# The Windhager PuroWIN wood chip boiler has arrived . . . . .



## PassionForFire&Water (Sep 23, 2016)

Received the first Windhager PuroWIN wood chip boilers; a 85,000 BTU/hr model (24 kW) and 170,000 BTU/hr model (50 kW)
Will install the 24 kW model and have some fun with it.
Then it's off for EPA emissions testing and UL testing
Very exiting times!

I will post some pictures from during the assembly


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## gfirkus (Sep 23, 2016)

PassionForFire&Water said:


> Received the first Windhager PuroWIN wood chip boilers; a 85,000 BTU/hr model (24 kW) and 170,000 BTU/hr model (50 kW)
> Will install the 24 kW model and have some fun with it.
> Then it's off for EPA emissions testing and UL testing
> Very exiting times!
> ...



This looks pretty cool. My job deals with mechanical maintanance in the paper mill industry. On the industrial side, with higher consumption then residential, I could see quite a cost in maintaining the blower, feeder, and auger setup do to wear. It will be interesting to follow residential costs.


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## maple1 (Sep 24, 2016)

Very interesting.

Recommended m.c. of the chips?


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## PassionForFire&Water (Sep 24, 2016)

up to 35%
25% to 35% is optimal


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## PassionForFire&Water (Sep 24, 2016)

Some pictures of the assembly


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## PassionForFire&Water (Sep 24, 2016)

Some pictures of the "prototype" wood chip bin with integrated chip drying
Basically a water-to-air HX will convert hot water into hot air and blows under the chips
More pictures to follow


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## Highbeam (Sep 29, 2016)

Pretty easy to find wood chips (hog fuel, tree service) but not dry chips.


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## sportbikerider78 (Sep 29, 2016)

How do you get clean wood chips?  I'd imagine for most they are garbage and sit outside and are scooped with earth moving equipment, gathering debris along the way.  

Very cool system.  You'd think from the first 60 seconds there was a new space shuttle coming..or aliens invading.  lol


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## PassionForFire&Water (Sep 30, 2016)

wood chips are easily available in NH, VT, MA, ... .
Biomass green chips are around $30/ton
Clean green bole chips are around $50/ton
Dry chips are around $80/ton
We are testing a wood chip bin with integrated drying


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## PassionForFire&Water (Sep 30, 2016)

Below some pictures on my progress.

It is definitely difficult to put this togetter alone; all very heavy stuff.

Wood chip bin is in place
Wood chip boiler is in place
Both are connected

Now I need to complete the bin; Tuesday I get 5 tons of wood chips delivered.
We can't blow them in right know. We will need to shuffle them in by hand


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## velvetfoot (Sep 30, 2016)

That was a good video.  The gasification aspect is sweet.


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## PassionForFire&Water (Oct 2, 2016)

The drying floor is in

Now it's of to the boiler piping
We will be using a PAW pump group with a variable speed controlled Grundfos pump
The pump is speed controlled by the wood chip boiler


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## Karl_northwind (Oct 3, 2016)

I saw this unit in Austria this summer, and it is indeed a sweet piece of equipment.  the chip conveying equipment is pretty slow, except the blower, so maintenance and wear should be minimal.  the blower isn't available in the US at this point.


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## TCaldwell (Oct 3, 2016)

what a machine, it's great to see refinements in this industry!, how about costs?


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## PassionForFire&Water (Oct 13, 2016)

We have the first 3 days of testing behind us with the Windhager PuroWIN24

Below some pictures of the wood chips we were burning
MC is between 30 and 35%
A lot of fines


View attachment 185610



View attachment 185614


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## PassionForFire&Water (Oct 14, 2016)

Below a video of the steady state smoke stack; pure water vapor from the wood chip boiler
Left is a natural gas burner smoke stack.
To the right is the PuroWIN24 wood chip boiler smoke stack





Below a video of the CO and CO2 readings during steady state burn; 0 ppm CO


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## maple1 (Oct 14, 2016)

Wow - that's some low stack temp.


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## PassionForFire&Water (Oct 16, 2016)

Measured 2 samples of the wood chips for moisture content

Sample1
121 gr of wood chips
32 gr of water lost during drying
Water Content = 32/121 = 26%
Moisture content = 35%

Sample2
131 gr of wood chips
35 gr of water lost during drying
Water Content = 35/131 = 27%
Moisture content = 37%

Average MC of 36%
Hence the water vapor in the exhaust


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## TCaldwell (Oct 16, 2016)

The chips look just like what would come out of a tree guy's truck, common stuff? Was that video parameter list at 100% output and what is the turn down firing rate, are the parameter results the same? Pretty impressive


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## PassionForFire&Water (Oct 17, 2016)

TCaldwell said:


> The chips look just like what would come out of a tree guy's truck, common stuff? Was that video parameter list at 100% output and what is the turn down firing rate, are the parameter results the same? Pretty impressive



Yes, the above videos are at 100% output
The PuroWIN can modulate down to 30%; see pictures below


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## PassionForFire&Water (Oct 19, 2016)

A peek into the gasification chamber via the top sight glass


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## maple1 (Oct 19, 2016)

Are you able to share a MSRP?


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## PassionForFire&Water (Oct 22, 2016)

Still in the process of testing and certification, but 20 to 27K will most likely be the range for the 82,000 to 204,000 BTU/hr models


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## PassionForFire&Water (Nov 1, 2016)

Below some videos of the wood chips discharging system for the Windhager PuroWIN.
Caution; videos are boring to watch

It is AMAZING how these wood chips bridge togetter. There is about 2 to 3 feet of no supporting wood chips.
The wood chips eventually need to come down ..... .


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## Karl_northwind (Nov 1, 2016)

you can run the videos 2x using the settings.  click on the gear thing on the bottom by the youtube icon.


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## Karl_northwind (Nov 1, 2016)

those are not pretty chips.  if those are burning well, with all those fines, that's impressive.  clean chips will be super nice.


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## velvetfoot (Nov 1, 2016)

Would chips from a tree trimming company like  Asplundh, Nelson, etc, work?  The last I read several years ago was that the chip size had to be fairly small.


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## PassionForFire&Water (Nov 2, 2016)

Chip size "G50"
not to many long stings and preferably not to many fines
on average 3/4" chip size
you will need to dry them somewhat.
Green chips generate lots of condensate


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## PassionForFire&Water (Nov 2, 2016)

My wood chips finally gave up on sticking togetter.

This started me thinking of drying them from the top, instead of blowing air from underneath.
Would probably require much less air and a much smaller blower.


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## foamit up (Nov 4, 2016)

I would set my bin heater so that hot air was blown in at different levels of the bin. I think you said you are using hot air.

I might try some 2" pipes around my bin at different levels and just run hot water through them and let chips fall over them to bottom feed. If chips are hot you would not need air, moisture would come out.  

My boiler room runs at 100 degrees so i can dry a box of wood splits just by letting it sit in there for 3 weeks.


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## Karl_northwind (Nov 4, 2016)

larger better chips would dry better, as they have better air flow. 
have you been running the heater/blower? 
what sort of static pressure are you running in the lower plenum?


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## S.Whiplash (Nov 4, 2016)

Drying wood chips or sawdust is a very difficult task and not easily accomplished as the chips or sawdust have to be agitated so that flowing air gets beneath the surface layer which adds complexity, handling and cost to this fuel source in addition to a large volume of space to process.  If allowed to sit in a pile, wood chips will mold before they dry.  In Austria they cut saplings and leave them to dry for a year under cover before chipping them to ensure that the M.C. is low.  Can't trick Father Time easily.


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