Wood Gas Car

[renewablejohn]

here is a place that is selling these now, I just got mine and am going to use it for stationary power and hot water production. (broken link removed to http://www.allpowerlabs.org/gasification/gek/index.html)

Update please, Was it easy to assemble, does it work etc

 

[karri0n]

I've done a lot of research of wood gasification( though I'm by far not an expert), and I think having the gasifier on your car would be too cumbersome. What I've been thinking about is having a relatively good sized stationary installation at home and compressing the producer gas somehow and storing it. Then you can just convert your vehicle over to run on producer gas, which is very similar to natural gas as far as energy density. Just install a tank in the trunk and fill it up at home. Of course you're going to be tied to such and such a radius around your home, but you could certainly save a lot commuting or running around town. And most of the car conversions I've seen have the capability to easily switch back to gasoline so you could do that in a pinch. Anyway, very interesting overlooked technology. I just wish there was a good set of plans to build a simple demo gasifier with off the shelf parts that would produce gas suitable to run a B&S;engine or similar for demo purposes. There are a lot of variables to account for in your design that make it difficult when scrounging parts from scrap metal and whatnot.

I think the problem with "storage" as you are referring to, is that as soon as the temp drops, the wood gas begins to condense. I don't think storing it in a tank like NG/Propane will work in this case.

 

[karl]

I've done a lot of research of wood gasification( though I'm by far not an expert), and I think having the gasifier on your car would be too cumbersome. What I've been thinking about is having a relatively good sized stationary installation at home and compressing the producer gas somehow and storing it. Then you can just convert your vehicle over to run on producer gas, which is very similar to natural gas as far as energy density. Just install a tank in the trunk and fill it up at home. Of course you're going to be tied to such and such a radius around your home, but you could certainly save a lot commuting or running around town. And most of the car conversions I've seen have the capability to easily switch back to gasoline so you could do that in a pinch. Anyway, very interesting overlooked technology. I just wish there was a good set of plans to build a simple demo gasifier with off the shelf parts that would produce gas suitable to run a B&S;engine or similar for demo purposes. There are a lot of variables to account for in your design that make it difficult when scrounging parts from scrap metal and whatnot.

I looked into this last year with natural gas. The problem is with the compressor. They are expensive and they only last so many hundreds of hours before they have to be rebuilt. It was a significant cost of going with natural, probably more than the gas itself. The compressor is like 6000.00 dollars and works for 6000 hours. So a buck an hour and it would run 4-8 hours a night.

The company went bankrupt this year, because it would take 5 dollars a gallon gas to break even with the system.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

My father used a gassifier to power the diesel engine in his fishing boat in Norway during WWII. It was not a "survivalist fantasy world", just survival. Gas producers reappear whenever oil supplies dry up. Like now. As far as I know, the main problem is cleaning the gas well enough to burn without tarring up the engine. This may have been solved by now. I thought about using this technology for cogenerating, but the filtering problem seemed too intense. By the way, the energy output of a gas producer can be increased by 20-30% via water or steam injection into the base of the fire. Typicaly the water was used to cool the gas before it entered the engine, then sprayed as a fine mist into the bed of coals, where it became "water gas".

OK- when we find ourselves blocked from getting oil by German warships- we will go to it LOL.

"For our purposes".

Huh- this is from last year...

 

[Dune]

OK- when we find ourselves blocked from getting oil by German warships- we will go to it LOL.

"For our purposes".

Huh- this is from last year...

Hey Pant-free, back from Germany I take it?

 

[North of 60]

Oooh- Ooh ohh!- A great project would be building a gasifier generator. OK- so it won't kick in automatically, but how cool would that be?

I have actually toyed with that idea. My genset is strapped to a 1942, small hp (like 12) 4 cylinder engine. Slow rpm, low compression, so it will burn darned near anything for fuel. I simply haven't allotted the time and energy to do it.

Jags, if you spent as much time on that gasifier as you do on this forum, I think all the worlds energy problem's would be solved.
Now if we added BB,s time, all the problems in the world would be solved. NOW GET TO IT :lol:

N of 60

 

[madrone]

Just a little modification...

(broken link removed to http://www.saabhistory.com/2008/04/04/the-nine-cylinder-saab-steam-engine/)

 

[Jags]

Oooh- Ooh ohh!- A great project would be building a gasifier generator. OK- so it won't kick in automatically, but how cool would that be?

I have actually toyed with that idea. My genset is strapped to a 1942, small hp (like 12) 4 cylinder engine. Slow rpm, low compression, so it will burn darned near anything for fuel. I simply haven't allotted the time and energy to do it.

Jags, if you spent as much time on that gasifier as you do on this forum, I think all the worlds energy problem's would be solved.
Now if we added BB,s time, all the problems in the world would be solved. NOW GET TO IT :lol:

N of 60

Yeah, probably. But my time spent here is multi-tasking. I still need that paycheck. But if I were to win the lotto......

 

[karri0n]

Oooh- Ooh ohh!- A great project would be building a gasifier generator. OK- so it won't kick in automatically, but how cool would that be?

