Harry Home owner Bio-Mizer Sawdust Dryer.

[Jeff]

We need to invent one. Bio-Mizer users will need one. I need one.

I need to figure out how to dry sawdust for the Bio-mizer. I need to come up with something that I can build, and run, in a residential type setting. Many of you know my neighborhood. I need to come up with something that I could feed say a pickup load of sawdust at a time through, and be able to bag it on the other side.  The drying and bagging would need to take place within a day for that amount of sawdust, and it needs to be dried CHEAP in order to be of any value.

[metalspinner]

What about running it over with a snow blower a couple of times.  Just flying through the air might dry it just enough?

[beenthere]

Do you have some moisture content numbers that you are shoot'n for, to have "dry" sawdust? 

Then when known, seems the relative humidity that gets that moisture content can be calculated, as well the temperature that you will need to dry the sawdust. That temp. would then be what needs to be under control in the process, as the sawdust is moved (i.e. blower, auger, mechanical lift and gravity fall) around in that drying "chamber".  A dry kiln of sorts.

There are production operations (like wood processing plants making windows or furniture) that moisture has to be added during the winter months so the air isn't too dry. If this drying apparatus that stirs up the sawdust could be fixed in your pickup, so you just drive in and park at one of these plants, let it run until dry as it adds moisture to their 'room'.  Possibly a solution to trying to do something in the middle of winter in the outdoors. Cold air is high relative humidity, and very slow, if any, drying will occur.  I know, that is a bit 'far fetched', but it crossed my mind.   

Just a heated garage would be helpful...maybe need to open that living room back up...

[WH_Conley]

I kinda thought about a piece of road tile, the kind with the ridges that spiral from one end to the other, set it on rollers so it will turn. Build a fire in the middle and hook an electric motor so it will turn slow. Poor mans rotary dryer.

[zopi]

cyclone separator dust collector, with a warm air intake..heated, obviously, with the output of the Biomizer....you'd likely not want to start with very wet material though.

Prolly get one from an old feed mill or granary...there are some big buggers out there.

[thecfarm]

This should really be a job in the summer months.Could capture the sun for some heat.Some box fans just blowing across it in the summer months when the sun is out would help it.Just dry a little on the top.Would need some greenhouse plastic over it.Would not take much to build a frame for a pickup load of sawdust.To bad you can't get sawdust from a furniture business.

[tyb525]

Get some 55 gal drums and mount them on their side so they will spin, punch small holes in the sides or cover big holes with screen. Fill them with sawdust and build a small fire under them (maybe with charcoal so there isn't alot of flame?), hook up a small motor to them using pulleys. (or spin them by hand)
I don't know if that would work, but it seems like it might.

[Jeff]

I think there are probably lots of ways to do it, but the challenge is to do it cheaply and without a lot of effort. I've got a supply of very dry sawdust but it wont last real long. There may be another supply, but I dont know how dry it is. Or weather it will burn. I have bags of sawdast that were green 3 months ago, it still wont burn right. Maybe its the type of bag its in, I dont know, but it sure seems like it would be dry. Are all grain bags alike?  Maybe the ones I have dont allow drying.  I dont use the Bio-Mizer bags as they are so narrow they are about impossible to fill.

[zopi]

Get some 55 gal drums and mount them on their side so they will spin, punch small holes in the sides or cover big holes with screen. Fill them with sawdust and build a small fire under them (maybe with charcoal so there isn't alot of flame?), hook up a small motor to them using pulleys. (or spin them by hand)
I don't know if that would work, but it seems like it might.

Good idea!...kind of like a rock tumbler!....take that one step farther, use black poly barrels that will
screw shut..bore 3 or 4 inch hole in top, lay them on a pair of driven rollers, and run it in the sun,
maybe put the whole works in it's own little solar shack, and enclosure much like a solar kiln,
but with the black barrel as collector...it'd likely be slow though...but when you are not drying
dust, you can use it for a solar clothes dryer...<GRIN>

[Gary_C]

You might be able to dry it sufficiently with one of those tumble mixers like the farmers use to mix their feed rations. There were some small mixers made that you might be able to find used at some farm equipment dealers or just make your own.

Maybe all you would need to do is fluff the sawdust up for a short time and break up the clumps and it would lose enough moisture to burn. Might be worth a try.

Or you could try the clothes dryer, preferably when no one else was home. 

[tyb525]

I think all of it would go to the lint trap 

[Jeff]

The dilemma here is not to put more energy into this then what its worth. The whole idea of burning the sawdust in a bio-mizer is to utilize an abundant renewable and economical fuel. Burning more fuel to dry sawdust, including wood, sorta defeats the purpose. I might as well just burn wood.

A major reason for coming up with a drying solution is the shear amount of dry sawdust you need to start with. If I burn, say 5 or 6 grain bags full a day, over 6 months , thats a whole lot of bags of sawdust. Storing a couple hundred is doable, but if it takes months to dry, well, you can see the potential problem.

[pigman]

Since the house air will be dry with the heat on, just dump the saw dust on the living room floor and let the dogs play in it.  The dogs will love it and the saw dust will dry real quick. Don't tell Tammy about my idea.

[Gary_C]

Why does some sawdust not burn? Is it because it clumps together and does not feed into the Biomizer or because it will not ignite with all the moisture present?

I would think it would dry somewhat in the hopper near the burner as long as it is fluffed up enough. Maybe if you just mixed it up good before you put it in the hopper or blow some compressed air into the sawdust would be enough.

[tyb525]

Can't you burn other stuff, like leaves or grass in it?

[Jeff]

It doesn't burn because of the moisture content. It needs to be less then 30%

It should burn any fuel that can be converted to bio dust. fine enough to suspend in an air flow.  I think ground up leaves would work great, and I got about 6 inches of leaves to fall yet. The problem is you have to collect them, then find a way to grind them up fine enough to use.

[Jeff]

I'm thinking about investing in one of those hand held gas powered leaf blower/vacuums that will suck up leaves and mulch them and bag them.  Menards has one on sale for $119. If they mulch small enough they will burn in the Bio-Mizer.  Worth a shot as many leafs as I have.

Another piece of news is that Bio-Mizer will be announcing some new news on the big unit in the coming days . The larger commercial unit will burn 60% moisture content AND chips.

I'm confident that they will get some of the issues like fuel variances and such for the smaller one like I have figured out. I'm hoping throwing ideas around here might even be of some help in that process. 

[zopi]

Hmm...farmers hereabouts dry peanuts by the trailerload, the trailers have a port on back where they back them under a shed and hook a duct to them..blow air through the 'nuts and they dry...maybe something similar but made with a barrel or something. or a bottom dump hopper
where you can bag directly from the hopper...i'm bored at work, can't you tell?

[Jeff]

With fine, bandmill sawdust. You would have to figure out how to blow air through it, and not carry it out with the airflow, if you use screens, then how do you keep them from plugging and stopping the drying airflow?

[Radar67]

I dried sand on window screens. Lay the sand out, let the air work for a half hour, then shake the screen. Repeat as needed until it was all dry.

Maybe something like that on a larger scale with a motor on a timer to shake the screen. Cover it all with glass like a solar kiln to help increase the temps and speed the process.