The GEK Process Control Unit (PCU) is an open source sensing and control board specifically designed for the types of instrumentation and automation problems encountered in biomass thermal conversion. The board is designed for research applications which need integrated instrumentation and datalogging. It is equally relevant for industrial applications where sensor input is used to control various motors, solenoids, fans and other control devices. In both cases, our goal is to provide the type of expert sensing and control solutions usually only found for 10s of thousands of dollars through scientific or industrial equipment suppliers.

The board offers a generous number of thermocouple, pressure, analog signal, and rpm timer inputs, with a similarly generous array of PWM speed control, servo driver and higher current DC switched outputs. Networking to other devices is supported via USB, serial, SD card and CANbus (the networking standard for contemporary engine systems). These features operate on top of a powerful native processor for stand alone operation, with a 4 line screen included for in situ instrument reading without a computer monitor.

The GEK PCU is based on an Atmel AVR processor, with Arduino compatible firmware and software installed on top. This allows us to leverage the tremendously large user base and code libraries of the Arduino environment, though deployed over a richer measurement and control base than typical Arduino projects.

More details on the PCU are in the GEKwiki here.

As usual, the goal is to provide expert capabilities for a fraction of typical scientific equipment costs.  All of the below is available for $2395.
1. Temperature

• 6 point type K integrated profile thermocouple for pyrolysis bed characterization with 6 measurement locations at 0, 1, 2, 4, 6&  8″, with 24″ total probe length
• 10 type K thermocouple hard probes in assorted lengths (24″, 12″, 2″).  the standard GEK includes 2 hard and soft thermocouple probes, for a total of 14.
• ceramic thermocouple protector for combustion zone
• compression fittings and assorted bushings for thermocouple mounting

2. Pressure

• silicone tubing
• barbs and plumbing to connect PCU to tap points

3. Flow rate

• two calibrated orifice flow meters (air in and gas out)
• proportional servo valve to control gasifier flow rate/pressure via ejector air blast
• silicone tubing, barbs and assorted plumbing

4. Tar testing

• pump and filter to pull gas samples
• filter holder and 100 filter discs
• vials to dissolve tar from filter paper (100 count) in isopropyl alcohol (not included)
• colorimeter to measure tar concentration via solution absorbance
• various tubing, plumbing and connectors

Portable Infrared Coal Gas Analyzer
Gasboard 3100-P

Price: $9250/unit

Product Specifications

The Gasboard 3100 (online, rack mounted) and the Gasboard 3100P (portable) infrared gas analyzers can be used to measure the concentration of up to 6 gases such as: CO, CO2, CH4, H2, CnHm, O2 and calculate the caloric value automatically.  This gas analyzer uses the NDIR method for analysis of CO, CO2, CH4, H2, CnHm and ECD for O2.  These analyzers are typically used for gas analysis in biomass or coal gasification, various chemical processes, steel production blast furnaces, coking, and direct iron ore smelting reduction processes.

Features

• Measure up to 6 gases with a combination of NDIR and ECD gas sensor technology
• Simple construction with pulsable infrared source and two beams technology
• Constant temperature control (rack model) for high stability
• 320*240 LCD with menu operation.
• Repeatability: ±0.5% FS
• Linearity: ±1% FS
• Zero/Span drift: ±2%FS