What Time Is It - Getting There

1817 Draisine - Wikipedia - History of the bicycle

How do we Get from "Here" to "There"?

In tribal times the question probably seemed strange.  We are here, what is this "there" of which you speak?

As agrarian society rooted and grew, human and animal power sufficed for daily over land transport even as large cities formed.  For at least the first few thousand years of agrarian civilization, mechanical transport on land was not even considered a possibility?  Possibly it had just never been necessary.

"Drais' interest in finding an alternative to the horse was the starvation and death of horses caused by crop failure in 1816" - wikipedia

The draisine allowed mechanical transport at the rate of about 8 miles per hour for one person and a light load.  Despite being prohibited by some authorities at various times early on, human powered machines continued to evolve - officially termed "bicycle" in 1860.

After shown to be possible, personal mechanical transport over land has evolved to the point that speeds of a mile per minute are "normal" less than 200 years later.

Application of mechanical concepts to flying machines, climaxed with the SR-71Blackbird, top speed approaching 4000 feet per second.  It actually was faster than speeding bullets of it's era.  Introduced in 1966, the Blackbird is no longer in production.

Our current ability to compress space-time with mechanical equipment and energy, were god-like powers in the not far distant past.  But just because something can be done, does not necessarily mean it should be done.

Today the tribal situation is reversed.  We are "here" and almost everything we need is "there".  It may be time to reflect beyond a fascination with what is possible, and ask "why would anyone want to do that?"

Compressing time-space at high rates with mechanical equipment and high energy inputs is fascinating no doubt.  But when what was formerly fascinating becomes a requirement for human existence, was something gained?

How we get from "here" to "there", makes a difference.

"Rather than asking how the earth’s surface can be preserved for people, they ask how reservations necessary for the survival of people can be established on an earth that has been reshaped for the sake of industrial outputs." - Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity - The Radical Monopoly of Industry

"There are no environmental problems. There are only environmental symptoms of human problems" -Robert Gilman  

What Time Is It?

Type that phrase into a search engine and check the response.

Voila, a highly accurate, practical response to the question based upon machine understanding is the top result.  But notice also that in this case, over five million additional possible answers.

We live in a time of a unprecedented choice.  Choices of which questions to ask, which answers are relevant, choices of how to use our allotted "time" on this earth.

With over seven billion people, the collective results of human interaction during their time on earth could make a huge impact, or little difference, depending upon the choices they each make.

Food and Energy Are Historically Important 

Throughout the long history of man, food and energy are the primary drivers of human economy.  A human economy that transitioned from tribal to empire, is now transitioning from empire to the planetary era.  This is a time of many dangers, but also great hope for the future.  From context.org ..

• To explore the prospects for a brighter future, please look at What Time Is It? Videos

Rough paraphrase of the hundreds of hours of information on context.org is that we truly are at an unprecedented time in human history.  The Age of Empire is ending, the transition to the Planetary Era beginning.  The end of empire is characterized by resource contention among great "empires'.  The beginning of the planetary era is characterized by people learning to cooperate in practically real time across nation-state boundaries.

"Nobody told me there'd be days like these...strange days indeed...most peculiar, mama" - John Lennon

Make Smoke, Burn Smoke - Biomass Gasification Primer

Author - Doug Brethower
ISBN 9 781620 306253
109 pages, paperback

LIFE - Locally Integrated Food and Energy
Food and energy are the two keystones of any community anywhere on earth.
If we produce and distribute food and energy locally, we have:

• the Food

• the Energy

• and the Money

We establish the capacity to create and retain wealth in our community.We put in place the two foundations of any human economy.
  -- David Yarrow  - The Final Word in "Make Smoke, Burn Smoke"

Local Food

Hopefully most viewing this blog are intimately familiar with the local foods movement.  Local food is a logical first step in re-building vibrant local community structures.

Small scale seasonal gardens do well enough powered by the summer sun.  Year round growing in most climates requires additional energy. As efforts scale up, more energy becomes even more useful.

What is the most responsible energy choice to support year round growing?

