Ideas

oldoakman said:
Let's look at combustible trash as well. Landfill space is dwindling and the costs associated with closing a landfill when it reaches the end of its capacity is enormous and that cost continues for decades!
Click to expand...

Burning rapidly releases a great deal of carbon, even if you get a tiny bit of long-lasting biochar at the end. Maybe burying wood and wood waste is actually a better way to sequester carbon. Just allocate more land for deep wood/wood chip burial. After you've sequestered thousands of tons of carbon under 10' of dirt, plant trees on top to suck up yet more atmospheric carbon. Consider the resulting land a permanent green space. Which neighborhoods wouldn't want that?
 
Last edited:
Not all mulch and compost becomes heat and co2. Some becomes recalcitrant OM.

And doesnt incineration, by definition, release heat and co2?
 
JD3000 said:
Not all mulch and compost becomes heat and co2. Some becomes recalcitrant OM.

And doesnt incineration, by definition, release heat and co2?
Click to expand...

Right, I take it that the only way that biochar is a win is if you find a way to use the heat as the primary product (to replace some kind of fossil fuel, e.g.) and the biochar a byproduct, a happy little bonus.
 
And, if one could incinerate the wood in an oxygenless chamber. I believe that would release less co2 and create more aromatic C compounds.
 
Oroboros said:
Question. What is released from the wood in the bio char production process ? Gases? What and how much ?
Click to expand...

I don't know, but I know from making char cloth that the wood gasses released when making activated charcoal are combustible and have potential uses. I know nothing about containing them, but I've heard a few people talking about using wood gas to run vehicles.
 
do you have any reading materials or references to get us started on thinking about this?
speaking of using the wood. there is a guy I know who runs an old style japanese pottery kiln. When he does a firing he burns a lot of wood. @Worthaug might know a bit more about that. the kiln kind of looks like a big charcoal kiln.

I think at its most effecient. combustion releases co2, h20, and heat. there is no way around the release of co2.
 
treebing said:
do you have any reading materials or references to get us started on thinking about this?
speaking of using the wood. there is a guy I know who runs an old style japanese pottery kiln. When he does a firing he burns a lot of wood. @Worthaug might know a bit more about that. the kiln kind of looks like a big charcoal kiln.

I think at its most effecient. combustion releases co2, h20, and heat. there is no way around the release of co2.
Click to expand...

Heres one. Not much about producing char though.
 

Attachments

pctree said:
Ive been relaxing here at my house, all alone which is rare for me. Just started thinking about how I miss tinkering with projects to make them work. For me I became disenfranchised with the retail industry. I for one cannot afford the time nor money to do all the R&D on more products which would be doomed to fail because I can't market them. So heres my idea, have no idea how it would work, how about if we do an open source collaborative among many innovators and business owners who have a common goal which would be developing a tool to improve WORKERS lives in the tree world.
Since this would be an open venue it is public info. so no patents issues. We could all float ideas and see which would garner more interest then select one participant to undertake the project. Others could help in any way they feel, monetary, knowledge, labor or whatever. EVERYBODY gets to watch the progress and the fuck ups and learn from it.
I have 2 main projects right now in mind, well 3 but one isn't tree related.
1 an industrial sized wood waste incinerator that turns wood chips into biochar with some of the released heat. The incinerator would be of a design as to be clean burning enough to meet current EPA standards and be capable of processing 20' logs . I have absolutely no idea how much char it could produce but the fact that it is disposing of wood waste "ONSITE" with minimal fuel (estimate 10 gallons diesel for 80 tons wood). Compared to what our area does which is grind it and make mulch which will release all its heat and CO2 in about 2 years plus the copious amount of diesel used to move it to dump, grind it then deliver mulch. So far we are ahead by a lot of diesel but then you add in that you can sequester a measurable % of the carbon from the tree. We might even be able to get tree removal a positive in the fight against global warming. We wouldn't get stink eye from the prius drivers.
Wild estimate to get a prototype running would be $20k but thats only allowing about $8k for the refractory lining.
2 wood processor that could be fed up to a 36" log and would split it by the time the worker cut the next round with a husky 395 and loaded it in top with a branch manager grapple. Very sparse design trying to keep cost to below $10k
To be clear these prices will only be attainable by being a cheap bastard and re-using many components that will be selected with time tested proof of durability. Basic redneck ingenuity that hopefully the suits cant steal.
We have a lot of good brains in our industry so lets put em together to make a positive effect
Click to expand...
That would be a dream come true.
 
