Organic EnergyFarming Cycle -methodology.

[MaxT]

There is my first published version:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/nergfarm/nergfarm.html

So, what do you people make of that ?

Any practical use ?

Some vitally Most essential points still missing from the commentary ?

I chose not to describe precise CO extraction methods, as there seems to be many different versions... some of which collect utilizable fluids from tree-matter (and different versions of that concept too: some give tar, some give more "pristine" fluids...) some that produce charcoal while at it, and so on. All with their own drawbacks and good points, and seemed best to be left for folks to research and choose which methods, where and when, to apply.

Same goes to extracting electrictity (or just motion) from the burning of CH4 and CO, as there seem to be really many different ways to do this also... infernal combustion -type aggregates and steam-turbines seeming (from where I am observing and pondering, at least) to be the most common options.

Also on the works: Comprehendable (non computerized) management and book-keeping (research and studying also) technique for this kind of operations... (I hoped to make that one into rather universally flexible in scale, to cover anything from kitchen experiments to country-sized operations... but the commentary I have received on that thus far, even though very positive, is pretty convincing that it does not work beyond provincial scales... oh well, small, medium, and decentralized energyproduction is much more sturdy and sustainable, both physically and socially anyways, for maintaining the infrastructures of our communities and civilizations in general, I guess).

MaxT

Why go fumbling plant entities to pump sunlight into electricity directly, at unknown risks from gmos to us all... when plants already pump sunlight into energy, and anaerobic bacteria releases it for us to burn and utilize for whatever ? (not to mention that these unmodified plants feed and clothe us while at it).

[Countryboy]

You may want to note that wood ash and wood is acidic.  You'll need to add lime when you apply your ash or wood compost to prevent the soils from becoming too acidic.

Now that you have your model, how do you make the application of your model cost efficient and productive?  How do I pay for that methane digester on the farm, rather than spreading the cow manure on the fields?

How do I get the same productivity from crop fields by using your model, as compared to using gmo grains that have 2 or 3 times the yield when used with a good herbicide program?

[tecker]

 The return from organic methods can be huge .  

[tecker]

 Got it backwards Wood ash (25 % Calcium Carbonate) is a limming agent and a good one .Use with care.

[electrondady1]

i am confused by your placement of carbon monoxide between forestry poducts and

combustion .

i would think co would be better placed as a byproduct of burning.

this is almost a documentation of the methods humans have used to exploit mature for thousands of years.

the diference being  the effort to make it a closed system and make use of the various resulting gases.

good work .

[MaxT]

Carbon Monoxide is placed between the forestry byproducts and burning, as the carbon monoxide can be burned in the same aggregate as the natural gas: it needs no separate system for it's own.

Nowdays much of the farming byproduct straws and peels are left to rot in composts, to release their methane (much more harmful as greenhouse effect gas than carbon dioxide, I hear) straight into atmosphere. Indeed, the point is to utilize this already very significant amount of energy, while transforming it into much less harmful (but still harmful) carbon dioxide... and optimally feeding that carbon dioxide for plants to transform into oxygen and plant-type goodies...

I was thinking that if there is too much resulting carbon dioxide for greenhouses, etc, would it be sensible to just distribute it widely,(for example with network of tubes) at near ground level, to fields and gardens... or even forests (after residual heat has been collected for use, of course) ? The idea being that at least the CO2 would then go through a utilizable bio-filter... at least a portion of it could go to use for plants to "do their thing".

Closed system, kind of, but not monocultural, and not "feeding chickens to fish, feeding fish to chickens, feeding chickens to fish..." and observing frightening mutations that increasingly take over. Like natural decomposers and the fire in between. Organic.

In these parts of world where I habit (at least) the forests every now and then seem to burn themselves into ashes as part of their natural cycles, and that is why I was not overtly worried (much) about the Ph changes from the ashes. Depends on the local ecosystems' flows and works, of course.

And the planned application of the Mycelia in large scale in various stages... that's relatively new to us ?

[MaxT]

"Now that you have your model, how do you make the application of your model cost efficient and productive?  How do I pay for that methane digester on the farm, rather than spreading the cow manure on the fields?"

