Gasification PowerExchange Workshop #11: March 30 – April 1
Gasifier Power System Showcase: 10kw, 20kw & 100kw, GEK building and running, More Lister spark conversion

Gasification Lecture and Demo: Friday, March 30, 7:30-9:30PM
Building, Running and  and Testing: Saturday and Sunday, March 30 and April 1, 11am – 7pm
Location: ALL Power Labs, 1010 Murray Street. Berkeley, CA
Contact: sales ^at^ allpowerlabs.org
Cost: Free for GEK owners.  $100 otherwise http://www.gekgasifier.com/about/workshop/sign-up/
RSVP to: http://gekgasifier.com/forums/index.php/topic/747-gasification-workshop-weekend-march-30-april-1-berkeley-ca/
More Info: http://gekgasifier.com/about/workshops/

Learn the intimate details of our cutting edge gasification technology and bring our story to life for potential customers. You’re not just selling a product off the shelf – our personal scale energy solutions are experimental machines with new and exciting updates happening every day. Bring us your enthusiasm for green technology and alternative energy solutions.

 

Responsibilities

• Sell our products! Learn both the big picture of gasification and the minute details of the complex machines we produce, and then share that vision with our customers.
• Stay organized as you contact and follow-through with a wide variety of qualified leads.
• Prepare sales invoices and shipping quotes.
• Answer customer questions thoroughly, from the complex to the simple, understanding that we cater to a community of enthusiasts. You’ll straddle the line between sharing the basics of gasification with the uninitiated and fielding questions from scientists.
• Attend trade shows and conferences and be willing to meet with customers all over the world.

 

Qualifications

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
• Enthusiasm for research: ask a lot of questions, observe our products in action, and constantly increase your knowledge.
• Personable and adaptable communication style: you will be speaking with farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and tinkerers from all over the world. You will deal with a wide variety of personality types and be able to occasionally de-escalate unhappy customers into happy ones.
• Experience with Salesforce or other CRM, Word, Excel, and Quickbooks.

 

To apply, please send a letter describing your interests and qualifications, as well as your resume, to jobs. Please do not just send a resume. We need to hear why you think you are the perfect fit for this adventure.

 

20kw Power Pallets on the floor

The shop floor at APL continues to fill with more good stuff. Here’s the scene from a couple weeks ago as we were finishing a round of 20kw Power Pallets. The 4 pictured units were later shipped to Indonesia, Italy, Mexico and Brazil. We’re blessed with interesting projects at nearly all of our end user sites, and usually some lucky APL engineer gets to fly out and meet the machine and people on the other end.

About half of the current Power Pallet shipments have a follow up trip to the user’s site. Many of the power pallets are going to demonstration or testing sites where someone wants to explore a larger deployment, and or set up a high value use that will likely lead to more good things. We’re excited when people approach us with interesting projects like this, and we try to make a trip to their site to ensure a successful start.

Some of these lead to workshops around the delivered machine, and proposed project. If you would like to hold such an event and/or exploration at your site, you are encouraged to contact us and propose a plan. We are usually enthusiastic, and all too often we say “yes”.

Global Workshops in February, 2012

Belgium (near Ghent): Feb 17-19, 2012

Tom Vandeputte of Green Power Solution and APL have finally set the date for a large multi-day workshop in Belgium. The date is three months out, so those of you who want to travel from a distance, or gain support from your institution will have time to get the paperwork in order. Europe and Africa are main regions of interest for our equipment, and we hope this long notice and closer to home workshop will make it easier for many of you to attend rather than travel all the way to Berkeley, CA.

The Belgium workshop will offer multiple project tracks over multiple days similar to the format of the APL workshops in the US. We’ll start with an evening lecture on the science and engineering of gasification, then follow with two days of hands on projects and demos.

