California coastal hills, chaparral and foothills are beautiful rolling ecosystems much of the year, but in the months of July, August, September and October these same gentle landscapes are often the scenes of devastating conflagrations driven by dry winds and hot seasonal temperatures. These environments are favored by Manzanita, various species of brush and ‘trash trees’ that pose extreme fire danger for property owners.
Damage to forests and property is staggering.
The California Department of Forestry estimates for 2001 totaled 6,223
fires in the state, burning some 90,985 acres. The costs of fire suppression for
that year ran to $109 million. Dollar
damages for CDF districts totaled $87,295,001 with 389 structures destroyed,
which included homes, outbuildings and commercial businesses.
Reducing
fire risk by keeping brush cleared around structures and homes is an important
part of a property owners’ fire preparedness plan. (For more information see
the Resources guide at the end of the article.)
In November of 2002 the author traveled to Willits, California to
meet with Mr. Ed Burton to learn about his wood chip bio-mass project. Ed is a retired forester
who has developed a system of brush clearing and fire prevention featuring a practical collection of off-the-shelf and invented
devices that generate useful products. As a side benefit his processing of waste
materials provide enough hydrogen
rich bio-gasses to run an engine. Ed has used his engineering bent
and forest experience to turn a troublesome
problem into an economic opportunity. As a
result he has developed a compliment of technologies that are environmentally sound,
engineered for hilly terrain and provide for ease of handling.
Central
to Ed's 'field arsenal'
of equipment is a self-propelled tractor, which has been
customized
for brush processing. He calls it his "Hill Climbing Brush
Converter."
Ed starts by cutting brush and small trees down to 12"-18"
lengths.
The
"Branch Clamp" is a simple but handy holding system used to keep small stock
steady as Ed trims and cuts them to length with his electric chain saw. Ed
prefers electric tools whenever possible. He says they are quieter, less
fatiguing, easier to maintain and are more enjoyable to work with.
Small
limbs under 1.4" in diameter are fed into a "Spiralshear", an
attachment of his own design.
The unit is a slowly revolving,
self-feeding shearing blade, which shears small material into 2” chunks.
The resulting "chunkettes" are then bagged for transport.
The
secret of Eds' system is this self-designed spiral blade that took many months of
experimentation and refinement.
A
second piece of equipment in Ed’s field arsenal is the self-propelled
“Jergensen Cart”, developed by Ed's colleague, Phil Jergenson. The 'Jergenson
Cart' is designed to handle larger salvageable wood. The unit is powered
by 12-volt batteries and features an inverter, which is handy for larger
electric chainsaws. The 'Jergenson Cart' also
features a
bin for tools and a built-in wood bundler (below).
Here
Ed has dropped in fireplace ready 16” sections into an electric powered
bundler and is binding them together with a very tough adhesive backed strapping
tape. Note the handy fire extinguisher.
The
bundles
are now ready for transport to the fireplace, wood stove or barbeque.
Bundles could also be sold on the local market.
As
mentioned, brush is reduced to 'chunkettes' which are a size suitable for drying, Ed
has bagged them in onion sacks and transported them to his “bio-mass”
station. The 'chunkettes' are placed in a modified trash container where they will
be dried out using a solar hot water heat exchange system of his own design
(below).
These
self-built hot water solar panels provide the necessary heat for drying the
wood.
Note the PV panel on top, which powers a water pump and blower fan.
Here
we see the green and brown
'chunkette' drying units. In the
center is the water supply for the solar hot water panels. The line coming down
from the top feeds 150-degree hot water into a box containing a small car
radiator. A solar powered fan blowing through the radiator blows hot air through the
black drainage pipe bifurcating to the bottoms of the two wood dryers.
The
indicated temperature at top of the wood chip container on this 65-degree day
registered an average 104 degrees. Incoming water to the radiator was 156 degrees producing 108 degree hot air at
the entry point of the dryer. Moisture content of the wood is reduced down to 10-15% most days of the year.