That is for the each farm to research and study themselves. I did concentrate on the commentary on not using animals to "disturb" the process, but using plant matter directly... there is a mention of a very cheap digestor for such, above ground, from ordinary farming plastic sheeting. Not suitable for that cow manure, I'd guess. Cows do seem to be very wasteful use of farming land for feeding humans. (Cows do give leather too...).

"How do I get the same productivity from crop fields by using your model,..."

If it only was my model. It's freeware. Is your model now too. And not developed by me either, the folks who explained these things to me, experimented, developed, etc. are there in the project credits. Putting it into such concept diagram, returning ashes to woods, and utilizing resulting CO2... those I invented by myself... only to be certain that about zillion people have invented these solutions before.

"...as compared to using gmo grains that have 2 or 3 times the yield when used with a good herbicide program?"

Do they now ? Well, the reasons:

Sustainability.

Nutritional value.

Non-toxic food and energy.

(Non-toxic, non "depleted", food is already hard to come by... people pay dear prices for it... and not everyone who has it has the inclination to sell it).

Local Community Independence.

Seucured non-centralized energy production. (Much stronger against accidents, aggression, corrupted inept "loyal" political adminstration flops, and pillage-economics fluctuations... or just accidental economic glitches causing harm and havoc... etc.)

Secured local area infrastructure maintenance. (Food, fibres, medicines, energy).

Not poisoning the life sustaining functions of the local ecosystems.

Like everyone: Mycelial application in farming crops. Mycoforestry. Check those out... they are introduced in the mentioned book.

Self determination of local societies.

And not to mention, this method shoud be quite encouraging to people to keep close observation and comprehension of local ecology flows and physical world, in order to ensure it's continued function... you know, back to reality and sanity... back (or up, for the first time for some) to self determination ability in physical reality.

Yes: Reality and Sanity.

When Wheat stemrust strikes hard (for example), the gmo monoculture dependent local civilization is wiped out from hunger. Diversified farms with 20 different crops in relatively equal measures just lose 1/20th of the yearly harvest. I see it as a citizen duty to maintain viable diversity, and local infrastructure basic needs independently.

When (possibly, actually much nowdays, polluting) centralized energy deliveries flop (wars, prices, accidents, inpet inheritors, political skirmishing, unfit adminstrations, rampant corruption, etc.) areas dependent on them are in serious trouble, and depending of the climate, may be facing extinction of that area's (that wave of) human civilization. Areas capable of maintaining their own basic energy needs, will barely even be effected. Aggressors (of one sort or another) may easily wreck centralized power stations (as in Lebanon Israel conflict of 2006, without speculating on the reasons and results, politics, etc. now). 3000 local area Farm-powerplants of the state/province/area are much harder target for aggressors... so they seem to be a saner way of sustaining local social stability and human civilization(s).

There.

[electrondady1]

And the planned application of the Mycelia in large scale in various stages... that's relatively new to us ?

this is a new idea to me as well.
but would be a requirement when a sterile patch of land is to be planted !

[MaxT]

yes... I consider that mentioned actually to be the most important book in the field of understanding and living with the nature, since Darwin's Origin of the Species. It's that deep... and has many practical techniques explained and depicted.

Here is something that I heard about turning sterile land into farmable land (or "just" living and life flowing land): Terra Preo Do Indio. It means "Black Soil of the Indians". It is from the now extincted civilization of native inhabitants of Amazon area... where soil layer is apparently very thin. These Indios are long gone... but their farmable soil still remains (even as deep as 2 meters / 6 feet at some places). I do not know the precise proportions, as it was only recently brought into focus of our civilization, and is currently being tested at various institutions (universities, etc.), but here is how it basically goes:

Turning Sandland into farmable Soil

Take charcoal. Powdered, I think.

Take Compost.

Mix.

Spread to infertile sandland.

Apparently the charcoal somehow causes the compost nutrients to bind into the sandland, and not get washed away with rains and watering. And then it is farmable land.

And then the myco-farming techniques can be practiced on this too, to further boost the effectivity and ecological natural functioning simultaneously.

