So now that I'm getting closer to firing up my new setup, I'm in the market for a good source of biomass to test with. Woodchips are kinda ideal for this- they're readily available, renewable, and small enough to fit inside a keg. So today I signed up for ChipDrop.in, which is a site that connects arborists with loads of woodchips, with folks who will take them for free.

It makes a lot of sense- woodchips are a waste product from the perspective of arborists, but also it's kind of insane when you think about it. Woodchips only have roughly 1/2 the energy density of gasoline, but on the other hand, THEY HAVE 1/2 THE ENERGY DENSITY OF GASOLINE. 

So getting a couple hundred pounds of woodchips delivered for free is kinda awesome. We're talking likely hundreds of kilowatt hours of energy in a single load- IF you have the machinery to make useable power out of them. 

One of my main goals for this project is to be able to measure the power output of my system accurately, so that I can quantify the total efficiency of my system and the amount of useable energy I'm able to glean from a low-grade fuel source like woodchips.