Anyone using Biomass boilers? 2

[AndyCarlson12]

My company is looking into using biomass in our boilers. The biomasses we would like to use as soybean oil, bio diesel, soapstock, glycerine, fatty acid, lecithin, and any other soybean derivitive. I was just wondering if anyone is already using these alternative fuels. Thanks!

 

[macmet]

Have you ever had any testing done on any of those in regards to fuel characteristics? Ultimate, proximate, ash analysis or fusion temperatures?

If not you may be able to find similar tests posted online. The tests will help determine if they're suitable to use as fuel.

 

[dalcazar]

I worked at an icecream factory in costa rica for about 2 months where they had a diesel fired boiler, one of my tasks there was to figure out what it would take to convert the boiler to natural gas or LPG, the extent of the change was simply an injector change. I don't see why you couldn't convert that to run on some of the products you're talking about, the firing unit is a continous combustion blower so except for injector clogging and excessive ash production I don't see a problem with it. running a little lean or incorporating a small "clean fuel" fired afterburner right after the burner exhaust would fix the ash problem. Another way to look at it is to turn it around and use your alternative fuels by injecting them thru the afterburner, that way you can save on energy costs without a big conversion.

Diesel vehicle engines need no special conversion to run on biodiesel, I would therefore assume that to use biodiesel you would only need to change the firing unit on your boiler. I also assume that ash deposit is no different. (the diesel powered boiler had to be cleaned every year or so)

remember that veggie oils need to be heated to obtain the correct viscosity to spray, I'm sure this is the case with some of the other things you mentioned too.

It's always good to be the pioneer, I say go for it, but I agree with macmet that an analysis should be done to determine how much ash they produce.

check out this site, it talks about making biodiesel out of some of the products you mentioned with very little work involved.

http://www.boiledfrog.org/wikiwiki/BioDiesel

 

[Pulpboy]

Try

http://www.tri-inc.net

They have a system for turning biofuels into syn gas at a cheaper capital cost than most.

Don't know much about it but we were investigating it for Hog (bark) fuel and our Black Liquor.

Good luck.