I recently chatted with Reinhold Ziegler of www.synergyii.com on Skype. He noted progress on several fronts.
He is now working with to develop an integrated farm system that uses a gasification process developed by Ed Burton and being put forward under the Ed Burton Company which is based Willits – about 2 hours north of SF on 101.
He says they are doing a joint venture with Tom Reed and Jim Fournier of Biomass Energy and Carbon:
Biomass Energy & Carbon develops biomass gasification technologies that produce clean, tar free, producer gas streams for electrical and thermal energy. The same process will also generate charcoal for use as a new kind of agricultural soil amendment, which permanently sequesters carbon in the soil thereby producing carbon-negative energy from biomass. Future designs will also include oxygen fed gasification systems that produce synthesis gas as a feed stock for catalytic gas-to-liquid fuel production.
BEC draws on the experience of its co-founders Dr. Tom Reed and Agua Das Ellis who together have over sixty years of experience in all aspects of biomass gasification and associated technologies.
The plan to build a 25 KW full Biogassifier in Colorado. The Ed Burton company will be supplying the fuel utilizing our new “chunkateer” spiral cutter. He reports that he has also set up an aeroponic growing system that is based on the Burton Nutrient-rich Water Processor. The system also uses the EPRIDA method of growing plants in charcoal which has been inoculated with arbusto micorhyzal fungus. The result is phenomenal, he says with redwood trees growing as fast as bamboo. The (click for full sized picture of gasifier) vegetable results are equally impressive.
Reinhold is also working with Aerotecture on a project to install innovative screw type wind turbines atop what is to be the San Francisco Civic Center. The building is expected to be more energy-efficient than any large office building in the United States. According to a report about the project in the SF Chronicle, “The headquarters of the city’s Public Utilities Commission [SFPUC] would include design features rarely seen in comparable buildings, such as wind turbines on the roof and a water recycling system in the basement. Solar panels would be embedded in outer walls, and a ventilation system using ‘thermal chimneys’ on each floor would pull hot air out of the building.” Construction is expected to start on the 12-story structure next year.
The idea is that while the sustainability measures add $16 million to the $178 million price tag, it demonstrates the city’s leadership and commitment to implementing sustainability on a very practical way. “We can’t ask people to change their way of doing business and not put our money where our mouth is,” said Susan Leal, the agency’s general manager.
The wind turbines are to be situated on the roof and stacked vertically behind glass walls along Golden Gate Avenue.
The wind tower is made of two Clark Y airfoils in a mirror image of each other. He says there are still “quite a few details to work out but they are planning to mount 36 10 KW turbines (8′ in diameter and 10′ high) and deliver a substantial fraction (to be determined but not estimated at around 40 percent) of the building’s daily budget of 4,000 KWhrs. The balance of this energy is provided by the PV panels on the roof and southern side facing S.F. City Hall.
The renderings are done in Google Sketch-Up which you can download for free. The $480 dollar version is substantially more powerful.
Posted by basac 