I got this letter and video links from my friend Andrew who got it from Greg David, one of the Jefferson County sustainability folks. He has put together a number of You Tube videos on thier efforts, including some from his participation in Sustainable Chequemegon. The videos show their efforts at producing hydrogen from wood pellets, even to the point of running an internal combustion engine.
A project committee of Sustain Jefferson (WI), recently built a FEMA downdraft stratified gasifier. The gasifier stove creates hydrogen and carbon monoxide, both combustible gases, out of bio-mass. The gasifier stove has a number of positive features that are out-lined below. If you¹d like to see the stove in operation, we have posted videos to YouTube. They can be accessed at the weblinks below.
Please be forewarned; these video are similar to watching the Red Green show on PBS and may not be appropriate for adult viewers. Some discretion is necessary. Still, there is a lot of useful and practical information to be gathered from watching the videos. Please watch for update videos about our gasification project and related sustainability issues. Rating and commenting on the videos, draws attention to the issue.
The FEMA Downdraft Stratified Gasifier Stove
Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!
Running an Internal Combustion Engine on a Gasifier Stove
Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!
Attaching a Generator, Battery and Inverter
Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!
Cleaning the Gasifier
Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!
Sustain Jefferson is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to restoring social and ecological systems thru The Natural Step (TNS) framework and methodologies. TNS is a system thinking approach to managing complex systems that uses four science and ethics based conditions to define ecological and social sustainability. An ABCD Compass methodology is used to Accept conditions, provide Baseline annalists, create a Compelling vision and Direct action. Sustain Jefferson strives to enable people, skills and ideas to come together in a fertile atmosphere that enables restorative ideas to grow and thrive. The Gasifier Project is one of those ideas.
Bio-mass Gasification Small-scale, distributed, biomass-gasification, co-gen energy systems could be an agriculturally restorative and profitable enterprise, if done in a Holistic, local and ethical manner. Heat/electricity/carbon dioxide/Bio-char (charcoal) can be produced in this system from a perennial woody or cellulosic rich, feedstock crop. Heat, power and electricity can be produced for local, direct consumption, providing most of the farmstead energy needs. Much of the carbon (over 50 %) from the feedstock flowing into the gasification stove remains sequestered in the form of charcoal (agri-char) that can be returned to the soil, thereby enabling a carbon-negative energy system.
Bio-mass Gasification and the Environment Woody and cellulosic plants capture solar energy and store it in a form that is readily utilized in gasifier stoves. The crop, if a perennial and diverse plant community, will grow and add organic matter and carbon to the soil in the form of yearly leaf drop and sympathetic life processes. The bio-mass, when harvested causes some root die-back adding more organic matter to the soil. Other ecological services; such as pollination, niche building, soil friability, fertility, bio-diversity, also occur in the diverse crop planting, adding an important economic and ecological contribution to our social condition. And finally, the bio-char by-product of this energy system can be returned to the soil adding still more carbon that acts as an ecological catalyst, contributing significantly to the ecological services of the land. This represents a truly restorative kind of agriculture that can be a small local part of the solution to our energy crisis.
Local Scale System These biomass stove/energy systems can be built at nearly any scale from back-yard/household, to farmstead, to neighborhood, to community scale. I believe the community scale is as large as practical, if the system is going to be sustainable in the long term, because of the external costs of shipping, transport support of biomass to the gasification site. Small, local, distributed, gasification energy systems are more aligned with sustainable ideals and ethical values than large central energy systems.
Bio-mass Gasification and the Economy These gasification energy systems can function within current economic conditions and thrive because they are built on an agricultural methodology that is restorative and ethical, yet complimentary to Classical Capitalism. Feeding electricity back into the grid may be an option for the producer in some communities. District heat is an option in others. Even power can be utilized in some instances. The localness of the system increases economic multiplier effect and builds social and economic capital in the community. These systems work to internalize the cost of production and restore and build social and ecological capital in the community.
Permanent plantings can reduce erosion and actually create soil creating the ecological capital for agricultural to flourish. Permanent plantings require greatly reduce input; no fertilizer (except Bio-char and site produced organic matter), no pesticides (unless you want to), and long cycle harvest methods. Most of the costs of industrial agriculture (many of them externalized) can be eliminated. Bio-mass gasification, co-gen systems that are local in nature are not subject energy price fluctuations and availability, or to take over by corporate interests.
In short, Bio-mass Gasification, if done in a holistic, ethical manner, can create social and ecological capital and foster a restorative Permacultural energy system. It can provide profitable jobs for farmers and entrepreneurs, especially as Peak Oil and other fossil fuels come mainstream. And it can add to the energy security of the farm, the farmer and the community.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