I have actually toyed with that idea. My genset is strapped to a 1942, small hp (like 12) 4 cylinder engine. Slow rpm, low compression, so it will burn darned near anything for fuel. I simply haven't allotted the time and energy to do it.

Jags, if you spent as much time on that gasifier as you do on this forum, I think all the worlds energy problem's would be solved.
Now if we added BB,s time, all the problems in the world would be solved. NOW GET TO IT :lol:

N of 60

Yeah, probably. But my time spent here is multi-tasking. I still need that paycheck. But if I were to win the lotto......

????!

They don't let you do gasification experiments in your cubicle? What type of place is this?! Never will I work for a company such as this.

 

[Jags]

Oooh- Ooh ohh!- A great project would be building a gasifier generator. OK- so it won't kick in automatically, but how cool would that be?

I have actually toyed with that idea. My genset is strapped to a 1942, small hp (like 12) 4 cylinder engine. Slow rpm, low compression, so it will burn darned near anything for fuel. I simply haven't allotted the time and energy to do it.

Jags, if you spent as much time on that gasifier as you do on this forum, I think all the worlds energy problem's would be solved.
Now if we added BB,s time, all the problems in the world would be solved. NOW GET TO IT :lol:

N of 60

Yeah, probably. But my time spent here is multi-tasking. I still need that paycheck. But if I were to win the lotto......

????!

They don't let you do gasification experiments in your cubicle? What type of place is this?! Never will I work form a company such as this.

Trust me, my office has too many "experiments" going on now. :lol:

 

[karri0n]

Oooh- Ooh ohh!- A great project would be building a gasifier generator. OK- so it won't kick in automatically, but how cool would that be?

I have actually toyed with that idea. My genset is strapped to a 1942, small hp (like 12) 4 cylinder engine. Slow rpm, low compression, so it will burn darned near anything for fuel. I simply haven't allotted the time and energy to do it.

Jags, if you spent as much time on that gasifier as you do on this forum, I think all the worlds energy problem's would be solved.
Now if we added BB,s time, all the problems in the world would be solved. NOW GET TO IT :lol:

N of 60

Yeah, probably. But my time spent here is multi-tasking. I still need that paycheck. But if I were to win the lotto......

????!

They don't let you do gasification experiments in your cubicle? What type of place is this?! Never will I work form a company such as this.

Trust me, my office has too many "experiments" going on now. :lol:

Bahaha,

sounds a lot like mine.

 

[Gooserider]

Just as a minor historical note, the old "Stanley Steamer" from the early days of autmotive history, held the wheel-driven Land Speed Record for several years, and supposedly worked much better than the petroleum engines of it's day... Also the predecessor to the engine of the Stanley Steamer, was first used in the "Roper Cycle" - a steam powered motorcycle invented by Stanley's partner Roper, who demonstrated it running at a reported 30mph on what is now the Storrow Drive bicycle path in Boston. This was several years before Daimler did his original fossil fuel engine "motorcycle" contraption in Germany, (top speed SEVEN mph) and unlike Daimler's rather odd looking device, the Roper Cycle looked recognizably like a motorcycle. If one gets rid of the "internal combustion" part of the definition of "Motorcycle", the Roper Cycle would have been the "first motorcycle" by several years.

Unfortunately, Roper was also the first "Motorcycle Accident Fatality" - he crashed at the end of his return run. However it does not appear that this was due to a failure in the motorcycle, eyewitness reports and the post-accident investigation suggest that Roper had a heart attack shortly before the end of the run, and may well have been dead before the crash.

Gooserider

 

[rfactor]

Here's a PDF version of the plans for the FEMA downdraft wood gasifier:

(broken link removed)

 

[TreePapa]

Mad Max anybody?

Although the Mad Max cars where not gasifiers, they would have fit right it, esp. in Thunderdome.

I do recall a similar movie in which the cars might have been wood-gas powered, or at least made to look like they were wood powered. But I can't recall the name or details of the film.

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[Gooserider]

Mad Max anybody?

Although the Mad Max cars where not gasifiers, they would have fit right it, esp. in Thunderdome.

I do recall a similar movie in which the cars might have been wood-gas powered, or at least made to look like they were wood powered. But I can't recall the name or details of the film.

Peace,
- Sequoia

I have a very vague memory of a movie I saw back when I was a kid, of the WWII military hero genre... Our hero was an aviator shot down by the Japs over some large island (Philipines??) He lands near a semi abandoned village w/ population of a bunch of abandonned school age kids and one (sexy of course) white missionary woman / love interest that must be transported several hundred miles over mountains and jungle terrain and some water to get back to US forces... He did a McGiver and made a wood gasifier to power this old yellow schoolbus w/ dried coconut husks and went off trekking with bus full of kids, love interest, etc. - w/ one or two kids sitting on roof of bus periodically tossing coconut hulls into the gas generator... Much melodrama, only part really memorable was when he looses brakes on a steep curvy downhill and has valiant struggle to maintain control of bus... Little kid decides this is fun and starts making siren noises, then when they stop at bottom of hill, and our hero is collapsing over steering wheel in relief, tells him "That fun soldier, lets do again!"... :lol:

Gooserider