The main demo machine will be a 20kw Power Pallet with a turbo charged form of the GM 3.0L engine. The projects during the workshop will focus on work relevant for farming communities. We’ll be converting a diesel tractor to dual fuel gasifier power. We’ll also be welding from scratch a GEK kit in a local metal shop. We plan to locate equipment so that others can build GEKs in parallel.

There’s also lots of interest in gathering European woodgas vehicles for a “show and tell” during the workshop. Dutch John, Werner, Fredrick, Vesa, etc any interest in joining us?

These dates are now final. More details on program and logistics are coming soon. In the interim, if you would like to be put on the list for the workshop, you can write gek or Tom at t.vandeputte.

ALL Power Labs, Berkeley, CA: Feb 3-5, 2012

The next APL workshop is scheduled back to back with the Belgium workshop. We’re hoping these two workshops on somewhat opposite sides of the globe will better serve all who want to see the machinery. Those coming from the Americas and Asia might find it easier to attend the APL workshop rather than the European one. Those coming from Africa, Europe and Middle East will likely find the Belgium one more convenient. However, either workshop is open to attendees from any locale. You choose the locale and program that works best for you.

The APL program will focus on current ideas for deploying the Power Pallet in commercial applications. We are going to finally answer the regular question of “how do we become a dealer/installer of your equipment,” and set out a program for basic training. We will have people report on experiences to date with the equipment, and layout the road map for how things will continue to develop in the months/years ahead. If you would like to present about your GEK project during the workshop, please send us a note.

We’re open to other suggestions for projects and tracks. Tell us what you’d like to see/do/learn at the workshop, and we’ll see if we can make it happen this February.

Workshop Cost: Free if you are a GEK or BEK owner, either through self-build or purchase. Otherwise, $100 per person for the weekend.

Register to attend by clicking the links below.

• GEK or BEK users / owners – FREE (email us to register)

• Weekend Workshop – $100 – register below:

 

Attendee Name(s) – $100/ea

Workshop details and directions can be found here.

 

Duisburg, Germany: Every 1st and 3rd Thursday

Holger and Kersten of NRG-Consultants continue to offer GEK Power Pallet workshop/demos in Duisburg, Germany every first and third Thursday of the month. These are regular events for Europeans to see the GEK Power Pallet run and try out specific fuels.

For more information contact Dipl.-Ing. Holger Roswandowicz at: “Dipl.-Ing. Holger Roswandowicz” hr, Mobil ++ 49 171 1988 926, www.nrg-consultants.com

Lots of new GEKs

Press print in CAD and GEK parts show up, thanks to the wonders of the local CNC laser cutter house — Seaport Stainless. The pictures above show what 70 GEKs look like as raw parts. This the latest batch of v4.3 GEKs, the batch we’re now at the end of barreling and shipping. (more photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150330515637611.338107.330512257610&type=3&l=72b498f7c6 )

We believe (though fear to actually say so) that this will finally put us above even on orders for the first time in 3.5 years. We think we’re about to have extra GEKs actually on the shelf, and available for near immediate shipping. To date we’ve made GEKs to order, and often much further behind order than desired. Finally the scaling of our manufacturing process has caught up with our growth needs, at least for the raw kits.

Power Pallets are still a 2-3 month wait from time of payment. The added automation system, engine/genhead, structural elements, plumbing interconnections, accessories and general assembly present a whole new array of challenges — challenges we’ve yet to make as efficient as the raw GEK kits. We’ve learned that making cars is hard, even without the wheels . . .

Here’s all the extra CNC parts that make the Power Pallet beyond the GEK and TOTTI parts shown above. The number of details and accessories beyond the raw gasifier to make a truly usable total biomass power generation system is sobering. The photo below shows 10 Power Pallets worth of accessory sheet metal. Add wires, electronic components, and a few extra hundred lines of BOM, and you get the picture back at the top of the email.