Local Energy

Many rural communities are literally covered with an abundant excess of "stranded energy", energy stranded mostly by perceptions.  Missouri, the "Show Me" state, is the historical national leader in the production of charcoal from low value biomass "wastes".  An historical truth about charcoal production in Missouri is that smoke covered the countryside when firing up large charcoal kilns.

Pioneering research by MIT Phd Chemical Engineer Dr. Tom Reed and world champion clean stove designer Dr. Paul Anderson ("DrTLUD") proves that there is abundant clean energy in "smoke".  Using the energy in smoke by burning it in a flare, while saving the charcoal - "biochar", for soil improvement is the only energy strategy that actively reduces atmospheric carbon.  The more it is practiced, the greater the reduction.  While improving the atmosphere, biochar also improves local soils and water quality.

"But as I've studied biochar, it's the only thing I've seen with no downside. Nothing! And that's very exciting to me."

  --Doris Hamill, NASA Langley Research Center

Likely due to the simplicity of the technology, there is virtually no corporate or political will to move forward with actually using it.  Corporations can't make their standard profit margins. Politicians please patrons by talk of great big things they can do, not little things that everyone can do.

"Biomass fuels are locally generated and must be locally utilized to be cost-effective. While this has economic advantages, it does not lend itself to centralized coordination, and therefore is not so attractive to large corporations and governmental bodies."  -- 1993 US Department of Energy Report - Biomass Energy State of the Technology, Present Obstacles and Future Potential

The great promise of biomass energy and biochar is not negated by current political and economic realities.  But a local fuel requires local involvement for the promise to be brought to fruition.  Peaksurfer Albert Bates, author of "The Biochar Solution" says "the technology is already, all ready".  There is no more technology to develop, but much awareness to be raised.

Author Doug Brethower was raised in the "Show Me" state.  After getting lost in the abundance of online information about things like wood burning vehicles and such, he visited with modern day practitioners of clean biomass energy, to discover their truths.  "Make Smoke, Burn Smoke" is a compilation of that seeking and personal exploration, what they revealed in personal discussion.  The masters often related more useful information in five minute than gathered in years of online exploration.

Much information is included to raise awareness of the promise.  There are also real world examples of folks who have made biomass/biochar energy work well for their circumstances.

A clay biochar kiln, a "grassifier" grass to biochar converter, a continuous feed continuous extract biochar kiln design, an early Wayne Keith vehicle gasifier napkin drawing, much information is included that is difficult to impossible to discover anywhere else.

The most gratifying positive responses to the book come from systems engineers, including computer system engineers.  Whole systems type of folks, instinctively "get it".  Here is hoping you will too. 

$12.95 + $3 shipping, US Only

JAKE, Just Another Kiln Experiment, Combined Heat and Biochar Kit

Heat and Biochar DVD - Front Cover

After the Stockton Walnut Festival, Bonzo fabricated a few JAKE kilns to take to the Mother Earth News festival to share at his talk in Topeka, KS Oct. 24.  The response from those early adopters, and other local friends has been overwhelmingly positive.  The JAKE is proving to be easy to operate successfully across a wide range of users without a whole lot of perfection in fabrication.

It was quickly apparent there was no way for Bonzo to build enough to meet demand, and that most who wanted one were wanting to experiment with them, continue to perfect the design.

About the same time, an engineering buddy wanted to develop a set of drawings for the 5 most successful personal size kiln designs.  Besides the JAKE, the Anthrosoil "Grassifier" and the clay TLUD "Terra Preta Authentica" were of great interest to him.

So we began developing a DVD and a kit, for sale to the DIY biochar market in hopes of generating even more interest in biomass energy and biochar.

Several hundred hours and several hundred megabytes of sorted information later, with the help of too many friends to name here, the DVD and kit are almost ready for release.

Today was Bonzo's personal run through of building the kit into a kiln.  From kit to kiln too about 90 minutes with only a couple of aggravations.  Bonzo had the the advantage of not having to read the instructions ;~)  Next step is to get some kits in the hands of several more trusted friends and iron out the bugs based upon their experiences.

