We finally got the new frequency drives and the dryer ran flawlessly. This allowed us to run for the longest full capacity run we have ever had.

Past maximum full capacity run was for 1 and 1/2 hours with a production of 26# of char.

The run today was full capacity for 2 and 1/2 hours with a production of 45# of char.

The problem that stopped us we believe was that the char removal cyclone inside the reactor hot box became plugged and we started to get some gas back flow. When we checked the bucket which is supposed to catch the char that falls out of the bottom of the cyclone had no char in it for the second time we checked it. This indicates the pipe was plugged.

We had discovered a new condition of biooil the day before when we started up the system when it had been below 0 degrees F. The oil was too cold and formed a strange thick consistency. It caused a plug in the cooling venturi system . This caused an overflow into the cyclone. We think this caused a sticky substance to adhere to the sides of the pipe which the char is to drop out of. This could explain the plugging situation.

We will be taking this section apart next week. We still are trying to get the 8 hour per day c0ntiual run at full capacity and feel this cyclone problem will be easily resolved.

We have been running this plant periodically for about a year with this 8 hour goal. We have made many modifications and hope we are close to finally having discovered what it will take to make this a technology commercially viable.

During the process of looking into the plugging we found there was a lot of stuff sticking to the side of the oil condensation parts such as the cyclone and demister. We didn't know if this was due to previous stuff sticking to it during the time we were making the polymer or weather  we were still making  polymer.

We cleaned up the plant and started running  again and determined we were still making polymer. It now seems likely that last year when it was cold we were plugging up not just due to char but also polymer sticking to the side of the condensation units.

Our next effort will probably be to drain the polymer and diesel and start new with water as the cooling substrate and make enough biooil and save it so we will always do cold starts with biooil  in the future.