Hmm... seems to me that those current burn n slash farmers, powerty desperated, could really use this knowledge... so that they would not go burning more and more rainforest into shortlived farms that turn into desert in year or two... like we need those forests in order to breathe and to have a climate too. It would be less work for them, and instead of making dead deserts, they, those desperately, catastrophically poor people, could actually be reclaiming deserts this way... But I don't speak their languages, nor they mine. May this technique reach someone who will translate it to them... and more efficient fireplaces to consume 5x less wood, to them too,

from here:

  http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/selkistuff/

and here:

  http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/tempstuff/clay1.jpg

  http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/tempstuff/clay2.jpg

  http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/tempstuff/clay3.jpg

  http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/tempstuff/clay4.jpg

  http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/tempstuff/clay5.jpg

If anyone reading this can translate that Soil technique, and pointers to fireplaces, to amazon-basin slash and burn poor people, please do so, and post to local community forums and universities therein

Yea... I think that would be a good idea for all of us.

MaxT

  Sorry about wondering off-topic...

[finnsawyer]

I saw a program about this once.  The stuff I burn in my burn barrel leaves a charcoal residue that must be emptied occasionally.  It is a bit unsightly.  So, it appears it would be better to find a sandy area and mix that residue with organic mulch and then see what the effect is.  Come to think of it, the burn barrel is sited on a sandy area as is.  I suspect a lot of people would be in such a situation.  If they are doing organic farming, it would be something to try.

[BigBreaker]

A couple of thoughts, respecting the work you pulled together.  I appreciate the the goal of your study, namely sustainable agriculture with some surplus energy for heating or electricity.  It seems that another goal was to use relatively low-tech methods that would work in a third world or post first world disaster scenario.

Some quick thoughts:

Animal husbandry is extremely inefficient, energy-wise.  Assuming that food is scarce, you will not want to use any of it to feed animals.  The animal waste has some useful features but not enough to justify the large amount of food they will consume.  Foraging animals are a better idea, including pigs and chickens.  Chickens are useful in particular because they turn bugs into eggs and meat.

The fixation on methane and CO are misplaced.  Neither are especially easy to store compared to straight biomass.  As I mention below, read up on wood gasifiers.  You will see home raising animals for their manure is a complete waste of resources.  The gasifier will make all the hydrogen and CO you want and on demand.  The only industrial chemical worth a lot of effort is ammonia, because it is a primary fertilizer among other uses.  A gasifier will provide you the heat and precursors you need there, but good luck getting a small scale Haber-Bosche reactor to work.

Digestors are not the best use of biomass, energy-wise.  The bacteria feed on all the simple energy sources and leave fertile compost but deplete the energy content.  I would encourage you to learn about wood (and more generally biomass)gasifiers.  Wood gasifiers are basically a controlled chimney fire.  It is a very efficient way to burn assorted wastes and the burn temperatures are extremely high, high enough to fire clay into ceramics and make basic cement - two extremely valuable low tech technologies.  Residuals from burning biomass have all the mineral content but none of the organic matter - better than nothing.

The biggest risk in agriculture isn't disease, monoculture, pestilence, nutritional content, or soil depletion.  It's is much simpler than that and something for which there is no substitute... water.  There is no stable agriculture without water.  Your system does not address that issue.

Greenhouses can catch condensing water vapor and recycle it.  That isn't a bad approach - recycling water to reduce consumption - but it is still requires a large volume of water per unit of crop.  It also has a pretty high loss, since ventilation of the greenhouse will necessarily cause moisture to leave the system in a big way.

I am interested in hydroponics and especially aeroponics for that reason, with or without an enclosing greenhouse.  It is less "natural" but a highly water and nutrient efficient system.  It can yield incredibly intensive production by acreage and by units of other resources.  It involves some technology but too much.  There are ways to make it work that are relatively simple.  Once water usuage gets low enough it becomes practical to use cisterns to bridge seasonal draughts.  If weather patterns change and and the area becomes truely parched, it is unlikely that any agriculture is possible with any system.  Perhaps huge sisterns and large catchment areas could make it work.  Dew and humidity harvesting can solve the needs of human consumption but not agriculture.  The Israelis do some amazing things with greenhouses and desalinated (expensive!) water.  That's a great model to look at.

