3-06-2012- its sunflower day?

    no wonder van gogh went crazy about sunflowers as they just draw you in as their intricate seed pattern pulls your eyes closer to the heart of the sunflower. love them and love growing them . can remember one time driving out of navarre on rt . 62 and saw a field of sunflowers for the first and only time outside of the huge amounts i plant for the fun of it.  anyhow was mesmerized by the view that took my breath away.but  haven't seen them since. i use them on borders to a garden , and on hillsides i cover with compost . also i planted along side rt. 800 at our other farm as eye candy for passing motorists and to help sell carvings. it surely caught their eye. 

      today i would like to talk about bio waste degasification. i believe this to be a solution to our long term problems of energy usage. wood and agri wastes could easily be utilized as a means of creating syngas out of ordinary timber and agricutural waste . this syngas can then be used to run gasoline and blended up to 80 percent of diesel fuel,  and is a true flex fuel at this point . it may also be used to replace propane . and from my understanding is carbon neutral , adding no pollution to the air. there is ash left from the process and this is recyclable by spreading as nutrient to fields. Gasification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- this will explain it in better detail . 

      this is not new technology and in fact was used quite extensively during world war 2 as a means of powering over 9,000,000 vehicles as gas for personal use was non existent. tractors were converted to crude gasification units and ran fine with little or no modification of carburetors. this nice little pinto station wagon was broke down at local gas station , probably because he used the high alcohol content gas out today.

        the gasification process begins as the fire smolders in a reverse draft situation allowing the gases to rise in the heat chamber, it is collected and then is  drawn to a lower level and separated  into gas and liquid, the air is then recirculated, the liquid would go to your gas tank and be used as gas or syngas. woody fibrous materials capable of locking up vast amounts of carbon might be chosen to be grown specifically,  for the beneficial effects of reducing global warming. notice the color. im sure he looked great on starting line at magnolia raceway. Wood gas generator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- is another article pertaining to gasification. 

          the last one is a very important one to keep for future reference as it tells you how to build your own gasification unit. this was put out by our own fema-(federal emergence management agency ),and it is a simplified wood gas generator for use in petroleum emergency. check it out. i was speechless. for some reason this site was pushed to the side and not referenced much. 

     they say by using ordinary bio waste such as garbage tree limbs , straw, corn sunflower stalks and heads , one could easily produce their own fuel to power a generator or a car or diesel engine. read for your self. the technology has been there all along but they havent figured out how to charge you taxes on a backyard wood gas generator capable of knocking you off the grid. it is good information to know and down load for your later use. bdpanel.com/woodgas1.pdf- down load on paper and put with your emergency kit. a couple of 55 gallon steel drums might work. they say that carburetor or fuel injection adjustment is not necessary as any conventional gas engine will run on syn gas.  don't know but is worth looking at and wondering why more people are not using the technology. 

       i have  heard about a new gasification plant going in at oardc(ohio agricultural research and developement center), wooster ohio , and have drove past the site. i also knew they were buying old waste hay for use in the facility but have not heard how it is doing or if it is up in business. i always thought the term gasification was to complicated a process for average person, but apparently 9 million residents of europe would disagree . also it is my understanding that syn gas has been around in europe for awhile and is making a comeback of sorts as gas prices rise again. who knows what our long term energy answers will be and if we did we should be buying that stock now, but we have to conserve first, and then look to renewable sources of energy as much as we can. 

       one last interesting note is the fact that they produce less pollutants due to the nature of their burning. that they are more efficient and cleaner than a wood stove to use as well as gas or fuel . the same process when applied to coal provides a cleaner burn as compared  with conventional coal fired furnaces. but that source of fuel along with all hydrocarbons from oil distillates are sequestered hydrocarbons responsible for the rise in our average temperature, and are contributing to global warming as opposed to wood and agricultural bio wastes which are replenishable sources of solar power,capturing in effect, in a passive way. sun from sunflowers.