|> |> |>If it does come to that sort of situation , you may do well to look at
|> |> |>powering a perol power genset from woodgas .
|> |> |>Not a whole comunity as alan carries on about , but a small producer unit
|> |> |>big enought to run a small engine.
|> |> |>They burn anything that will burn , literaly , coal ,wood ,old tyres ...
|> |> |>if things get realy desperate , it may not always be real easy to locate
|> |> |>vege oil or fat to turn into bio- diesel , but we always got crap laying
|> |> |>around what will burn...
|> |> |
|> |> |Some things running on anything that will burn...
|> |> |
|> |> |
http://highforest.tripod.com/woodgas/woodfired.html
|> |> |
http://www.pritchardpower.com/
|> |> |
http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/
|> |>
|> |> Would point out that ethanol is not an efficient fuel. It takes
|> |> as much energy to produce it as it gives back. Bio diesel is
|> |> more energy effective. Steam even more so. Water power is the
|> |> best, if you have a source.
|> |
|> |You are probably right about the energy to produce ethanol but if you
|> |use the sludge from the fermenting process, (put it through a oil press,
|> |(They work pretty neat for this application too)), the sludge will come
|> |out as a solid round cake like rod that can be broken up in to pellets,
|> |then dryad and then fed into the still as fuel.
|> |I have a pelletizer for converting alfalfa into feed pellets and it
|> |looks like it works on the same principal as a oil press, except their
|> |is no strainer and the water/oil removing chamber has much larger holes.
|> |
|> |Remember the conversion factor for potatoes to alcohol is only 20% so
|> |you 80% of the original spud left. This can be used as fuel or for
|> |cattle feed.
|> |
|> |I suspect that the commercial ethanol manufactures that use corn (big
|> |thing in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois) first press the corn to remove
|> |the oil and syrups. Remove the corn oil from the liquid, wash out the
|> |sweeteners, and then ferment the starch into ethanol which is distilled
|> |out. Then what remains is used as cattle feed. So the economics are
|> |not just from ethanol but from corn syrup, Corn Oil, ethanol, and cattle
|> |feed.
|> |
|> |Back on the farm we used to go to the Sugar beet processing plant and by
|> |sugar beet pulp, (stuff left over after the sugar has been processed
|> |out) for cattle feed. The stuff stank like high heaven but the dammed
|> |cows had an orgasm over it.
|> |
|> |The Independent
|>
|> By steam, I mean a small boiler on your property that runs a
|> piston or two thus powering a generator of about 20 KW. Enough
|> to power a typical house. Could be wood fired or fueled by
|> whatever.
|
|You think your small-scale generator is somehow more efficient than the
|big generating plant nearby?
|
|Have you calculated the Carnot efficiency of a small steam boiler?
|
|Have you calculated how many cords of wood per month it will take to
|generate your 20 KW? Or even 10 KW?
|
|Have you calculated the costs to deliver these cords of wood, for you
|to then feed your firebox, and maintenance on a sooty system?
|
|I didn't think so, for any of these points.
|
|Why do you think it is that utilities are not burning wood, if you
|think this is a cost-saving measure for home users?
|
|Duh. If you were in fact a senior military officer, as you seem to
|imply at times, this explains a _lot_ about where we are today.
The topic was the use of bio diesel for emergency purposes or to
survive if the grid went down. Bio diesel would work but for
long term, off the grid usage, steam or water would be a better
way to make power. We are talking survive here, not our current
culture.
Think out of the box.