On the forestry / biomass side you mention some fiberous plants.  Certainly hemp is great crop assuming the legalities are on side (or moot in the case of a long term crisis).  You don't mention bamboo and that's a huge oversight.  Bamboo is extremely productive in terms of biomass.  It is technically a grass, so it doesn't use a lot of trace minerals or nitrogen and is happy with shallow roots.  The resulting canes are an excellent building material, good for charcoal and for wood gasification.  Bamboo is not susceptible to disease, though it can be infested with certain specialized bugs.  Still it is very robust and because it is uncommon oustide of Asia, contagion is unlikely.  There are enough varieties to avoid monoculture and to adapt to various climates.  It will be very happy to filter your blackwater wastes.

I think many people on the board have thought about what is necessary for "civiliation in a box".  I just wanted to add some things I had in my version.

[MaxT]

Thanks for commenting...

On Animals

That chicken point is very good to know. I was thinking of "few goats" and some grazing sheep, which give wool, and should be able to be bled a bit every now and then (I hear they get used to it) for some b12, etc. vitamins. And yes, it truly seems that animals are just on the way when thinking of CH4 an energy, and that is why I speak strongly against it in the explanation part of that link.

On CO and CH4

I was not planning to store much any of it as gasses or liquids... seems  risky and space requiring to me. I was thinking of utilizing the burn-gasses (As they can both be burned to energy, etc. in the one and the same burner) the instant they are available and loading capacitators with the energy.... which can be utilize at need. By capacitators I mean anything from battery storage (seems to be short term solution), to pumping water, to lifting tons of sand/debris bags, and so forth. CO is made in the model from controlled high temperature burning of the wood... but as I pointed out, really many different ways to do this, with different additional produces (From heat to tar to complex wood nutrients). And yes, I will look into this more.

I like to avoid chemical fertilizing, as it seems to lead on the long term to depleted nutrient content. The CH4 production wastematerial is fodder for myceliums (as indicated by the "M"), whichs' fruiting bodies can be let to rot back into it, thus transforming it further to something that plants get various nutrients from. Precise maths done on this, and effectivity... I have not seen. It's just that the discarded Straws and Peels seem to give enough CH4 power yearly (in our 5+million people adminstration area) to replace 2 medium-scale nuclear reactors... just seems crazy to let it all go to sky as harmful methane...

On water

Moisture collection Nets seem a brilliant idea... needs to be developed into organic versions (Like 4x layers on top of each other... from moisture resistant fibres... like treated human hair for instance... most can grow hair... ? Though that humanhair might not work on that...)

Another idea is to let solar distillers separate water from salt of seawater, and that distilled water needs a degree of of life into it... like "seeded" with degree or  natural pondlife for a while to spread and "do their thing" with sunlight, H2O, minerals, and feeding, secreting, and feeding upon each other, secreting that, and so forth (plant plancton, animal plancton etc. ) and then applied to fields... I'm thinking of low energy, low tech solutions again... requires glass and black paint (or tar) for solar seawater heating and evaporation part of thr distillation process, though. But, should it work well enough... = not expensive ?

Another thing that really seems to help with water, is again, the mycelia. Extensive symbiotic mycelial netwrok seems to increase the water retention abilities of soil considerably. (Water collection nets + Terra Preo Do Indios + Mycelial network applications = should mean a lot, for reclaiming the deserts even). It seems to me that if tree and plant roots are to soil what bones are to animals' bodies, then mycelium is to soil what flesh is to animals' bodies.

On greenhouses

It seems that farming organically few fish in tanks in a greenhouse, and using their "greywater" as both: Watering and Nutrients for greenhouse plants, costs no extra, increases the mineral and vitamin content (somewhat) of the plants, eliminates the need for extra nutrients, and produces some fish on the side... and this is without the mycelium being applied to the plants to see whether they would further boost this (which is possible, if not likely... yet I would not count on it). Swedish universities have recently done some very interesting testruns with this system. They used tomato plants and some variation of Perch ( Genus Perca ).

Hmmm... perhaps the ventilation of greenhouses should be done only through moisture collection nets ? I wonder if that could work to catch at least a portion of that water, back to use...

