Butanol

How Kimosabee,

MY thought process driving this model of a residential pelletizing unit involved the owner of said unit picking up bio-mass from neighbors, job sites, road sides and friends. A custodian if you will, cleaning up and getting paid for it in the final analysis by taking care of their heat bill. The custodian aspect of the pelletizer is the beauty of the machine, the way I see it.

I have ten acres of mixed hardwoods and with the little computation I did several years ago I came up w/ roughly 1250 pounds per acre. The average weight of a hardwood cord being appro. 5,500 pounds, this roughly translates into 3 cord of btus. Which is right around what I'd need to heat the water and my future home in the winter.Taking into consideration that I didn't want the wood lot to be "manicured". Dead fall was part of the overall biomass factor, albeit standing dead trees were left for nesting habitat.

Different subject, any ideas how to produce ceramic spheres that contain a vacuum? For insulating purposes, just batting around some more ideas in the noggin.

Hey Jeff,

I've been contemplating the pelletizer & burner issues for a a while, and what I keep smacking my head with is that there is just no "one size fits all" approach. In fact I've even been having a tough time with a "one size fits most" solution.

I looked at my fuel needs and let's say that it is a somewhere between a  whopping 2000 lb/month in winter and 500 lb/mo in summer (dom. HW), and 1/4 those quantities.

I don't think my 1 acre produces even 1000 lb (maybe a ton if I include fresh grass clippings) of harvestable biomass per year.  And most of it comes in the fall when the leaves drop.

So that sort of eliminates a lot of suburban dwellers. If I had a 5 acre plotI'd most likely have equipment intended to disperse, mulch, or tote the stuff to 'disposal' rather than storage.  So I'd need a silo... 

So that sort of eliminates a lot of non-farm properties.  Once you get to large properties that possess harvesting & gathering capabilities, the quantities of biomass greatly exceed the private ability to consume it.  That brings up back to a production & distribution model.

Long explanation to a simple thought.  I'll redress the high-ash burner in another posting.

Butanol C4H9OH v Ethanol C2H5OH

The BuOH does have a smaller percentage of oxygen than EtOH, and that does give it an advantage in the KCal/mol (or BTU/lb) ratio.

It's always been more of a byproduct than a primary goal.  About 4-5 months ago the phrase "bio-butanol" was all the rage. It quieted down really fast.

It may catch on as a fad-fuel, or perhaps some scientist will create a GMO that can actually churn the stuff out from any farm waste.  The only problem I can see with that is if the wee-beasties get out.  Did you know that the molecule that gives vomit it pungent aroma is butyric acid?  Vile chemical!

I gotta say I hope it doesn't catch on.  Last thing I want to think about at the gas station is "What is that horrible smell? Did someone get sick or is fuel leaking all over the ground?"

I have been thinking about pulverized & pelletized biomass as a possible fuel source for general heating purposes.  I'm trying to constrain myself to 400lb of "hardware" to be able to produce 100,000 BTU/Hr in a burner/boiler with cold dry clinkered ash removal... It's getting very interesting!