Power Pallets are currently coming out at a rate of about 5 per month, with 10 per month the goal over the next few months. Groundwork is being laid for much larger throughput. Creative engineers are becoming manufacturing managers (for better or worse). The team is expanding with new manufacturing expertise. We thank all of you who’ve been patience with delays in recent months. We’re working 24/7 to solve it (thus this GEKnews update at 3:35am local pacific time).

Photo Updates from Around the Shop

APL co-founder Jess Hobbs has started a daily photo post of shop happenings on facebook. Check in here for the local show: http://www.facebook.com/allpowerlabs. Interesting things are also appearing regularly on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/allpowerlabs. Thank you Jess for telling the daily story of APL so those far away can participate in the process.

For those who can stop by the shop, soon you’ll be able to enjoy some vegetables from Jess’s newly replanted biochar garden!

More news soon,

jim

We’re now in the midst of our Father’s Day Gasification workshop at ALL Power Labs in Berkeley, CA.   We have about 75 people here from near and far to wander down the rabbit hole of biomass thermal conversion.

For those of you not able to join us, we have a webcam on the 10 kW Power Pallet endurance run.  You can watch the progress here:  http://www.gekgasifier.com/webcam/

We plan 50 hours over the next several days with datalogging of the wood chip fuel in to power out particulars.  We started yesterday afternoon and ran straight through the night.  So far 24+ hours constant run without issues.  We pulled the filter apart at 24hours and were happy to find it nice and clean.  No bell reduction bell packing either, which has lately been our biggest challenge on long runs.   Some minor tweaks to grate design seems to have cleared up the problem.

We have the full datalogging regime up and running so we should soon have a good set of info on fuel in to power out particulars, as well as system temps, pressures, and gas composition numbers.  The fuel we are using is chipped cedar from the local landscaping supply company.  We’ve sifted out the overs and unders, but otherwise it is standard disk chipper wood chip.  We’re running on average about 3-4kw of electricity generated.

There are lots of good pictures of the workshop proceedings here in Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150219877157611.312016.330512257610&l=ee47069901

We’ll continue this eve, and likely some more tomorrow if anyone wants to stop by.  The original info on the workshop is at:  http://gekgasifier.com/forums/showthread.php?t=563

jim

–

The first edition of the 10kW GEK Power Pallet combined our Tower of Total Thermal Integration with a Kohler v-twin engine. In October of 2010 we began production of the second version, which used a Kubota 3-cylinder industrial spark-fired diesel designed specifically for use with a gaseous fuel, and a Meccalte genhead that could be configured to the requirements of the user’s energy network. This engine, when governed electronically, is stunningly smooth and quiet. Here is a feature-by-feature breakdown of the innovations that have been incorporated into the current Power Pallet line:

Control Panel Mount

The Process Control Unit and Oxygen Sensor readout are mounted in a NEMA box, which in turn sits on a control pedestal at the front of the unit. Also on this pedestal are the on/off switch, hour meter, and keyed ignition.

Stainless Steel Hopper

The biomass hopper is now available in 55-gallon stainless steel with a port window.

Combined Exhaust/Flare Stack With Glow Plug

The engine exhaust and startup flare are mounted on the same stack. A glowplug in the flare automatically ignites it whenever the PCU detects gasification temperatures without engine operation.

Bosch Oxygen Sensor detects exhaust mixture

A Bosch Oxygen Sensor detects the mixture in the engine exhaust, and adjusts the air intake servo accordingly.

Custom Air Intake Servo with Air Prefilter

Oxygen is added to the syngas as it enters the engine, to make combustion possible in the cylinder. The ratio is sensed by the O2 sensor in the exhaust, sent to the PCU, which adjusts the air intake servo. Incoming air is prefiltered to prevent a reduction in the downdraft.

Electronic Governor

The Woodward electronic governor provides robust governing of engine speeds under different load conditions.

Automated Ash Takeout With Grate Shaker

Ash is extracted via auger. Less than 5% of the biomass volume remains as ash. An eccentric-weight grate shaker engages based on an algorithm that adjusts the period between shaking to clear obstructions if a clog is detected.