On Cisterns

There is absolutely, encouraging, ingenious, method for catching seasonal monsoons, for re-greening and farming desert-type areas. The Indian monsoon catching method, very low tech, but stores huge amounts of water... the results there were so sustainable and effective that this technique has been, and is being, introduced world wide to various dry areas with monsoon type-conditions.

On Dry area nutrition growing

Mushrooms. In logs. (This needs logs, though). Covered with man-made or natural shade. Won't probably work in total desert conditions, but when rest of the vegetation died in various droughts here... those mushrooms eating rotting wood material seemed alive enough... and those with a degree of natural shade were in edible conditions. Then there are certain species Opuntia... but these cactii and droughts are basically odd for me, since I have the amazing luck of being surrounded with plenty of freshwater in my area of habitation.

On Fiberplants

It seems that legalities for Fiber Only species of hemp are not impossible, though inanely complicated... (what horrible short sighted and unthoughtful planning). In my arboreal area of inhabitation Nettles seem hardy and plentiful, on the wild, and as farmed fields.

Nice thing often forgotten about these kinds of plants is that by mixing these fibers properly into concrete, you get amazingly sturdy concrete http://www.selkikeskus.com/ seems to have patented version on using recycled cloth fibres on this... which is ingenious... (as are apparently their desert re-greening techniques and experiments as well... good stuff, lots of it).

On Bamboo

You are absolutely right, huge oversight from my side. I hear many things about the amazing properties of these tree-sized reeds, from their ability to grow, to their ingenious natural structures, to steel-concrete being obsoleted in various locales by stronger bamboo-concrete, and have seen 15+ storey building sites in asia utilizing solely bamboo made construction platforms. Not to mention the edible bamboo shoots... but the reason I forgot, I suspect, was that the bamboo does not grow around these arboreal northern latitudes... at least no one has thus far been able to introduce suitable species here (Scandinavia), and we thus have been unable to utilize any of this plant in pretty much any-scale.

On Catastrophes

"Catastrophe that happens is the one you did not prepare for" (I citate it from  Sergio Aragone's comic character Sage). Thus, I aim for ordinary civilized societies, or rather the citizens that form these societies, to be able to maintain and sustain their basic needs, indefinitely if need be. I hope that one day that would be amongst routine citizenship skills taught in schools (Or by parents, or by parents' organizations). That should form a solid platform for civilizations with commerce, travel, etc. to exist. Instead of cataclysmic catastrophes... thin times, every now and then, as has been the usual case through history... from which to rebuild to more prosperous times. (And let's forget the unthoughtful wasteful opulence fads from our social repertoire... ?)

And yes, I stored your response and plan to research about everything you mentioned... Thank you for the commentary.

MaxT

  Environment and Developement

  http://www.ymparistojakehitys.fi/index.html

[BigBreaker]

I'm glad it was helpful.  You seem to have a great background in soil fertility and organic farming methods.  That probably doesn't make you very excited about aeroponics, but it is seriously worth a look.  Again the water issue looms large and nothing will beat aeroponics for water efficiency.

Moisture collection technologies will not yield enough water for agriculture and neither will solar stills.  You want to use that glass for the greenhouse, not the solar still.  Again... these methods are enough for drinking water but not agriculture.  Only a super efficient method like aeroponics could work and even then... probably not enough.  We are talking gallons per day when you needs cubic yards per day.  Catchment, well and lake/river/stream.  Pick two and build a cistern to handle three months of use (that's huge!).

Also without law and order it may be difficult to protect a large flat farm field and claim the fruits of your labor.  Hungry people will find your carefully constructed homestead farm and take all your stuff.  That happens all the time in the third world.  With soilless methods like aeroponics you need far less space and it doesn't need to be flat.  That opens up more secure hilly or mountainous terrain for the homestead.  A man (or woman) with elevation, cover and a rifle can take all comers.

Definitely, definitely, definitely research wood gasifiers.  Europe and especially Germany ran on them during WW2 when petroleum supplies were cutoff.  The fuel is easy to grow and easy to store.  It doesn't go bad, leak or evaporate and it's non-toxic.