pctree said:
Ive been relaxing here at my house, all alone which is rare for me. Just started thinking about how I miss tinkering with projects to make them work. For me I became disenfranchised with the retail industry. I for one cannot afford the time nor money to do all the R&D on more products which would be doomed to fail because I can't market them. So heres my idea, have no idea how it would work, how about if we do an open source collaborative among many innovators and business owners who have a common goal which would be developing a tool to improve WORKERS lives in the tree world.
Since this would be an open venue it is public info. so no patents issues. We could all float ideas and see which would garner more interest then select one participant to undertake the project. Others could help in any way they feel, monetary, knowledge, labor or whatever. EVERYBODY gets to watch the progress and the fuck ups and learn from it.
I have 2 main projects right now in mind, well 3 but one isn't tree related.
1 an industrial sized wood waste incinerator that turns wood chips into biochar with some of the released heat. The incinerator would be of a design as to be clean burning enough to meet current EPA standards and be capable of processing 20' logs . I have absolutely no idea how much char it could produce but the fact that it is disposing of wood waste "ONSITE" with minimal fuel (estimate 10 gallons diesel for 80 tons wood). Compared to what our area does which is grind it and make mulch which will release all its heat and CO2 in about 2 years plus the copious amount of diesel used to move it to dump, grind it then deliver mulch. So far we are ahead by a lot of diesel but then you add in that you can sequester a measurable % of the carbon from the tree. We might even be able to get tree removal a positive in the fight against global warming. We wouldn't get stink eye from the prius drivers.
Wild estimate to get a prototype running would be $20k but thats only allowing about $8k for the refractory lining.
2 wood processor that could be fed up to a 36" log and would split it by the time the worker cut the next round with a husky 395 and loaded it in top with a branch manager grapple. Very sparse design trying to keep cost to below $10k
To be clear these prices will only be attainable by being a cheap bastard and re-using many components that will be selected with time tested proof of durability. Basic redneck ingenuity that hopefully the suits cant steal.
We have a lot of good brains in our industry so lets put em together to make a positive effect
Click to expand...
Remind me of a climbing device I tried to cooberate on, I think I called it the wedge, it didn't go very far and at the time I didn't have the means to make a prototype. I know there are some FB groups in process. It's all a balancing act and too often gets out of wack.

IMO, coming up with some little idea shouldn't be like winning the lottery, nor should we feel deserving of all credit. Almost all comes from those before us and the little we add comes from the universe thru us.
 
I've played around a little bit making biochar in our wood stove and using it in the vegetable garden.

Lots of info out there. I stay from anything 'preppers' but instead lean towards the folks doing permaculture research.


Here is a good documentary on ancient biochar usage.


Biochar production in a wood stove. (this is the method I've used)


Garden View II.webp
 
Last edited:
Interesting Levi. I'll have to come back and watch when I have a bit more time. The prepper style stuff ..... some of it is useful info. One example is thermo siphoning. You can heat water with a wood stove, in a closed system to keep your domestic hw hot. Without a pump. :D
 
Bio char is fascinating. Seems there is no off the shelf retort (kiln/furnace) available today. That could be a starting point. Imagine individuals producing bio hear with their home/business heating units. Truck delivering wood chips instead of oil or propane. Then having bio char as a saleable product in the local market. Small scale and local. We could develop the unit and sell them as well as our wood chips within our region.
Anyone know the value of bulk bio char? Price per ton?
What farmers heat their buildings? Chickens? Dairy?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom