Thread: getting rid of sawdust

Originally Posted by Exador

Too difficult. Gasification is the go, but sawdust is too fine. What is needed is a way of making it into chips about 5-10mm across.

A pellet mill would be the answer, you can buy them fairly cheaply then the pellets could be used or sold to people who have the pellet fires. I know when I was in denmark recently that they use a lot of the pellets, for everything from home heating to heating their workplaces and generating electricity and pumping it back into the grid somewhat like we are starting to do with solar. It is a BIG thing over there, the population (of europe in general) means that they have to look at more efficient means of utilising what would otherwise be waste products.

from the reading i have been doing the last few weeks. the carbon footprint is next to 0. the CO2 is converted to co1 in the burning process. the internal temps in the gasification process are so high that all the pollutants are burned and turned into energy.

AL GORE won't have a leg to stand on with this.

jim

Originally Posted by jdrum

from the reading i have been doing the last few weeks. the carbon footprint is next to 0. the CO2 is converted to co1 in the burning process. the internal temps in the gasification process are so high that all the pollutants are burned and turned into energy.

AL GORE won't have a leg to stand on with this.

jim

So is the Carbon Monoxide burnt up or released?

Originally Posted by funkychicken

So is the Carbon Monoxide burnt up or released?

who cares.

Carbon Monoxide is poisonous, you'd want to have the exhaust a decent distance away. Carbon Dioxide is harmless and I don't understand why there's such a fuss about it

chimney

Originally Posted by funkychicken

Carbon Monoxide is poisonous, you'd want to have the exhaust a decent distance away. Carbon Dioxide is harmless and I don't understand why there's such a fuss about it

I think (no chemist here) as far as gases goes it's about the concentration of a given gas, as an e.g. air as we know is 21% O and 78%N and a few other gases, but if the oxygen is depleted we dont do so well (mountainclimbers) and I doubt we could breathe too much nitrogen or argon or carbon dioxide or water vapour for too long and yep definately don't want to breath in too much carbon monoxide, can't smell it, taste it, see it and u r dead before u know it if the concentration is too high.... yet all these are in the air we breathe in correct proportions or at least in levels that don't effect us.

As I understand it the concern with the planet and the level of CO2 is the heat trapping effect, the heat gained from the sun during the day is trapped by an increasing thickness blanket of CO2 and therfore can't be re-radiated out to space of a night, hence the global warming thing, a cloud covered night will also be warmer than a clear sky, also, it's just like we build a solar kiln to trap the sun's energy inside the kiln, the physics of it is something to do with the way wave lengths changes as it goes thru the glass/CO2

Pete

i'll do some digging and find out

jim

Carbon monoxide is produced by the gasification process and then burnt to CO2 with the rest of the fuel stream. The combustion produces energy. The engine exhaust will contain mostly CO2 and water, with some oxides of nitrogen.

The active ingredients in the fuel gas fed to the engine will be mostly hydrogen, with some methane and CO also contributing to the energy content, but it will also contain a lot of atmospheric nitrogen, and some water, as well as minor components including some heavy tars and ash which needs to be filtered out.

Originally Posted by weisyboy

so chook poop plus sawdust = the worlds greatest compost

Yes, not quite as simple as that though, here's what you do.

Keep a dozen fowls at home, house them in a DEEP LITTER system. The sawdust, shavings etc should keep the litter at least 6" deep. You can add grass clippings and other garden and food waste too, but they need to be DRY when you add them. After 12 months the litter is ready to compost, you don't have to do it all at once, just enough to make a decent pile, probably about 2/3 cubic meter will do. Now the deep litter goes into a cement mixer with enough water to make it thoroughly wet and then into the said pile. I made my compost pile in a length of bird wire rolled into a hoop with a few sticks wired onto the sides to keep it upright. You'll be surprised at the heat generated in the pile as the actual composting takes place. Give it a few weeks to finish and then straight onto the garden. I keep a couple of piles on the go. As the sawdust and shavings build the litter level up, composting keeps it down.

personally I just scatter it a couple of inches thick on the garden beds when it starts to look dark and starting to break down I dig it through the top foot or so of soil and incorporate it well. So far I haven't had a problem and have improved my soil no end, mind you that wouldn't be hard when I moved in a bit over 12 months ago the soil in my yard was like red cement and it was impossible to get a garden fork more than a couple of inches in to it, let alone grow anything. Now I have a very productive garden and things actually grow, and not just grow but thrive.

so all i need is a huge garden bed