Learn to Build a Do It Yourself Biomass Gasifier
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 08.30.08
When TreeHugger featured Robert "Chip" Beaman's Wood Powered Pickup Truck, readers commented, aghast at the potential for humanity to destroy woodland resources if transportation infrastructure were to switch to wood gasification. Therefore, for your further consideration, may we introduce you to Victory Gasworks. Victory Gasworks' Ben Peterson has built his own gasifier, specializing in biomass such as wood scraps, yard waste, and corn cobs.
Gasifier Construction Workshop
Victory Gasworks is offering a hands-on workshop on Gasifier Construction at the Victory Gasworks site in Toledo, Washington (between Portland and Seattle), on the 6th of September 2008. Victory Gasworks also sells video plans on how to build a gasifier and offers a forum for community exchange on alternative energies, especially gasification.
Gasification for the Non-engineer
According to an article by Kathy Hall in The Chronicle,
Peterson doesn’t have a background in engineering, but he is an entrepreneur. He grew up in Marysville, then spent time in the southwestern United States, where he did work as a welder, then moved into publishing, starting his own magazine. He bought his farm in Toledo about two years ago, and became interested in how he could get his farm 'off the grid.'
The excellent article in Ben Peterson's local news media explains gasification and describes how Peterson started with plans he found on the FEMA website, and has already made four prototypes in a quest to shrink a gasification generator down to appliance scale.
Gasification and the Future of Energy
Gasification could be another arena where large-scale waste gasification plants compete with (or complement?) distributed generation in small-scale units operating at the point of demand. Just two more of the many pieces in the energy pie chart of the future.
More on Gasification
How to Save Fuel Costs with a Wood-Powered Pickup Truck
PlascoEnergy to Build North America's First Waste Gasification Plant
The Chronicle
Victory Gasworks
Thanks to tipsters Gail and Plushpetals for bringing Victory Gasworks to our attention.
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Wouldn't this be a great way to replace dumpsters at fast food joints that (will then) use all compostable containers and flatware. One could assume that the ash leftover would be much more compact, requiring fewer pickups and therefore less transportation costs, and so on.
Thanks Tree Hugger for covering Victory Gasworks. I would just like to expand on the blog post a bit.
The People Powered Grid
Imagine a world where people are the energy producers. Imagine replacing dirty coal power plants with thousands of smaller residential power plants. Imagine being the change and not just content to complain about the status quo. Right now I am working on 20kw-50kw personal power plants that take up as little space as a wood shed and produce abundant energy when You want it. Gasification scales up very easily and cost effectively. That old chevy 350 engine in your garage can power a 100kw generator if asked to. This is a source of much needed new electricity to power our coming fleet of plug-in electric cars.
Environmental Benefits
Not only does gasification of waste onsite mean less fossil fuel is used to truck waste around, it also means that less garbage is landfilled where it becomes methane when it is buried underground in anaerobic conditions. That methane is many times more threatening to global warming per ton than CO2.
Developing eco buffer zones of fast growing trees and grasses is a great way to grow an energy crop and keep nitrates out of our water ways at the same time.
The byproduct of gasification is biochar or Terra preta. Biochar is an outstanding soil amendment and sequesters carbon in the ground while nourishing plants.
Appropriate Technology
Every region has some location specific energy source. In the Gulf it's oil. In the Midwest its wind. In the Southwest it's solar and in the Pacific Northwest where I live it has been hydro electric. While gasification isn't the solution for a suburban dweller in Tucson, in the Northwest and Northeast where wood is plentiful and wood waste is common it offers us a powerful alternative to killing our waterways with dams. Gasification can do right now, what cellulostic ethanol is trying to do and that is extract FUEL from agricultural waste.
No Food for Fuel
We are already seeing the backlash and consequences of "biofuel" from food crops. While you can gasify corn, its more suited to wood wastes, switch grass, nut shells and other sources that don't compete with our food supply.
Calming Fears
I know when people hear that you can use wood as fuel, their first thought is deforestation. It is not economically feasible to use large trees as a feedstock. The piles of left over branches from logging make a better feedstock and eliminate potential fire hazards. In fact gasification will promote forestry and responsible agriculture as we grow energy. Carbon will be sequestered between cuttings.
The Power is in Your Hands
Most people cannot build a solar panel, a wind farm or a geothermal well, but the average backyard mechanic can build a gasifier. If you are like me you are tired of calls to action and alot of talk. This is a technology that allows you to take action right now. Join the conversation at VictoryGasworks.com a social network for alternative energy enthusiasts.
I did not see anything in the article about how clean this process is vs oil. According to the wikigods this is a far cleaner combustion process than oil or coal, with far fewer toxic byproducts in the fuel creating process.
In the 70's my uncle converted his country squire station-wagon to a gasogen and drove all over with half a cord of wood in the back. He got some strange looks, but when the embargo hit he had the last laugh.
Here is a real solution for individuals. Cheaper than the other alternative energy sources and something you can do yourself.
Stop talking and start walking if you are serious about going green, getting off the grid, getting off your dependence on fossil fuels and filling our landfills. It's up to you to finally really do something about it. This guy is. He's trying to teach us how to turn trash into electricity. Think about it...that's HUGE.