Efficient combustion units | The natural gas unit produces three million BTUs — enough to heat 50 homes
LONDON, Ont. — A two-stage patented process is behind the better biomass burn at Triple Green Energy, according to Manitoba inventor Raymond Dueck.
An initial combustion temperature of close to 500 C occurs in an enclosed area during the drying, pyrolysing and oxidizing stage. Ash is collected and automatically removed by an auger.
A secondary combustion of the gases collected from the initial burn reaches 1,000 C — hot enough to melt the silica in wheat straw, switchgrass and similar biomass feed stocks.
“The second burn is sometimes called a gasifier. We call it a close-coupled combustion,” Dueck said.
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The after-burner meets standards set out by Ontario’s Ministry of Environment for burning hazardous and municipal waste and similar standards in other jurisdictions.
The silica and potassium settle into a removable tray that requires periodic cleaning. Once cooled, the material looks like obsidian — the rock made by volcanic action.
“As far as we know, we’re the only ones who have a silica collection system,” Dueck said.
His combustion units are large. The TGE3000 kicks out three million BTUs, enough to heat 50 homes or 300,000 sq. feet of shop space. The TGE6000 has twice the capacity. There’s also the smaller TGE1000 available.
He said one of the units has been installed in Estonia, one of the Balkan states. A second unit is going to an Alberta greenhouse.
While natural gas prices are currently low, the units do make sense in locations where only propane or fuel oil is available or when heating bills are $30,000 and higher, Dueck said.
“There are quite a few people who are interested. We have one customer who wants to combine our system with an electricity generator. We estimate it will pay for itself in about 24 months.”
Dueck also markets anaerobic digestion systems for dead stock. Most of the steel, cylindrical vessels, which develop an internal temperature from 70 to 80 C, have gone to swine operations.
Now he’s expanding into the medical marijuana industry. One of his smaller four-by-12 foot BioRoters is being shipped to WeedMD at Aylmer, Ont. It’s to be housed in a ventilated location at the former Imperial Tobacco factory that Dueck owns.
“There is another operator who’s interested. He’s looking at a four-by-40 foot unit.”
Waste plant material is to be composted by mixing it a nitrogen source, such as a small amount of manure. The idea is to complete denature the waste.
Dueck’s creative nature runs in his family. His father, Willie Dueck, 91, held patents. So did his grandparents.
So there is little wonder that Dueck invented a handy, household shopping list system at the age of eight.
“I tried to get my dad to underwrite the patent but he wouldn’t do it.”
The pair would later join forces. Both hold patents on the carpet carousel and cutting system used by Home Depot locations and Dueck has the patent for the bike racks used by Wal-Mart.
“When I joined my dad’s machine shop there were 16 employees and 10 years later there were 160.”
Dueck said he often gets ideas late at night, sometimes waking up with a solution to a problem.
“Some people would say it is inspiration; that God is talking to me at night. I don’t know if that’s a good answer but it is one answer.”
Dueck and his wife and business partner Martha and his father live in St. Adolphe, Man.
Dueck also makes grain bins at Vivanue Manufacturing at Aylmer.
