Biomass gasification power generators

[James Henry]

Wood chips to electricity.

Here are a couple of companies selling complete systems.

_http://gasifier.wpengine.com/personal-energy-grid

The Victory Grid is a more than a machine, it encompasses the essentials of civilization refined down to a personal scale. The technologies that power your life today, now under your control.
• A refinery producing organic natural gas and hydrogen on demand
• Heat co-generation: hot water, heated air, drying capacity
• Low emissions natural gas electric power plant
• Battery storage for 24/7 light & power

_http://www.gekgasifier.com/products/10-20kw-power-pallets

The GEK Power Pallet is a complete biomass power generation solution that converts woody biomass to electricity, and soon to heat and PTO shaft power. It is a compact, integrated and fully automated system –from wood chips in, to power out – delivered at the breakthrough price of $1-$2/watt.

For home use or a small community these would be great for off-grid or back-up purposes.

 

[Rich]

For home use or a small community these would be great for off-grid or back-up purposes.

Impressive :) Initially it seemed quite pricey to me, but if one is off-grid then connecting to these utilities would probably cost a similar amount.

 

[domi]

Another company that sells gasifiers is:
_http://www.vulcangasifier.com

For those interested, there is a good video series on the basics of gasification:
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlq3_CCVniU (The Science of Gasification (part 1/7), with Jim Mason)

 

[James Henry]

Another company that sells gasifiers is:
_http://www.vulcangasifier.com

For the DIY (Do It Yourself) crowd with the right skills, these seem to be good option for a low cost entry point into gasification. Although you would need to buy or build the features of the above more expensive models, they offer a good starting point; just add what you need when you can.

Good find.

 

[neema]

There is also this company I have been looking into for a while.

At one point I was thinking that it would be fun to build one as a hobby and if it turned out well maybe get into custom building them as a way to make an income.


Added: Oops just realized it's the same company.

 

[neema]

There is also this company I have been looking into for a while.

At one point I was thinking that it would be fun to build one as a hobby and if it turned out well maybe get into custom building them as a way to make an income.

Added: Oops just realized it's the same company.

Here is the DIY unit from the gek guys. Considering they sell the kits at around $5000, and the finished unit goes for $18,000 to $26,000, Imo that's a heck of a margin depending on the cost of labor. But if your doing it yourself and have some cad skills and welding experince it might be a lucrative endeavor.

 

[domi]

Considering they sell the kits at around $5000, and the finished unit goes for $18,000 to $26,000, Imo that's a heck of a margin depending on the cost of labor. But if your doing it yourself and have some cad skills and welding experince it might be a lucrative endeavor.

There is quite a difference between the power pallet which comes with engine-generator combo and the gasifier kit as far as parts and function.
Cost of labor will be high as we're talking about this company being located in Berkeley after all.
They have open house every month and I'll try to make this upcoming one. I'll report back.

Wood gas conversions for trucks (and cars) are also done. More info at _http://driveonwood.com
From what I understand after reading some forum threads on that website is that a conversion will cost about $3000 to $5000 once everything is said and done.
That does not include the acquisition cost of the vehicle.

I am looking into both the gasifier as a back-up generator and to run a vehicle like this because I can probably get all the wood chips I want for free from local tree maintenance companies.

 

[Renaissance]

Wood gas conversions for trucks (and cars) are also done. More info at _http://driveonwood.com
From what I understand after reading some forum threads on that website is that a conversion will cost about $3000 to $5000 once everything is said and done.

Wayne Keith, the owner of driveonwood, has some good videos on youtube too. Here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tA0stq9rjg

His system is apparently based on the old FEMA gasifiers, but with lots of modifications. I've read that it's questionable how well FEMA gasifiers work, but the plans are available online for free and you can get an idea of how they work. I think if a bit of welding is learned these price tags can be significantly reduced. I'm going to be getting a welder in a couple months and this is one of the projects I'd like to undertake.

Korea was using gasification for vehicles up until the 70's, I think. And it was something that was practiced by many countries during WWII. Here's a swedish video of some cars with gasifiers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGO5J9HMkGE

The more I look into these things the more it becomes obvious that any system wide crash doesn't need to be nearly as bad as we're primed to think it would be.

 

[Divide by Zero]

Sounds interesting but I wonder how they got around some of the issues of bio methane.

I worked at a power plant that had small turbines that were located at the big trash dumps.
The problem they had was that the gas had a lot of impurities, like air, water vapor, etc which would make it difficult to start these tiny turbines.
Sometimes they would start and run for a bit and then hiccup and die due to a bad slug of gas.

 

[domi]

Sounds interesting but I wonder how they got around some of the issues of bio methane.

I worked at a power plant that had small turbines that were located at the big trash dumps.
The problem they had was that the gas had a lot of impurities, like air, water vapor, etc which would make it difficult to start these tiny turbines.
Sometimes they would start and run for a bit and then hiccup and die due to a bad slug of gas.

What this type of setup spits out is mostly H and CO (both very combustible) because of the fact that gasification is multi-step and one of those steps is that hydrocarbon gasses are reduced and cracked.
Most of theses systems have some rudimentary filter stage to remove any tar.
None of the issues like you describe above really occur in a modern gasifier.