You are going to want a kiln and access to clay soil.  Pottery is the poor man's plastic.  Fired clay can be made all or mostly waterproof.  It can be formed in any shape.  It lasts a long time and doesn't rot or rust.  Fired bricks are REALLY useful building material, especially for that cistern.  Another unsung skill and technology you'll want is spinning and weaving (spinning wheel and loom).

Batteries - you want nickel iron batteries, AKA Edison batteries.  They take a beating and last 50+ years unlike any other battery.  They are non-toxic and the electrolyte is relatively easy to make at home.  A wood gasifier powered genset provides backup when the batteries run out.  Solar and hydro are best to charge the batteries for base line power.  A wind turbine would need to be specially designed to last even 10 years.  Maybe a slow moving VAWT?  Nature always finds a way to kill wind turbines, sometimes it just takes a bit longer.

[MaxT]

True what you tell about hungry and desperate foragers... that's why I think these knowledges and preparedness for such local citizen maintained self-sustenance infrastructure readiness, should be widely spread... more people with their own fields (or their local fields to go to work with and help their expansion) should mean less hungry desperate foragers... and more neighbours to trade and exchange produce and services with.

In the case of foragers being formed of armed bands of raiders, with no interest in growing their own food, the rifle is less useful, but then there are tricks that can be used to turn all stolen fuels, generators and foods into useless, or worse, to whomever happens to steal them... at least the raiders won't be bothering many neighbours after such... but I think spreading the technologies, techniques, and means of basic local self sustenance is generally still much more efficient security technique....

For similar reasons as you mentioned the aerophonics, I have kept eye on various space-efficient low-tech mushroom farming techniques (mostly the method of using vertical tube-shaped growth bags full of suitable nutrients, which can be recycled materials, even shredded paper will do in some cases if it has not too much lead and the like poisons.... possibly even floating transport containers could be utilized for such...). But now I will definitely check the aerophonics too.

In our area, during WWII, people and institutions used these wood burning barrel-type metal cylinders that they attached to the external chassis of the vehicles like cars, buses, trucks, tractors, and even battle panzers in some cases. Looked somewhat bulky, and were somewhat of a hassle, but people tell they worked fine and things kept running. They burned wood, or chipped wood, in low-oxygen conditions, which results in that CO gas, which was then directly (or through some form of filter ? Details have been somewhat hard to come by) fed to ordinary internal combustion engines of those vehicles and machinery of the time. What I know of, this gas itself was never much stored, but the wood was hauled around as the fuel, and burned on the spot into CO when needed (which meant that vehicles and cars were somewhat more complicated to start).

For similar "wood into CO method" there seems to be nowdays more and more technologies, designs and variations, though stationary. This gas can kill without victims noticing it, which means that canary bird as a pet, as in the mines and submarines of old, is a handy critter to have around when running such burner... I do not know what other critters will do (perhaps any small bird ?) as living gas indicators. (For those worried about these canaries: These birds faint from lack of oxygen and presence of other gases, long before people do. Thus people know to run, rescue the vital bird with them, and open the doors, shut down the burning systems, examine what is wrong and leaking). Only the same aggregates and engines for generators that can burn this form of wood gas, can apparently burn the CH4 heavy natural gas too... burn exhaust gas of both being the CO2... so no separate engines and generators, just switch the feed tube to the source that is currently producing fuel gasses.

Of other wood to gas methods I have not yet researched about. I do not even know of other gasses than that CO from wood, but that is because I have been concentrating into this one method... it being tested and used so widely and reliably before has just impressed me a lot. Wood to liquid methods I have heard about, but do not know much about.

That Kiln is a very good point, especially as clay can be found hereabouts... I'm thinking something like woodburner that produces CO where all the heat can be used to more electricity generation... or turned to heat the kiln owen, when it's ceramics production time.

Another form of CO kiln is a bigger operation (like one per "neigbourhood" sized habitation ?) which basically is just a brick making kiln, but all the CO is caught and utilized in electricity generation... will look for it's specs too, just heard about it yesterday, but apparently it is low-tech and being utilized in various poor countries where scientific sustainable-infra construction has been on the way.

Loom and spindle... Argh. I have access to sheep to shear, wool to spindle, thread to color with mushrooms, and loom to work it into fabrics... and have been far too lazy with this... either someone else has by now snagged the honor of shearing those sheep, or they now have really, really, shabby and wild groomings on.

