[Terrapreta] Flaring the more potent GHG in the off gas from acharcoal kiln?

[code suidae]

On 6/4/07, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com> wrote:
>
>  *From:* code suidae <codesuidae at gmail.com>
>
> > I cannot imagine a large commercial charcoal production operation would
> not take advantage of the energy
> > available in the flare gases.
>
> I heat my house with a wood burning boiler, which sits outside my house
> about 100 feet.  The heat is transferred to the house through liquid heat
> transfer plate, which passes only heat from the outside boiler water (50 %
> antifreeze) into the return water line for the inside boiler.  When my
> "gasifier/pyrolysis reactor/charcoal mill runs, I have every intention to
> "heat my home", and burn the gas to generate electric power.
>

Very cool. Beside the topic at hand; have you documented this system on the
'net? I'd love to see some pictures and read more about it.

I basically agree with what you say.  I wonder however if the immediate 62
> fold impact (vs CO2) of methane (CH4), which lasts 20 years, and the 23 fold
> impact, which lasts until 100 years will cause more short term damage than
> could be had in these other benefits, over the short term.  So you see why I
> am concerned about it?
>

It is absolutely of concern and should be addressed in any design that may
have wide application. I'm suggesting that spending more than a trivial
amount time addressing this in noncommercial designs is pointless, other
than from the point of view of personal satisfaction (this sense is
important as well and is the primary reason I live the way that I do, I
don't intend to minimize it).

Talented TP researchers should be concerned primary with figuring out why
the stuff works and how to reliably reproduce it in a variety of
environments, otherwise they risk spending valuable time working on the
wrong problems. Of course the details of production are critical too, but
before you spend lots of time optimizing production details you should
figure out exactly what it is you need to produce. This is a project
planning and resource allocation issue I suppose. The importance of getting
that right depends on the time-frame and the resources available.

I think the "World Bank" (for money) could manage the World's "Carbon Bank".
> [...]  The analogies are stunning, actually, and it makes me think "Carbon
> Trading", with all of the correct accounting needed could already be managed
> by disciplines, which we already have in the banking industry.
>

I agree, very interesting idea, I'll have to ponder it further.

-- 
"Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know." - M. King
Hubbert
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