Wood Fuel Preparation

Comment

Comment by Mike McCombs on March 7, 2010 at 8:49am

Thanks for the info Ben. I am considering the purchase of a chipper so the design of tthe cutters will be crucial to production of proper sized chips. I am hopeing that I can find a pto driven chipper that can create the right chips.

Now I at least know what I am looking for. Thanks again.

Comment by ben on March 7, 2010 at 8:15am

Mike,
The thick chips you want are usually an inch or two wide, 1 1//2" to 2 1/2" long and 1/4" to 1/2" thick. The smaller your gasifier, the smaller chip it can take, but then you run into problems with low suction as you get too small.

If you are buying chips to start, then get the playground chips and sift out the fines. Make sure the bucket of the loader is empty when they scoop up a load for you. I bought a load that had tons of ground up beauty bark and it has been a real bitch to get them out.

Comment by Mike McCombs on March 6, 2010 at 11:04pm

I was looking at the chips along the road that Paul Drieman was talking about. I wonder about these particular chips because of their shape. They were about 1" wide and any where form 3" to 9" in length. Seems like this would have a tendency to bridge badly.

I have been looking and so far have not come up with what is considered the ideal shape or size for wood chips. Does anyone have a source for this information?

Comment by DAVID ORRELL on February 2, 2010 at 8:35pm

HI. I HAVE A STEADY SUPPLY OF SCRAP WOOD FROM CONSTRUCTION AND REMODELING SITES WHERE WE PUT OUR DUMPSTERS. I WANT TO BUILD A WOOD SHREDDER ,CHIPPER, CHOPPER ? SOMETHING THAT WILL CHOP UP SCRAP WOOD THAT HAS NAILS IN IT I DO NOT WANT TO PULL NAILS. I BUILT MY GASIFIER WITH A SOLID GRATE AND A GRATE SCRAPER SO I CAN USE CHIPS WITH NAILS STILL IN THE WOOD. I SEE A WOOD SHREDDER AT komargroveportohio.com it is called a piranha IT IS A SLOW SPEER SINGLE ROTOR SHREDDER. IF I BUILD IT WITH A SCREEN WITH 2 INCH HOLES AND 1 3/4 TEETH I THINK IT WILL MAKE THE RIGHT SIZE CHIPS ? WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK ?

Comment by Paul Drieman on September 18, 2009 at 3:10pm

Les, the wood you want to make into charcoal cannot have access to air/oxygen as it will simply burn up. 3 things needed for combution: heat, fuel, O2 the wood needs to be heated w/o access to air to drive off the moisture and gasses to produce charcoal! A tight fitting metal lid on your bucket might suffice!

Comment by Les on September 18, 2009 at 11:25am

I put a five gallon bucket of 1" Sq. wood in a old charcoal grill. Put wood around outside of it If I lite this will wood in buck make charcoal.

Comment by Paul Drieman on September 6, 2009 at 7:48am

Hi everyone! I have been shown how tabs work in a site. When I asked about charcoal I hadn't read about fuels as I had'nt opened that tab. Please do not judge a newbie to the computer age as being less than someone who is excited to learn, both about gasifiers and computers. I have been considering using "scrap" energy to provide drying time to a charcoal bin made from a 250gal. fuel oil tank, partially converting the wood pieces before using driving out moisture, perhaps using on the wood chips afore mentioned also. My wife reminded me I am alergic to the poison type plants; ivy ash etc. She has a valid point as the smoke from these is a killer.to me. Amazing how one small fact makes a great idea look stupid. Q. Does the pyralisis of dangerous smoke render that smoke harmless?

Comment by Paul Drieman on September 5, 2009 at 2:55pm

Has anyone tried using the chips from powerline tree removal crews? I have wondered if a solar plastic "house over piles of these chips would work. They dump them for free if they are working near your home.

Comment by Paul on July 15, 2009 at 4:14pm

I guess that all depends on what quantity of wood is needed to meet your production rate demands. Smaller scale wood chippers are available and can be purchased at some hardware stores but are not cheap for the home gasifier. However they are commonly available for rental in most areas. So maybe stock piling your biomass and renting one for a day is the answer.

Comment by tallgirl on July 15, 2009 at 4:08pm

So ... for those of us who don't want to be commercial wood-chip producers?!?

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