What's the most efficient way to turn wood into electricity?

4.5kWh/kg heat energy content, average, for Aussie firewood.
Most of it wasted, unless it's cooking dinner and got a water jacket around the flue.

A cube of firewood in Vic is just over 500kg, give or take a lot of factors.http://m.dpi.vic.gov.au/forestry/private-land-forestry/forest-products-and-processing/ag1106-growing-plantation-firewood?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=mobile&SQ_ACTION=set_design_name
4.5 x 500 = approx 2250kWh. That's a crap load of energy. If you could use 2MWh of that, from a micro CHP.
A small household maybe uses between 12-24kWh of electricity a day and dump about the same heating, hot water and cooking.
 
The most efficient way is with a hydrogen fuel cell. You harvest the wood, sell off the timber quality stuff which if your lucky will be 20% of the wood mass. It is worth much more as clear lumber if you have good trees. Everything else is chipped unless you want some small stuff for the fire place. You dry the chips then heat them in a oven with your processes waste heat until methane is produced and extracted. You then reform the methane extracting hydrogen for your PEM (proton exchange membrane) Fuel Cell that generates electricity very efficiently and also produces heat and water and some Co2.

Newer methods are using enzymes to help make hydrogen directly from the cellulose, but still in development.

http://www.matternetwork.com/2011/1/scientists-new-enzyme-mix-could_8289.cfm

The second most efficient method has been to take the methane for the roasting chips directly into a high temperature gas turbine / generator and use the waste heat for drying /roasting and other applications. Lots of development in the field recently.
 
It's only because I'm struggling to even picture this setup that I figure that you know what you're talking about so. . . .

What's the most efficient way for us mere mortals to put something together in our own homes?
 
I have been burning wood for a heat source over thirty years and not sure there is a good way just yet for a home owner sized power plant. Small wind turbine, photo voltaic are your best bet. In Japan they have been installing small natural gas fed fuel cells for domestic electricity and hot water the last few years. Wood is more for small commercial applications.
 
What's the most efficient way to turn wood into electricity?

Convert wood into heat for steam. Here is a 2000watt steam engine fired from wood.
http://otherpower.com/steamengine.html

-YS
 
yewsuck said:
What's the most efficient way to turn wood into electricity?

Convert wood into heat for steam. Here is a 2000watt steam engine fired from wood.
http://otherpower.com/steamengine.html

-YS
Click to expand...

Looks totally inefficient, if the boiler, which isn't lagged, wasn't also being used to space heat, it would be better to use the wood for heating and collect the heat losses with solid state devices, Thermopile or Peltier array.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top