That batteries thing is excellent to know...

In wind generators there are some options... sheetmetallic Savonius & Sidewinders seem hardy. Especially very old Savonius contraptions can be seen in the chimneys of almost century old buildings in this city of a town... though they never seem to be over 1m (3feet) in height, and their only function seems to be keeping the air circulating in those houses... I haven't much researched them previously, but they seem to have been working okay for the few decades that I have been noticing them.

Now some ramblings with curiosity value only:

Incidentally, here's my own wind turbine design (to be updated soon) which was planned just for these reasons... but turns out quite complicated to build, thus has not "much" been tested. Eventually it's supposed to be foldable, and built from organic materials (except the metal bearings and generator), and salvageable materials. http://koti.mbnet.fi/maxt/Windstuff/Yonisml.jpg

[BigBreaker]

You describe the wood gasifier's operation well.  One thing, though... in addition to the CO the gasifier makes a generous amount of H2.  You can google on "wood gasifier" and find lots of plans.

[MaxT]

And that I did. What else I found... was the volatility of wood gasification operations. In other words, their tendency to go boom and explode, unless vehemently supervised. Perhaps Neighbourhood-production size units, at safe distance, with 24/7 watch with 2 persons constantly observing at the location with 2 undulates (birds) ?

Seems that many wood gasifying technologies of simplest and smallest Do It Yourself -type, are censored... not by mighty trusts but their inventors themselves: they work fine, but if operated by uneducated person who just copied the structure and started it's operation (especially if poor and busy surviving in general).... the letheal accidents seem very likely. This is my understanding thus far. But efficiently supervised, they could be very useful and important in communities energy production.

Those Brick-production ovens which simultaneously produce CO apparently are of just such "local-centralized" scale, and I havent heard of problems with them and their supervision... though no canaries utilized as far as I know.

Also, having observed some recent explanations of solar technologies like: Schefflers, low tech parabolic manufacturing, Concentrated PhotoVoltaic / Flash Steam / Thermal Coupling -options, etc. I think that these need to be added to the diagram, as well as DIY waterheaters, ... not to neglect wind and hydro DIY systems.

I'll dump hurrying with my "theoretical superior" windturbine to web (as it will take year or two to illustrate in diagrams and explanations) and rather will post ultrasimple DIY windturbine and a DIY solar room-heater here in the near future instead.

("Theoretical Superior" is in a "mystery diagram" -stage. It's basically illustrated, but without any explanations and explanatory diagrams clarifying what the heck the various odd and unorthodox thingamaboobs in it are... at this stage it is definitely not very practical, which is it's main goal to be).

[BigBreaker]

There are commercial products that are safe to run unattended and even from inside the home.  Check out the Wood Gun.  DIY has risks, as you point out.  A big part of the risk comes from cooling and filtering the H, CH3 and CO before using them in a traditional piston engine.  There is a lot potential for those gases to leak or back up explosively.

A gasifier can run a genset with biomass to recharge batteries during a cloudy spell or a low wind period.  That's worth a lot in how you size your batteries.

I think the CO poisoning is the bigger risk compared to explosion, but both are to be avoided.  I'd just site my gasifier outside and solve both problems.  Anytime you have high temperature gases and combustion you run the risk of explosive material failure.  Note to self, don't cut corners on materials or construction...

[MaxT]

That Wood Gun indeed looks very interesting, fetching even, I have to research it more thoroughly.

Due to that piston engine "tenderness", I still am thinking of heating, with multiple techniques and methods, one and the same steam boiler with turbine - generator set. Then small impurities and such should not be a problem.

(There are some wilder options, like pistonless, sub-pressurized closed steam rotator, that might have great potential for being very good for low-tech DIY conditions... but no one has yet tested whether they are actually any good at producing that electrivity or clunky wastes of space and effort... perhaps when more has been found out...).

[BigBreaker]

If your heating needs are significant, then you don't need to worry too much about the engine's thermodynamic efficiency.  You need all the waste heat you can get so use something easy/cheap/solid but inefficent to turn the gen shaft.