11:30 AM - Kiln from Walnut Festival side by side with kiln kit

Tools to do the job

The round wood piece is handy for providing backing force on the stainless steel tubes while drilling.

The log slips into 7" tube on one side, into 8" tube on the other.

Close-up of hardware kit and tools required.  These are all the tools used.  Also had some leather gloves which are highly recommended any time fabricating sheet metal, especially stainless steel.

Right at 90 minutes later, with a couple of water breaks and petting the dogs thrown in, a kiln that is finished well enough to suit me.  If the history of a few dozen builds is any indication, it will work really well for showing folks the amazing effect of burning smoke.

Smoke was the bane of charcoal production.  Burning the smoke rather than releasing it is a paradigm shift toward abundant natural and equitable energy for all, with the plus of biochar creation!

Bonzo Goes to Topeka

Bonzo Goes to Topeka

Great time with great folks at the Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka, October 24, 2015  Bonzo demonstrated how not much skill with snips, hammer, punch and drill can be translated into: 

Clean, Sustainable Home Electric Power.. 8 Hours After the Grid Goes Down, Using Only Local Materials

Bonzo's introduction to wood powered vehicles was a Mother Earth News article in the mid-70's, so this was a great opportunity to give back.

That historical MEN article found a mind receptive toward alternatives to gasoline.  An oil embargo had nearly stranded my dad a few hundred miles from home.  About the time of my first driver's license, gas prices were on the way to doubling, then doubling again.  And I was cutting and selling wood.  In cord wood production, there is a fair amount of waste, that is piled up and eventually burned.  At that time, woodgas seemed do-able, but complex.

About thirty years later, in 2007, a huge ice-storm in Southwest, MO, re-ignited interest in wood energy.  Square miles of trees and tree canopy were broken and twisted to the ground, making forests almost impassible for anything bigger than a squirrel.

Clearing wood debris was my young son's first introduction to the power of internal combustion engines.  He ran the four-wheeler as I ran the chain saw.  Together we cleared hundreds of acres of debris for friends and family, cutting it to the ground so it would rot faster.

Seeing the smile on his face as he experienced the power of a 4-wheeler, simultaneously feeling the sting of yet another round of almost doubling gasoline prices, I began pondering his energy future.  In my early teens, farm work was available a short walk in any direction, paid about $2.00 per hour.  Gasoline was about twenty cents a gallon.  So an hours work was worth about 10 gallons of gas.

In order for him to enjoy the same degree of energy freedom, he would have to be able to walk to a job that pays $20 per hour.  Putting pencil to paper, looking at raw btu numbers, we were using expensive energy to destroy clean energy, almost to the tune of the value of the land per acre.

That began a renewed search for the most effective ways to convert wood to useful energy, including wood power for internal combustion engines.

Since then, have personally met many modern masters of woodgas energy.  The group includes Dr. Tom Reed, forty year head of the Biomass Energy Foundation, Dr. Paul Anderson - DrTLUD, a world champion clean cook stove builder, and Wayne Keith, world leader in miles traveled on wood.  Insights gleaned from them and others were compiled into a book "Make Smoke, Burn Smoke".  The book contains basic information and understanding that can only come from first-hand meeting with experts.

"Make Smoke, Burn Smoke" continues to be the best way to gain basic understanding of the promise and practice of biomass energy.  But a whole lot of people had requested a hands-on practical "recipe" style format as a basis to begin their own experimentation.

That request led to the demo and presentation at Mother Earth News Fair.  By any measure it was a resounding success.  Thank you Mother Earth News and their sponsors for putting the event together. Thank you all who showed up, expressed interest and asked questions regarding the awesome power of clean, constantly renewing, stored solar energy - wood that is.   

"In the world of alt-energy, the wind does not always blow, the sun does not always shine, but smoke always rises." - SolarJeff

David Kaiser of CharGen, and Raymond Rissler of Missouri Gasification Systems visit in front of a commercial pyramid kiln, at Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka during grid-down to home power demo. (Tom's woodgas Ford Pickup in the background )

For PDF version of the presentation handout, or to schedule a demo in your neighborhood, contact freedombiomass at gmail.com

Black Walnut Festival - Stockton, MO

Doc Explains Dwelling Scale Electric Power from Local Wood Resources

The Stockton, MO area goes nuts for a few days every fall with their Annual Black Walnut Festival.  It is an amazing congregation of interesting folks from all ages and walks of life getting together to share in great music, great food, and good times with good folks.

