WHICH burner?

Earthfire

What is old is new again . The germans used Holtzgas generators during the war to fuel cars and trucks . They didn't run as fast as on gas or diesel but they did run and climb mountain roads and such.They had a kettle type burnermounted on the vehicle. Ignited wood chips in the kettle then fed the resulting gas to the carburator. The big problem had been low power and sooting and carbon buildup in the carb and engine.I've been told that a little daily PM kept things running. Also the exhaust was a little smokey

Unknown

Which burner uses wood oil?

From today's paper in Portsmouth, NH:


Scrap wood: A fuel for the future?

By Steve Haberman

shaberman@seacoastonline.com


DURHAM - University of New Hampshire researchers have unveiled a project that could dramatically alter the fuels we use to heat our homes and businesses in the future.

At a news conference at UNH on Tuesday, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen spoke glowingly about a bio-oil study being conducted by Ihab Farag of the university’s chemical engineering department. That project has successfully converted scrap wood into a liquid fuel that has half the energy-producing capacity of No. 2 heating oil.

"Our mission is to help the North Country," Farag said during Shaheen’s press conference. "We looked at the closing of the paper mills as an opportunity to create a fuel that would give us a cleaner environment and healthier forests."

The fuel, dubbed bio-oil, is produced from low-quality wood that grows in northern New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. This low-grade wood supply is the scrap from paper mills and the small-diameter brush and trees that create a fire hazard in New England forests and must be removed to promote the growth of healthy, larger trees.

A paper written by Farag on the process, titled "Energy Diversification, Cleaner Environment and Healthier Forests: Bio-Oil," called low-grade wood "a critical cornerstone to New Hampshire’s third-largest manufacturing economy, the forest industry."

The process of producing bio-oil involves taking small pieces of low-grade wood and heating them in an oxygen-free environment. The wood breaks down into a charcoal residue - which could be sold to generate additional income - salt, gases and a liquid. That liquid is condensed into the bio-oil fuel, Farag said.

The UNH professor said there is currently enough scrap wood available to make a quantity of bio-oil sufficient to heat half the homes in the three northernmost counties of the state - Grafton, Coos and Carroll. Bio-oil researchers at the university are also looking at other uses for the materials generated by the process, including developing environmentally "clean" asphalt and "green" chemicals, Farag said.

Bio-oil has the economic benefit of creating an industry that would offset some of the regional economic impact of the closing of the paper mills in Berlin and Gorham, such as lost jobs. It would also save the approximately $58 million a year sent out of state in fuel costs, the UNH professor said.

And burning bio-oil does much less damage to the environment than burning coal, oil or natural gas, according to Farag.

"The process is very environmentally friendly," he said. "When bio-oil is used to generate energy, it does not emit sulfur oxides, has 50 percent lower nitrogen oxide emissions than fossil fuels and is carbon dioxide neutral."

It currently costs about $1 a gallon to produce bio-oil. The consumer price of No. 2 heating oil is now about $1.23 a gallon.

Farag said that if he had all the money he needed - an amount he estimated at between $140 million and $190 million - to build several bio-oil production plants, his project could be heating homes in the North Country in about two years.

Said Shaheen, "This is the smart way to move our country forward, and it also presents a great economic opportunity for this state. New Hampshire is well-positioned - right now many New Hampshire companies are producing cutting-edge energy technologies."

The bio-oil project is a partnership between the university and the New Hampshire Business Enterprise Development Council.