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The Mechabolic Hypothesis


The Science of Gasification
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Terra Preta


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Power Exchange Gasification Workshops

Next workshop: Friday and Saturday, May 4 and 5
Gasification Lecture and Demo: Friday 7:30-9
Build Day: Saturday 10am - 6pm
Cost: $50-100 (sliding scale)

We are holding a series of workshops this spring and summer to experiment with DIY gasification. The workshops are formally in support of the Mechabolic art project for Burnig Man 07 (http://whatiamupto.com/mechabolic/index.html ), but we invite anyone with interest in pyrolysis and gasification to join us. The workshops start with a talk presenting the science behind gasification, along with a summary of its design and social history: past, present and future. The following day is a 8 hour build day to convert a vehicle or other combustion device to woodgas operation. We welcome your vehicle, lawnmover, generator, etc for conversion.

The pictures and report from the first gasification workshop are here:
http://whatiamupto.com/gasification/woodgastruck.html

The workshops intend to enable the conversion to woodgas of various artcars and fire effects for the Burning Man event, with fuel being processed and distributed by the Mechabolic installation. Out goal is 10-20 vehicles running woodgas in one place, fed by fuelstocks prepared from various wastes at the event. Our feedstock will be primarily coffee grounds, dpw waste wood, cafe paper cups, non-white paper trash, junkartwood, etc. A parallel terra preta biochar agricultural effort locally to Gerlach, Nevada will sequester some amount of carbon and ash from the proceedings as fertilizer, for an ultimately carbon negative system intervention.

So if you are interested in converting a vehicle, generator, pulsejet, flamethrower or other combustion based device to run on solid waste biomass, and leave less greenhouse gas airborne at the end than when you started, we have the workshop for you.

Here are the dates for upcoming workshops.

may 5th
may 26th
june 16th
june 30th

Participants in workshop #1.

Jim Mason, Jessica Hobbs, Chicken John, Phil Glau, Alec Plauche, Les Young, Bruce Arneson, Steve Nelson, Roger Carr, Eric L. Forsman, Kiko Almund, Dov Jelen, Caroline Miller, Chris Schardt, Patrick Buckley, Dann Davis, Darrel Licks,