BrushApes ventured out of the brush to meet folks and test a couple of projects that had been gnawing on their minds through the summer.

Doc had been pondering trusses made from low value sawmill scraps 
BrushApes procured wood scraps Wednesday morning, prepared them Wednesday afternoon..

 then pegged them together, tilted them up, and connected them with a barn metal roof Wednesday night, the first night of the festival.

Finished Structure pictured Thursday morning

BrushApes appreciated the kind words, understanding of the value of the concept, and the conversations with mostly old time builders familiar with pegged beam construction.  Most even noticed the square pegs in round holes.

IT WORKED!  Easily fabricated, easily scaled, very strong, awesome design.  Glad Doc finally found some time to test his gnawing thought.

Bonzo had been pondering a small portable triple wall charcoal kiln 

The design was designated the "JAKE", Just Another Kiln Experiment, Jake also being the name of the local tin-bender who rolled the four stainless steel tubes needed.  Tubes were all 1 foot long, four, six, seven, and eight inches diameter.

The test was to see how easily a smoke free kiln could be fabricated from stainless steel parts.  Besides the rolled stainless tubes, a couple of stainless steel salad bowls and a buffet serving dish got upgraded to a higher level of service.

With just snips, a drill, and a few nuts n bolts the JAKE was fabricated while visiting with neighboring vendors and passersby Thursday afternoon.

The innovation besides simplified fabrication relative to the KeyStove LX and KeyStove GH, was pre-heat of primary air, in hopes of making the design less sensitive to fuel quality.

The JAKE tested out well.  It was very simple to fabricate.  The first test with hardwood pellets ran 3 hours with little or no smoke from start to finish.

As for fuels, crushed walnut hulls and floater walnuts gave just under two hours of operation.  Packed peanut hulls ran for almost 40 minutes, but finished with a short burst of foul smelling smoke.  Pretty sure dry bark would work almost as well as pellets but did not have any to test.

Home Emergency Power from Local Resources

Bonzo was not planning on bringing the charcoal powered home generator to the festival.  But after a kid said his stove would charge his cell phone, (BioLite - very nice stove, not a kiln) and Bonzo replying that the char produced in these kilns could power a whole house, there really was not a choice.

It was awesome fun, a great festival, and a great excuse to come out of the brush.  Made some new friends.  Thank you Stockton Chamber of Commerce!

What is a "BrushApe"?

BrushApes are RESOURCEFUL
 BrushApes are the most resourceful sub-species on earth. For on the spot handy, a BrushApe is to McGyver, as McGyver is to Zsa Zsa Gabor

BrushApes are DEPENDABLE
 What a BrushApe says, a BrushApe does.

BrushApes are COMPASSIONATE
  Hugs, kisses, smiles and encouragement spread joy and make our space, a better place.

BrushApes are PRACTICAL
  If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it can't be fixed, use the scraps to build something better.

BrushApes THRIVE in a world of plenty
 Abundance surrounds BrushApes living in a world of emerging opportunity. Each day brings new opportunity to create a better world for generations to come.

BrushApes PERSEVERE
  BrushApes seek truth and understanding while embracing the best choices from all that is possible. Each success or lack of success points to the best direction forward.

BrushApes SERVE their local surroundings
  "A rising tide floats all boats"

BrushApes are masters of LOCAL RESOURCES
 To create or consume, is a choice.
 BrushApe culture chooses creation.

 As one example, consumption culture burns " brush" - destruction is their vision of mastery.
 BrushApe culture converts "brush" into clean heat and valuable bio-char.

 The choice to create value where none existed before is a fundamental individual decision.  It develops into a culture when practiced by enough individuals to make a difference.

 BrushApe culture values the creative powers of nature, and wise use of the abundance.
BrushApes thrive in a world of plenty - ooh, ooh, ooh!

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