Author Topic: WOODGAS  (Read 20461 times)

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SPEC

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WOODGAS
« on: February 07, 2009, 05:39:14 AM »
I;m putting this here cuz I'm using a hurculese, millitary engine to run this project.
I'll start out with this project has been on my mind for 3 years...I've dinked around with it, di tons of research... made a mess got discusted, whacked it up rebuilt...whacked it up again...
Woodgas is not a new technology, Hitler stormed Europe on wood...The 1st VW Thing was never meant to run on gas...it was built to run on woodgas...back in 1939
So how this works is you dump presized wood chunks into the generator, wich is a downdraft burn unit...Burn the wood in an oxygen starved envirornment...Harvest the smoke...Filter, cool and clean it...Then feeding it to the engine...

This was my 1st attempt using FEMA plans

plkracer

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2009, 06:04:21 AM »
My uncle has a WWII generator that uses an aircooled 4 cylinder 4 stroke Hercules engine. It was rated at 20 hp and the gen set was rated at 10,000 watts continuous. Don't know if your using the same engine, but it is a cool unit. The cylinders and heads look like they are directly off a radial engine, with the pushrod tubes, and super thin, closely spaced fins.

SPEC

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2009, 06:11:37 AM »
This ones liquid cooled, rated at 25,000 watts...Should power the shop and the house with tons of extra power to sell to the nabes ;D

SPEC

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2009, 06:19:28 AM »
The next attempt was modified from the plans...It worked but made alot of tar,
Tar is bad and will destroy the exhaust valves...makes lots of power tho-
Woodgas only makes about 2/3 the power as the same engine on gasoline...Here's some pix of the second test firing
I went the all organic filters, thats the pix of the box full of wood chips,then with the plexiglass cover

plkracer

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2009, 06:47:27 AM »
How many pounds of wood does it take to make an equivalent amount of energy as 1 gallon of gas in the same engine? That must be the big Hercules engine they used in the arc lights that were on ships to point out planes in the sky. Is it an inline 4, or horizontally opposed?

SPEC

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2009, 03:55:15 AM »
Plk,
It's and inline 4...
A extremest fanatic owned it before me...I haven't picked it up yetI think I'm getting a lp carb for it as well...That makes the wood gas conversion really easy..
Wood to gasoline power properties...depends on alot of factors that I won't get into here...moisture content, species of wood, design of the generator, How overdriven the gasifier is being run ( how hard you are running it for the size of motor your pulling off of it)...The harder you run the gasifier the more powerful the gas coming off of it is...But then your reactor has a short life...Rouphly 40# of wood to a gallon of gas is a ballpark figure for wood with more than 20% moisture content...



Back to the Generator/reactor

Offline WelderPat

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2009, 06:46:06 AM »
 Spec,I truly applaud your work on this.Some of these technologies that were abandoned when petroleum was cheap and plentiful are very likely to be the way for us to move forward into energy Independence.
 Not only that but I love the low tech of it all,It seems that progress has realy slowed down since we got microchips,and cnc's.
There is always free cheese in a mouse trap.

SPEC

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2009, 06:57:41 AM »
Thanks Pat,
Here's the pix of the test fire...I made burnable gas, but too much tar to feed to a motor...Mostly was my fault due to not dry enouph fuel, and too wet of chips in the filter...The wood was only air dried...and the humidity that day was about 80%...so here goes...Camel turd in..and lit, lid off and no suction yet...suction fan on

SPEC

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2009, 07:38:40 AM »
The last pic in the series is hard to tell but that smoke has a yellow tinge to it...Perfect to burn a clear flame with a few blue tipped flames...I didn't get pix cuz I was working alone, Had to hold the torch to keep the flame...

Here's the tar I was talking about earlier and what it does to engines

SPEC

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2009, 07:45:10 AM »
Here's the pix of a prepped briggs...Shaved head,ported,valve job and a 10* advanced key way...Ran on wood then finished it off with gasoline, to clean the valves...I'd say they are clean now...

Pic of the adapter I had to build to convert to woodgas for the briggs

SPEC

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2009, 12:27:56 PM »
Here's some of the innards of the last build...I built the suction fan from an old jeep blower motor, swiped one if Specinator's stainless bowls...
This ran a small engine,

Offline Pacman

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2009, 06:02:36 PM »
Way cool!
You're like our very own MacGyver! 
Give the man some toothpicks, 3 used tampons, and an old drywall bucket and he can do just about anything!  :D

Offline Engineer

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Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2009, 12:06:10 AM »
Wow!!  I am following this closely!  You should get a government grant from ho-bama for this.........  Never mind, he doesn't want to spend money on anything useful.

Darn it sure has greened up in Minesota this week!!  Looks down right tropical.  ;D





SPEC

  • Guest
Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2009, 05:54:51 AM »
Thanks Pac,
Don't forget the 2 16p nails and a car battery...I'll come over and weld up buggy chassis's  ;D

E-farmer...
They gave out some grants awhile ago...It is an outrage in the woodgas community...Couple of million bux and No results or crappy results...
I want to stay under the radar on this... I have plans when I come down for the fall at LS...won't be gasoline in the 71  ;D



The new reactor....MMMM well it started it's life as many other things, with the price of steel still out of this world, I won't be rolling and breaking new stuff unless I have to...Pretty much all recycled  ;)
Here's a drawing of the baseplant, This is just a suggestion tho
Kinda like Fabr and his Rorty plans...
This is just to give you guys an Idea of what's out there... Mine will preheat the air, To as close to spontaineous combustion tempature as I can get it, I've been researching steam injection as well...
HERE'S THE DEAL...I'm after the base elements in the wood, Hydrogen, methane, oxygen, carbon...I get stuck with some others that are usless (to me ) nitrogen,co2, and a couple of other inert gases...
The steam and preheated air should give me cleaner, more hydrogen rich gas than the last attempt...The pix I posted are of a stratified design, that was the last one I built 

SPEC

  • Guest
Re: WOODGAS
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2009, 01:14:18 PM »
Somethings I should have stated in the start of this thread, Gasifiers are like buggies in the sence that you wouldn't build a sand car to drive in the woods ;D
Each gasifier is designed for a specific application...This one is to be a stationary unit...Plus reactors are fuel size specific...The pix will try to show what I mean,
The other stuff is the materials to work with...Old water heaters,retired o2 tank junk trailer, and some used rectangle tubes ;D....ALL FREEEE

 

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