Steam turbines have a lot to recommend them, but most people prefer diesel for the primary mover in a genset, especially if off in the boonies.  Turbines spin fast and have moving parts operating at high temperatures and pressures.  By contrast, pistons are in fact less tender, especially diesel.  Steam solves most of the fouling problems of internal combustion but has it's own issues, including constant storage of steam under enormous pressure.  Steam turbines are basically commercial use only.  A signficantly sized boiler requires a license, a licensed technician and periodic inspection.

The nice thing about steam?  External combustion - you just need to create enough heat transfer to your boiler from any significant heat source.  Don't forget that you need a heat sink for the condenser with closed loop steam.  Often the heat sink is harder to create than the heat source.  YMMV.  Again, the heat sink may be heating the living quarters or some other co-gen goodness.

Telsa turbines are neat alternative to traditional turbines and can be built/serviced with low tech equipment.  Telsa turbines have a TSR = 1 so the shaft speeds stay low compared to the steam/combustion velocity.  Also they run at higher gas velocities but lower pressures than normal turbines.  That puts a lot of design pressure on the gas nossles but reduces the operating pressures.  Unfortunately telsa turbines are DIY only - nothing commercial is available.  Lots of info on them is just a google away.

[MaxT]

Those steam issues were known... that's why it's one of the options under consideration... at least at this one application locally, supervision would not be a too much of a problem... but then it would not be very generic type of a DIY solution again...

That's why the closed system "sub atmospheric" pressure water boiler + piston thingy interests me even though still on a very theoretical stages...

And now, Tesla Turbines... had heard of them, had glanced at them... but had no idea they would be good for this type of thing. Now I'll have to add thorough research into them, to my homewrok.... let's see what turns up from there...

on wind designs:

The Übercomplicated mystery-diagram with unorthodox everything is on slow processing gear.

The simpler bamboo- rope- and cloth turbine design has moved froward, and it's publishers named it "Wind Cruiser", and I'll post the link to my diaries for comments.

MaxT

[BigBreaker]

Wind power doesn't really solve the problem in my opinion.  When the wind doesn't blow you need either batteries or a generator to keep the power flowing.  The best compromise is a bit of both.  Three days of battery power is an expensive proposition.  Even then you may have four days of no wind.  Then what?

It seems like some solar, wind, batteries and a genset is the gold standard.  You have some power production in virtually all types of weather, batteries to bridge most of the gaps and a genset (with plenty of fuel) if things go really wrong or you need excess power temporarily.

[MaxT]

On wind: Do not roll the generator directly. Use it to load capacitators. extract energy by releasing the capacitators to rotate the generator shaft at need. Like ten tons of bricks (for example) will keep on "loaded" position for decades if need be, without losing any of the loaded weight capacity.

I don't like the currently popular big white towers with 3 thin blades a one iota. drag is wasted to wear and tear, big blades actually let most (even) air just straight through... and large portions of the blades just cause problems as they rotate at different speeds and faster than air. Even centrifugal force is enlisted to wear and tear the structure apart...

Even on better effectivity designs I would not rely on wind + capacitators alone. But it could be good complimentary energy source... or fulfiller of a portion of actual energy needs of communities.

[BigBreaker]

All current electricity storage methods are lousy.  Capacitors are the worst.  They self discharge rather quickly and cost a bundle for any significant amount of kw hours.  Batteries have similiar issues but less so.  Commercially only hydro dams with big reservoirs or pumped storage work.  That's not usually an option in a typical homestead.

A gallon of gas/diesel/oil/alchohol has an enormous amount of energy in it and that energy won't diminish for decades if stored properly.  You just can't beat that yet.  Plant some olive trees and you'll have all the oil (to turn into biodiesel) you need for emergency generator use.  Depending on the type of generator, you might also be able to use wood gas in it directly.

Wind turbines have the lowest cost per watt of any renewable and they can produce power at night and when it's cloudy.  Winters are generally more windy in most parts of the world.  That compliments solar quite well on all fronts.  It's nice to have an inflow almost all the time and that saves on the size battery bank you need and generator fuel.  Most days there is some sun so solar is a mainstay.  You need a mix of complimentary sources with a backup.