes, we could use these low-carbon volatiles to immediately clean up auto exhaust in our cities, and, prior to that, as the fluid carriers for pumping finely ground Biochar thru pipelines to the Southwest, then use their abundant solar energy to re-distill the fuel and re-dry the Biochar.
There are many other products, from fuel to fertilizer to building materials, which we could also make in processes, parallel or subsequent to the fast pyrolysis of every conceivable low-value feedstock, all with zero emissions.
I have an extremely busy schematic of this type of universal biorefinery, which I call COGZE, that I could put up, but it really needs to be broken down into a book of schematics covering each process individually. There may be many places within these where we should be using microwaves and plasma, but before I think about that, I need to get Eric’s wheel idea perfected on paper, and finish a few dozen other drawings.
To actually build such a working biorefinery, even on a relatively small commercial scale, would cost in the millions, but we could build a non-working scale model that could serve as a visual aid to help us attract more investment capita for a few hundred, or, better yet, for a few tens of thousands, a working lab-scale model of each process all hooked together on one big trailer. It could be an old flatbed semi-trailer with fold out sides acting as the concentrating collector array.
What do you think, Folks, are we ready to start building a scale model of these biorefineries, and pushing for some funding? On what scale? And what is each one among you willing to do to help?

Comment by Larry M. Aden on June 23, 2009 at 6:08am

OK, Eric, I will take care of it, but I will need your address. Send it to me at lmaden@frontiernet.net. We need to find a proper name for it, because we cannot continue to refer to it as the previously patented "Ferris Wheel", which it definitely is not. Anybody have any suggestions?
Let's all get back to the mechanics of the problem, any critiques, or suggested improvements?
Does anyone see any problems with replacing all of our current dumpsters with what essentially must close up to be a pressure vessel?
Getting users to be careful of the sealing edges might be a nightmare.
A clamshell or double clamshell is the only design that I have come up with to maintain the user loading convenience of dumpsters. These would give the collection truck some compaction capabilities, also. Any other ideas?
These would work well at job sites, but would be difficult for the residential or restaurant user to open and close where food scraps, and other perishables, would be a significant part of the load.
However, in the interest of true sustainability, I believe we should never place these types of wet, still-useable, high-feed-quality proteins and carbohydrates into our urban waste stream in the first place.
To use everything to its fullest, we need to use each resource to feed a process appropriate to the quality of the feedstock, then, pass that spent feedstock down to the next most appropriate process.
You don’t feed fresh caviar to chickens, you don’t feed grain to bacteria, and you don’t char anything that isn’t yet reduced to dry indigestible lignocellulose.
Even grass clippings are still useful for animal feed, first, then anaerobic bacteria feed, then, pyrolyzer feedstock. All wet waste suitable for animal feed could be put into a special pipeline pumped from our garbage chopper/macerators to the closest swine or poultry feeding operation, more solar concentrating collectors over that complex can pasteurize and dry the homogenized feed, while producing pure distilled water.
Any other ideas? On siting the Concentrating Solar Arrays? Anything else that concerns you?

Comment by Robert Schultz on June 22, 2009 at 10:57pm

Sounds like Eric needs some help from the collection of Engineers in this group. Larry, Walter, and James seem pretty familiar with Patent applications. Put together a non-disclosure agreement and you guys can work together to get the "ferris wheel" turning. Great to see the teamwork and "can-do" support.

Comment by WALTER REED on June 22, 2009 at 10:48pm

Hi Eric:

You can see a recently filed and published patent at www.sxyzicity.com . As a side note, this is a paradyne shift for structural building capabilities for the small or the huge inhabitable buildings or energy structures; anywhere, any place, any time; land, sea or space.

Walter

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