20kw Power Pallets on the floor

20 kW Power Pallets on the Floor!

The shop floor at APL continues to fill with more good stuff. Here’s the scene from a couple weeks ago as we were finishing a round of 20kw Power Pallets. The 4 pictured units were later shipped to Indonesia, Italy, Mexico and Brazil. We’re blessed with interesting projects at nearly all of our end user sites, and usually some lucky APL engineer gets to fly out and meet the machine and people on the other end.

About half of the current Power Pallet shipments have a follow up trip to the user’s site. Many of the power pallets are going to demonstration or testing sites where someone wants to explore a larger deployment, and or set up a high value use that will likely lead to more good things. We’re excited when people approach us with interesting projects like this, and we try to make a trip to their site to ensure a successful start.

Some of these lead to workshops around the delivered machine, and proposed project. If you would like to hold such an event and/or exploration at your site, you are encouraged to contact us and propose a plan. We are usually enthusiastic, and all too often we say “yes”.

Global Workshops in February, 2012

Belgium (near Ghent): Feb 17-19, 2012

Tom Vandeputte of Green Power Solution and APL have finally set the date for a large multi-day workshop in Belgium. The date is three months out, so those of you who want to travel from a distance, or gain support from your institution will have time to get the paperwork in order. Europe and Africa are main regions of interest for our equipment, and we hope this long notice and closer to home workshop will make it easier for many of you to attend rather than travel all the way to Berkeley, CA.

The Belgium workshop will offer multiple project tracks over multiple days similar to the format of the APL workshops in the US. We’ll start with an evening lecture on the science and engineering of gasification, then follow with two days of hands on projects and demos.

The main demo machine will be a 20kw Power Pallet with a turbo charged form of the GM 3.0L engine. The projects during the workshop will focus on work relevant for farming communities. We’ll be converting a diesel tractor to dual fuel gasifier power. We’ll also be welding from scratch a GEK kit in a local metal shop. We plan to locate equipment so that others can build GEKs in parallel.

There’s also lots of interest in gathering European woodgas vehicles for a “show and tell” during the workshop. Dutch John, Werner, Fredrick, Vesa, etc any interest in joining us?

These dates are now final. More details on program and logistics are coming soon. In the interim, if you would like to be put on the list for the workshop, you can write gek@allpowerlabs.org or Tom at t.vandeputte@greenpowersolutions.be.

ALL Power Labs, Berkeley, CA: Feb 3-5, 2012

The next APL workshop is scheduled back to back with the Belgium workshop. We’re hoping these two workshops on somewhat opposite sides of the globe will better serve all who want to see the machinery. Those coming from the Americas and Asia might find it easier to attend the APL workshop rather than the European one. Those coming from Africa, Europe and Middle East will likely find the Belgium one more convenient. However, either workshop is open to attendees from any locale. You choose the locale and program that works best for you.

The APL program will focus on current ideas for deploying the Power Pallet in commercial applications. We are going to finally answer the regular question of “how do we become a dealer/installer of your equipment,” and set out a program for basic training. We will have people report on experiences to date with the equipment, and layout the road map for how things will continue to develop in the months/years ahead. If you would like to present about your GEK project during the workshop, please send us a note.

We’re open to other suggestions for projects and tracks. Tell us what you’d like to see/do/learn at the workshop, and we’ll see if we can make it happen this February.

Workshop Cost: Free if you are a GEK or BEK owner, either through self-build or purchase. Otherwise, $100 per person for the weekend.

Register to attend by clicking the links below.

 

Attendee Name(s) – $100/ea

Workshop details and directions can be found here.

 

Duisburg, Germany: Every 1st and 3rd Thursday

Holger and Kersten of NRG-Consultants continue to offer GEK Power Pallet workshop/demos in Duisburg, Germany every first and third Thursday of the month. These are regular events for Europeans to see the GEK Power Pallet run and try out specific fuels.

For more information contact Dipl.-Ing. Holger Roswandowicz at: “Dipl.-Ing. Holger Roswandowicz” hr@energieeffizienzagentur.eu, Mobil ++ 49 171 1988 926, www.nrg-consultants.com

Lots of new GEKs

Press print in CAD and GEK parts show up, thanks to the wonders of the local CNC laser cutter house — Seaport Stainless. The pictures above show what 70 GEKs look like as raw parts. This the latest batch of v4.3 GEKs, the batch we’re now at the end of barreling and shipping. (more photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150330515637611.338107.330512257610&type=3&l=72b498f7c6 )

We believe (though fear to actually say so) that this will finally put us above even on orders for the first time in 3.5 years. We think we’re about to have extra GEKs actually on the shelf, and available for near immediate shipping. To date we’ve made GEKs to order, and often much further behind order than desired. Finally the scaling of our manufacturing process has caught up with our growth needs, at least for the raw kits.

Power Pallets are still a 2-3 month wait from time of payment. The added automation system, engine/genhead, structural elements, plumbing interconnections, accessories and general assembly present a whole new array of challenges — challenges we’ve yet to make as efficient as the raw GEK kits. We’ve learned that making cars is hard, even without the wheels . . .

Here’s all the extra CNC parts that make the Power Pallet beyond the GEK and TOTTI parts shown above. The number of details and accessories beyond the raw gasifier to make a truly usable total biomass power generation system is sobering. The photo below shows 10 Power Pallets worth of accessory sheet metal. Add wires, electronic components, and a few extra hundred lines of BOM, and you get the picture back at the top of the email.

Sheet metal parts for GEKs
Sheet metal parts for GEKs

Power Pallets are currently coming out at a rate of about 5 per month, with 10 per month the goal over the next few months. Groundwork is being laid for much larger throughput. Creative engineers are becoming manufacturing managers (for better or worse). The team is expanding with new manufacturing expertise. We thank all of you who’ve been patience with delays in recent months. We’re working 24/7 to solve it (thus this GEKnews update at 3:35am local pacific time).

Photo Updates from Around the Shop

APL co-founder Jess Hobbs has started a daily photo post of shop happenings on facebook. Check in here for the local show: http://www.facebook.com/allpowerlabs. Interesting things are also appearing regularly on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/allpowerlabs. Thank you Jess for telling the daily story of APL so those far away can participate in the process.

For those who can stop by the shop, soon you’ll be able to enjoy some vegetables from Jess’s newly replanted biochar garden!

More news soon,

jim

4 Responses

  1. I came to berkeley, but I was one day late.
    Is there a way I can get the gasifier myself. do you have plans?
    How about bigger units. I generate lots of hood debris (pallets and building materials} In my state I can feed in up to 5Mw. I would probably start with 50 or 100 kw kit

    1. Yes, please contact our sales team. Either via email sales@allpowerlabs.org
      or phone +1-510-845-1500. Our normal office hours are 10-6 M-F PST. If you call and we aren’t available to answer please leave us a message and we will return your call.

  2. According to your website,the BEK is unavalible until some time when you can start up production again.The website also states that the GEK can be reconfigured into a BEK? Are kits or parts avalible to make a BEK from a GEK?
    Thanks

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