The Trip!

I went on a learning expedition from December 2, 2008 until December 8, 2008.

I had been planning this trip for quite a while. Dr. Larry Birch of Norfolk, NE and I have been working on this Diesel project together and his interest in the possibility of using a compacted municipal waste product as at least a partial fuel for that project, led to the need to travel to the plant making this product and investigate it's potential as a suitable fuel for gasification.

With some careful schedule wrangling, I was able to leave about four days early and do a small road trip with Wayne Keith as his expertise in gasification exceeds mine. Wayne truly showed some true southern hospitality, he was headed to an alternative energy conference in Kirksville, MO on the 4 and 5 of December 2008. I flew in to Alabama on the 2nd and we left from his house that very night. My wife thought this was a little silly of me because Kirksville, MO is a lot closer to my house in Nebraska by about 2000 miles. I told her it wasn't about getting to the conference, for me it was about taking that 3000 mile road trip with Wayne Keith.

I had never met Wayne in person before he picked me up at the airport. We had communicated though the common list servers that we both belong, and have bounced around a lot of emails and several lengthily phone calls, especially when I was doing some rework on my truck. I must say Wayne's new Green Machines are some nice units, they drive nice on wood. The throttle body fuel injection system on his newer truck really proved to be a sweet conversion.

The trip was a great learning experience, I had the captive ear of my mentor, when he has a lot of free time that we can talk about woodgas. The alternative energy conference was pretty interesting, I didn't really get much of a chance to check out some of the other green stuff that was going on but from what I did get a chance to catch it was very good. I did manage to catch a presentation from Dr. Bransby, he was the the project head for Wayne Keith's escape from Berkley road rally (check for more info on Wayne's Keith's page). Dr Bransby is a professor of Energy Crops and Bioenergy at Auburn University, Auburn AL. It was wonderful to meet both him and his wife.

Dr. Bransby talking to a group a famers	Wayne cutting wood with wood power!

Wayne cutting more wood. I am talking....	and more talking

We left Kirksville on Saturday afternoon, of the 6th. We headed south with a final destination of the Nashville, TN area to look into that compressed municipal waste project. But we will make a minor pitstop in the state of Kentucky to a small reformed Amish community. One of the members of this settlement is working on a small gassifer to run a small 16hp engine, he was having some problems getting good gas. After a very short stop over we had his unit producing good clean gas and Wayne ran a hose to his generator so he could show them it was working. I must say it is one of the cleanest looking first gassier builds.

We also were meeting Dr Larry and Robert Burns in the Nashville area. Due to the nondisclosure agreement I signed, with the company producing the product, I must be vague with the details. However I can discuss what the company freely discloses to the public. Basically they have devolved a product manufactured from sterilized compacted municipal waste. It is used as a bulk media for a green potting soil, it mixed with other biomass to create a finished product. They have also developed a compacted pellet product that we are possibly interested in testing.

The fruits of this trip are underway. I am working on a new design that I hope will be able to run at least a portion of the pelletized product.


Yes I blurred out face, I was given permission to take the photo's but we did not discuss the internet use.	The invisible flame that we all look for......