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Originally Posted by rebelcat1
Thank you for the prompt reply. From my perspective the advantage of angering is that the whole process becomes automated. I'm thinking of a system where you're loading material into the feed hopper with a loader, 1+ cubic yards at a time, with a throughput on the order of 10 to 500 cubic yards per day. Of course any prototype I build will be much smaller, but that's why I want to aim for an auger.
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Roger.
I was thinking continuous with the auger too, but as I say, I now think there is no gain. Isn't it a work problem as far as physics goes? x amount of wood and y amount of Sun? Then there is the matter of an auger stout enough to move the material, which is going to decrease the volume of wood in the receiver by its displacement. Then there is having to deal with clogs when a knot lodges between the auger and pipe halfway down.
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Originally Posted by rebelcat
Also, once we get above even a fairly small scale the mechanics of hand loading a tube get very arduous.
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I think a hopper could speed up loading and some sawbucks to hold the cooling/cooled receivers while the charcoal is pushed out. Prolly could come up with a simple machine to drive a plunger to push the stuff out.
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Originally Posted by rebelcat
Other advantages include charcoal will be mostly powdered, especially if starting with material like straw and the larger scale make capture and use of the 'woodgas' or 'syngas' more feasible.
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Well, maybe. But it seems like you will have to use a lot of power from some source to drive the auger. Maybe the wood-gas itself?
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Originally Posted by rebelcat
Another idea I had, if you were going to encase the thing in a vacuum tube you could have the top 25* of the pipe covered with some high temp insulation in such a way that it supported the vac. tube, adding to mechanical resiliency.
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The vacuum tube
is the insulation. I was thinking about the vacuum/Dewer tube last night though in regard to the gas & steam venting you mentioned, and some special consideration will have to be made so pressure doesn't build. Maybe just havig one end open like the familiar Thermos® bottles would do? Also, for a down-n-dirty vacuum enclosure I was thinking maybe nested fish aquariums or something made of sheet glass so you avoid the expense of having a Dewar tube made by a glassblower.
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Originally Posted by rebelcat
I still need to read the entire thread (I'm half way through) and more info on reflector design. I saw some really cool looking stuff about Fresnel reflectors, could be lighter and more resource efficient.
rc1
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Roger. One thing on the Fresnels (they are lenses, not reflectors) is that you have to add a drive unit of some kind to keep them focussed. Same with round parabolic reflectors. This is the great advantage of a parabolic trough reflector, it only needs to be set oriented on an East/West line and it works all day. True a trough could be made to track, but unlike the others it will work without tracking. I'll let you finish reading.