In 2008 ALL Power Labs introduced the Gasifier Experimenter’s Kit, bringing small-scale gasification to the home tinkerer and lab-scale researcher, providing a gasifier that runs common home generators and small vehicles.

In 2010 we introduced the Power Pallet, a complete integrated power system scaled to the common real-world platform of the 4×4 cargo pallet.   It filled the 10kW-20kW niche in the world of biomass gasification.

The natural arc of our development is that we scale our next product to another common vessel, the shipping container.  ALL Power Labs has received the first 100 kilowatt diesel generator that we are are integrating into a shipping container in order to offer a 100kW GEK Power System.  Our clients are the University of Minnesota Morris and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in cooperation with Cummins Power Generation operating under a DOE grant from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).  The purpose of this project is twofold:

1) Develop a relevant shipping-container based biomass gasification unit for the U.S. Agricultural market

2) Provide a gasifier mated to a modern diesel engine with precise ignition control in order to experiment with the unique combustion characteristics of syngas.

This unit will include a CHP component.

We have received the 100kW diesel generator that we will be using in our first 100kW GEK.  You may follow the construction and design of this unit here on the GEK website.

*** FATHER’S DAY GASIFY WITH DAD WORKSHOP ***

Join us at ALL Power Labs June 17th through 19th for our next Gasification and Biochar Workshop in Berkeley CA. This is Father’s Day weekend so we hope you will consider planning a father-and-son/daughter trip to All Power Labs for our workshop.

It has been too long since our last workshop.  Our first quarter 2011 workshop in the Ivory Coast was canceled due to political unrest.   Then we found ourselves too busy building in-house to have one in the spring.  So we’re now giving you lots of notice for our summer workshop.   We also hope to announce some European workshops for later this summer, but dates are still vague at the moment.  We plan to host workshops in Belgium and Italy, corresponding with the delivery of Power Pallets to each location.

The Berkeley workshop will as usual involve multiple projects across many fronts of biomass thermal conversion.  We’ll be doing training sessions and long runs tests of the Power Pallet, biochar production with the BEK, Lister spark conversion, possibly more gas-to-liquids work, and other things not yet known.  I really want to get the gasified Honda running again.  Maybe i can convince the locals to let me take that on.  Details on the program will come later.  When it does, it will look something like this: http://www.gekgasifier.com/about/workshop/ If you are interested in presenting your own project and research during the workshop, as we have done in workshops past, please get in touch.

Worshops are free if you own a GEK or BEK by either purchase or DIY build.  Otherwise the weekend is $100, which helps to cover food, drink and other consumables.  If you want to join us, please RSVP to the forum thread here: http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/showthread.php?t=563 .  If you need to pay the workshop fee, you can do so via credit card here: http://www.gekgasifier.com/about/workshop/sign-up/

*** UPDATE ON BEK SALES ***

Many have written wanting to buy a BEK and found we’ve paused its production while focusing on the Power Pallet.  We promised an update on BEK production status in early March, so here it is.  The update is we need to continue to pause BEK production for another three months, thus until June 1.  We’ll send another update note then.

It makes us very sad that we cannot well serve your biochar research needs at the moment.  We are simply overwhelmed by interest in the Power Pallets and do not have the bandwidth for both manufacturing projects.

We’re currently expanding our manufacturing operation so we can support higher throughput and a greater diversity of products.  We’ve outgrown our current in-house fabrication methods and are actively building a more scalable solution.  Soon, you’ll see an announcement of job opening to find a new champion of manufacturing to the lead our next stage of growth.

BEK production will start again once we can meet current Power Pallet production needs.  GEK kits continue as usual, as they are a subset of building the Power Pallets.

Jim Mason

It was a historic day at All Power Labs– we had a visit from the two Toms of biomass thermal conversion. Tom Miles was in the shop getting to know the 10kW Power Pallet for a project in Alaska. Tom Reed was in California visiting his grandson, and decided to stop by to make sure the kids weren’t messing up his hard won work.

