The 'Cousins'

Chapter 97 (Echo) Part 3

"Our methodology is anaerobic. It works without the presence of oxygen. Let me talk about the gasification process. Don't get me wrong, this is not new or ground breaking in any way. Using it to process manures is new, but gasification has been going on since stone-age man cleared forests by burning 'em to plant his crops. The carbon went into the soil to give it strength and potency. When the land was cleaned out of nutrient and became barren after several years, Fred Flintstone and his family moved to the next patch of trees and burned them down to start over."

Wayne paused to look over the faces of his audience and continued when he saw they were hanging on his words.

"Up until now gasification in the USA has mostly been used for coal, wood products and woody waste. There are a lot of companies out there making gasifiers of all shapes and sizes for all different types of feedstocks. Fishers is alone among them working exclusively with farm wastes. Right now we have working out there our versions of updraught, downdraught, crossflow, fixed bed and fluidized bed gasifiers. For each type of feedstock there's an optimum type of gasifier."

"You mean to say there's already one fer manures, but nobody's using it. Is that what you're saying?"

Wayne chuckled, and resumed pacing slowly behind the table.

"Manures have been overlooked by gasifier makers as much as by the legislators Walt. A Canadian company took over a promising patent and went to work on it, but it fell by the wayside after a few years.

Greg's interest perked. "Was that on account of the design of their gasifier or flaws in the company?"

"No it was the manures that done for them. Money came into their problem, but essentially they couldn't make it pay commercially. Lots of wastes don't do well as feedstocks in gasifiers; hairy and fluffy grass residues and animal effluents cause difficulties in the standard range of gasifier. The main problem with manures in conventional gasifiers was slagging, overheating and tar carry-over in the biogas."

Greg lurched towards Wayne across the table. "You just said the problem was in slagging. Have you fixed that problem?"

Wayne chuckled and shook his head. "I guess it's been a long day for you too, but you're still as sharp as always. Yes. I mean it was a problem."

He held his hands open in front of him. "Don't get me wrong, we still have improvements to make, but thanks to Phil Strong's work on gasifiers and catalysts, working with a number of other companies and universities we have a reliable and efficient commercial gasifier model for chicken litter feedstock."

"Won't it also do beef and swine?"

"Not yet Walt. We hope to get a specific model out for that market soon, but for now we sell digesters to beef and pig meat producers and gasifiers to chicken farmers."

Greg's features turned to grim and he cut in.

"I didn't like the mention of working with other companies and universities in what you said. Who owns the patents on this research?"

Wayne took a deep breath and stretched his body backwards.

"That's better, touch of cramp there. You asked about our research partners and patents. We've worked on this extensively with Cornell and Colorado Universities, the Coaltec Corporation and a Danish company, Dong Energy. The patents are spread among us and we have arrangements with the other companies and institutions for the use of their mostly older patents and we reciprocate for the use of our newer patented technologies. The most significant and recent patents we hold, thanks to Phil Strong, are in the design alterations to a fluidized bed gasifier and the development of Ruthenium as a catalyst for use in the system we are marketing. The others brought the technology up to a basic standard to give Phil a stepping-stone to work from. Phil, through Fishers, has added the next piece of technology to make this commercially viable. Forget all the other gasifier designs I mentioned earlier; we are now exclusively manufacturing our own version of a fluidized bed gasifier to process chicken litter."