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Heat Collection and Storage
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In any cogeneration system one must have the means for handling and storing heat. One of the best ways to do this is to use it to heat water. Once you have hot water you can use it for space heating, and domestic hot water. However if you're looking for efficiency, there's more to it than just heating water. Gasification is a stop and go process. You're gasifying or you're not. Because of this you can't control your gasification to meet your heat requirement exactly. You have to have a heat storage system so you can gasify,then store the heat so it can be used as you need it. Take for instance those outdoor wood boilers everyone's getting now (the ones that look like little cabins). They always seem to be smoking alot, and burning very inefficiently. This is because they have no heat storage system, and instead try to control the fire to match your usage. You just can't control the combustion of wood without losing your efficiency.
The simplest form of heat storage is to heat water, then store the water in an insulated tank. The temperature of the water is then monitored, and when it falls a certain amount the gasifier kicks in again and burns full power and efficiency until the temperature is back to its set point.
Storage systems like this are also often found in solar hot water systems, because the sun's not necessarily out when you need heat.
We have decided on building an 800 gallon wooden tank. It will be made from 2x10 lumber positioned vertically to form a sort of large wooden barrel. Metal strapping will then be used to hold it all together. Insulation will most likely be 4 layers of 1" thick "blue board" bent around to fit inside the 2x10's. The tank will then be lined with a custom fit high-temp vinyl liner that we have ordered from royal liner (www.royalliner.com).
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Contact: edreissigacker@gmail.com
Copyright Ethan Dreissigacker 2008