Once
dried (less than 10% moisture), the 'chunkettes' are placed into Ed's homemade
gasifer based on similar devices used in WWII to power cars. The gasifier is composed of two sections, A and
B (see drawing below). The
upper A section, (a modified garbage can) holds the dried wood 'chunkettes' and
funnels them down the the burn zone. The lower B section is divided in two. At the
very bottom is a propane burner which is used to start the wood burning. There
is also an access panel for ash removal. The upper
B section features a recessed container cavity extending down into the burner
space. The 'chunkettes' falling into the recessed container cavity are slowly “roasted”
consuming all available oxygen in the process. Once oxygen has been consumed,
the remaining gasses, rich in carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen exit the
furnace and conducts the produced gases to the 'bio-nox' gas cleanup box. Contrary to
perception, smoke is not released from the open top of the furnace as you might imagine.
In operation a vacuum draw is exerted by an engine, which keeps gasses flowing in one
direction.
The last stage of the process is the “Bionox Gas Filter”, a gas cleanup box. The gasses travel from the furnace output pipe to the first section of the 'bio-nox' filter shown on the right in the drawing below. Inside this cavity is a spinning water sprayer, which “washes” the heavier carbons from the incoming smoky gas. The sprinkler system also hydrates the biogas and cools the temperature to provide a warm biological environment for bacteria. The second stage of the box is filled with horse manure, a very useful commodity! The bottom of the manure container extends about halfway down the overall box depth. The floor of the manure section has holes drilled through it enabling warm hydrated gas to rise through the manure. As the gas permeates the manure, carbon, sulfur and other impurities are trapped and consumed by resident bacteria. The manure can be stirred occasionally to extend its usefulness. Eventually the manure is cycled out for use as a nitrate and carbon enriched soil amendment. The cleaned up gas then exits to the left and is fed to an engine. The result is cleaned up biogas and excellent soil treatment system.
The whole system is seen above. The cover of the 'Bionox Gas Filter' is off for inspection. In operation the box is sealed. Note on the rear left of the box is the outlet pipe that conducts biogas to the engine below.
Running
the Engine - The engine is
first started on propane. After the furnace is fired and other components come up to
operational readiness, the biogas valve is gradually opened.
Fully opened, the engine provides the vacuum draw for the
entire system. Currently Ed has no emissions instruments for measuring gas
composition.
The literature for similar systems built in WWII indicate hydrogen content
ranging from
7-22% for gassifiers and up to 45% for a Roche's Retort, which is similar to Eds'
design.. Hopefully an interested party with the proper measuring equipment will
donate some time so Ed can produce accurate data. Ed wants to concentrate on fuel harvesting and drying as well as
gas filtering using the 'Bionox Gas Filter'. Because of the hydrogen-enriched gas,
most residual hydrocarbons are
consumed by the engine. Water vapor is the main exhaust component, though Ed guesses
he has some low emissions of carbon monoxide. The engine may be used to run an electrical generator or
otherwise performs mechanical work.
Ed
Burton has a start to finish solution for fire management, with several useful products produced
along the way. 1) Cut wood and wood 'chunkettes' can be sold for use in a
fireplace. 2) Enriched manure can be used or sold as a soil amendment. and 3)
Biogas could even be compressed and
stored in containers for future use.
Ed
Burton can be reached at 707-459-6219.
'I built all of it with my pocket
computer.'
Many thanks to Ed Burton for his assistance on this article.
Resources
California Fire Statistics
http://www.fire.ca.gov/FireEmergencyResponse/HistoricalStatistics/PDF/2001summary.pdf
Fire
Management of California Shrubland Landscapes
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/seki/pdfs/envmgt2002.pdf
Homeowners
Fire Safety Planning Brochure
Books
"Proceedings
of the Third Southern Biomass Energy Research Conference"
March 12-14,1985, Gainesville Florida
ISBN 0-306-42221-2
"Simple
Inexpensive Gasifiers for Emergency Use Applications "
by Harry La Fontaine
Biomass
Energy Foundation, Inc.
1995 Keystone Boulevard
Miami, Florida 33181
"A
System for Producing Biomass Fuel for a Multiuse Industrial Park "
by R. Edward Burton
Kleensmoke,
Incorporated.
222 Franklin Ave.
Willits, California 95490
"Box
Beam Sourcebook "
A Modular Building System for Shaping Your Environment
by Phil Jergenson
Suntools
TM
P.O. Box 1029
Willits, California 95490
(707) 450-2624