Tom Miles is the founder of www.bioenergylists.org and a well-known figure in the biomass and stoves world. Tom Reed’s work at the Biomass Energy Foundation goes back well into the 1970s when he laid the groundwork that most of us learned about gasification from. We were honored to have such forefathers of our industry on site and tickled to watch them fiddle and banter with Bear as they talked theoretical auger angles and increased microscopic surface areas. We hung on Tom Reed’s every word as he described over lunch his hopes in the 70s that someone would develop a functional and inexpensive gasifier generator kit from his research and saw his 30-year wait end as he watched us start up the Power Pallet.

Fischer Tropsch Progress Report

Jay Hasty and Jon-Richard Little made a nice video explaining the scale-scale Fischer Tropsch reactor Jay is developing. This is a good introduction to the process and some of the (many) issues that need to get solved before it’s a reasonable proposition. No, we haven’t yet made any liquid. But we have made some impressive soot and a bit of methane, though really we’re still working out the many details of set up. Liquid seems not far away.

Even once we have liquid, it is important to remember the distance from demo liquid to something that is realistic to deploy is not trivial. If there is any hole in the ground into which more money has been poured to lesser results than gasification and pyrolysis, it is gas-to-liquids work. Combine them both together, with a good dose of VC “oversight”, and you get something like the recent Range Fuel 300 million dollar hoovering of US taxpayers.

The natives on the gasification list have been having a field day on the autopsy of the Range Fuels corpse. The thread starts here for your entertainment:

http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org/2011-January/000336.html

Or see Robert Rapier’s perspective in the R Squared Energy Blog on the perils of too much money and too little petrochem industry experience:

http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2011/01/27/vinod-khosla-and-the-gasificationfermentation-debate/ .

Anyways, back to the point. We’re trying to assess whether small scale GTL will yield to the “expert engineering of everyday junk” stragety, like the basic gasifier proposition has yielded with the GEK project. Some things are better and easier at smaller-scale and with less funding. Some things are harder. The big scale and lots of funding new GTL model isn’t doing too well to date. Maybe we can to better on the other path. Or, maybe we should just import the SASOL folks and let them rebuild their already well worked out solution.

Here’s the basics in video:

http://www.youtube.com/allpowerlabs#p/a/u/0/KFtrhz47K3Y

Jay has also put together some good reports in the GEK forum on various aspects of the problem. Here’s a tour of the links.

Making iron-based Fischer Tropsch Catalysts
http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/showthread.php?t=516

Catalyst Surface Area and Co-precipitation Methods
http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/showthread.php?t=531

Scaling Down Fischer Tropsch
http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520

Gas-to-Liquids Progress Report
http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/showthread.php?t=452

New Phone Line with Live Human (510) 845-1500

As most of you know, we’ve been rather challenged keeping up with incoming email and phone traffic on GEK interest. The volume is thankfully much larger than we could have ever expected. We honored so many of you have found this interesting.

Recently we’ve brought on two new people to tend the incoming volume full time- Yoav Palatnik and Jon-Richard Little. Rachael Norman and myself (Jim Mason) still do a good deal of it too, and Jay Hasty continues to do all post delivery support and run advice.

The result is we are now able to keep up in near real time with your notes. We’re caught up enough that we can now have a regular public phone for calls in during business hours. Jon-Richard is tending the phone and is very well versed in Power Pallet application questions and general tech issues.

The APL hotline is now available between 10am – 6am Pacific US time. The number is US (510) 845-1500. You can also find us on Skype at “aplgek”

We’ve also updated our team page. If you’ve ever wondered who’s in the building on the other end of this endeavor, see here:

http://www.gekgasifier.com/about/people/

The Factory Lineup

And finally, here’s what things look like in the factory these days. We continue to make progress on the many fronted challenges of manufacturing the Power Pallets in number.