Imaginary Brushwood harvester/ bundler?

[cornish wood burner]

If its log twigs your worried about then get a heizohack. Never ever had a problem of twigs although I do use a G30 screen rather than a G50. As I say fines are a particular problem I have with a customer using a gasifier but they can be screened out. As for moisture content I like to achieve below 20% although for the briquettes it needs to below 12%.

Sounds a good MC presumably kiln dried. I normally aim for 20 to 35% air dried but can burn up to 50% at a push. Not really worth much to us at that % though.

When we hire a chipper to chip for us we normally aim for G50 or G100 mainly round but sometimes some slab. Problem comes when we get offered chip from outside. Varies from average to rubbish normally. We have used a heizohack in our earlier days and found it to be very good. It makes sense that a small screen when chipping brash is the way to go. Perhaps those chipping brash and supplying biomass or just dumping in biomass stores might like to follow your example.

[openspaceman]

Fines are not our and I suspect most other medium sized biomass users problem. The main problem is long twigs that block the sensor sight from sender to reciever and give a false "the auger is full signal" If this can be overcome we would be happy to take a large quantity of brash chip. We use around 3000 tons per year so a reasonable percentage of that could be accepted. The drier the better obviously which would be reflected in the price.

 

Fines can become a problem on silo type unloaders, it's counter intuitive but if the silo is never completely emptied each new load deposits its fines on the remnant of the last load. As the sweep arms move the fines filter through to the bottom and into the auger. If there is not enough scouring action by the chips in the auger they build up under the auger and compact. This can eventually push the auger upward. In one of our cases it had two consequences: 1 it jammed the auger up against the top case and caused a trip overload, 2 eventually the flexing of the auger caused a fatigue fracture.

 

The point about the balers, exemplified by the fibrepac which was brought over for ARBRE in 2000ish was that the bales could be loaded on standard flabeds with existing forwarding equipment and they did dry in a stack in the open. I can understand the stone and dirt contamination problem. We made some decent charcoal from hardwood lop and top and the fibrepac would have been fine for this.

 

In 2000 it cost around £250k and did about 80 1/2 tonne bales a day so I doubt the economics stacked up compared with the competition at that time which was to harvest (premature) clearfell for the sawlog and bar element and then leave the 5" and down tops to desiccate before being harvested by a terrain chipper.

 

Whole tree chipping can mean too much mineral is carted off a nutrient deficient site and with the speed of modern harvesters my guess is you are better off running the top on through aggressively to leave a pole with stripes of bark removed to lose moisture. The <25% of the crop left as twigs, buds etc then providing food for the bugs that keep the soil vital not to mention a mat the forwarder can travel on which also reduces soil erosion and silt.

[renewablejohn]

Sounds a good MC presumably kiln dried. I normally aim for 20 to 35% air dried but can burn up to 50% at a push. Not really worth much to us at that % though.

When we hire a chipper to chip for us we normally aim for G50 or G100 mainly round but sometimes some slab. Problem comes when we get offered chip from outside. Varies from average to rubbish normally. We have used a heizohack in our earlier days and found it to be very good. It makes sense that a small screen when chipping brash is the way to go. Perhaps those chipping brash and supplying biomass or just dumping in biomass stores might like to follow your example.

 

Solar kiln drying. Once dried below 20% MC we can store in IBC containers until required.

 

Try and keep my methods fairly close to my chest as it is the only way I can compete with the likes of Stobarts/Jenkinson.

Edited September 19, 2014 by renewablejohn

[cornish wood burner]

Fines can become a problem on silo type unloaders, it's counter intuitive but if the silo is never completely emptied each new load deposits its fines on the remnant of the last load. As the sweep arms move the fines filter through to the bottom and into the auger. If there is not enough scouring action by the chips in the auger they build up under the auger and compact. This can eventually push the auger upward. In one of our cases it had two consequences: 1 it jammed the auger up against the top case and caused a trip overload, 2 eventually the flexing of the auger caused a fatigue fracture.

 

The point about the balers, exemplified by the fibrepac which was brought over for ARBRE in 2000ish was that the bales could be loaded on standard flabeds with existing forwarding equipment and they did dry in a stack in the open. I can understand the stone and dirt contamination problem. We made some decent charcoal from hardwood lop and top and the fibrepac would have been fine for this.

 

In 2000 it cost around £250k and did about 80 1/2 tonne bales a day so I doubt the economics stacked up compared with the competition at that time which was to harvest (premature) clearfell for the sawlog and bar element and then leave the 5" and down tops to desiccate before being harvested by a terrain chipper.

 

Whole tree chipping can mean too much mineral is carted off a nutrient deficient site and with the speed of modern harvesters my guess is you are better off running the top on through aggressively to leave a pole with stripes of bark removed to lose moisture. The <25% of the crop left as twigs, buds etc then providing food for the bugs that keep the soil vital not to mention a mat the forwarder can travel on which also reduces soil erosion and silt.

With a properly designed system ie walking floor and fairly level or level augers then a percentage of fines should present no problem. IMO sweep arms and steep augers have no place in commercial systems, far too fussy and unreliable.

In view of the stone and dirt problem, the questionable economics and the loss of nutrients it looks bleak for these brash balers on harvesting sites.

Regarding brash chipping I was thinking more of small scale one time only site clearance and trimming operations.

[openspaceman]

With a properly designed system ie walking floor and fairly level or level augers then a percentage of fines should present no problem. IMO sweep arms and steep augers have no place in commercial systems, far too fussy and unreliable.

.

 

Perzactly!

 

A lot of people do have them though.

 

My boss trialled a system that used a walking floor trailer as the silo for a golf club up north which was a lot cheaper than the concrete underfloor ones that filled with water when the trap doors seals weren't cleansed out, I never got to see that before the company folded.

 

I like the look of the travelling auger and joggling wall for handling chip that has a negative angle of repose.

 

Seeing how much chip seems to get rehandled it shouldn't cost too much to screen out the out of spec material, especially if you want to sell at a premium, it's something I've never been budgeted to play with.