Gasifier = running a generator from wood smoke?

[pmer]

I ran across this video on youtube and never heard of the idea that you can power a engine from the exhaust of a wood stove. The guy in this video does a good job of explaining how it works. The wood burning part is inverted, he removes the heat from the smoke and what comes out the "chimney" is a clear burning gas (vapor?) that he feeds to a generator. He runs a skill saw off the generator powered by a wood stove.

https://youtu.be/a6e3CprVTi8

So what's going on here? LOL what kind of magic is this. I grew up in a house that had a woodstove in the basement and the chimney never blew up :razz:

[GhostHawk]

Wood and other things that burn often burn incompletely. Leaving some combustibles going up the chimney with the smoke.

The problem from my point of view is keeping enough flow of the right stuff to keep a generator running. Short bursts, sure. Longer periods it gets harder.

The good news is that a Methane digester turning kitchen garbage and yard waste into methane can help.

If it was me, and I was looking to power a generator long term I'd be looking at steam of one sort or another.

[farmbif]

there's a guy out near ashville built a place called turtle island or something like that that runs his pickup truck with a gassifier. they even showed it on that mountain man show

[Paper Puncher]

In WW II the Germans used a lot of wood gas vehicles due to fuel shortages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas
Definitely not a new technology.

[MrWolf]

there's a guy out near ashville built a place called turtle island or something like that that runs his pickup truck with a gassifier. they even showed it on that mountain man show

Eustace on Mountain Men ran his truck using a gassifier. Lot of videos out there. Believe they call it pyrolosis. There are also videos of using a similar chamber to reduce plastics to diesel fuel. There is a video of a guy on an island, with a very basic set-up, taking the plastic trash that washes up and converting to diesel which runs neighbors generators and such. Been watching those videos for awhile and plan on trying something this summer. To much going on now.

[pmer]

Does this process have any similarity to a whiskey still?

[Rapier]

Plastic to diesel sounds like a possible real “cure” for a major problem, plastics in land fills, in the water and scattered across the landscape.

[farmbif]

Eustace on Mountain Men ran his truck using a gassifier. Lot of videos out there. Believe they call it pyrolosis. There are also videos of using a similar chamber to reduce plastics to diesel fuel. There is a video of a guy on an island, with a very basic set-up, taking the plastic trash that washes up and converting to diesel which runs neighbors generators and such. Been watching those videos for awhile and plan on trying something this summer. To much going on now.
the guy on the island looks like he is enjoying a great life well lived, saw that video a while back

[hoodat]

As we're about to find out, one of the big problems in this world is the cost of getting the right stuff to the right place -- where it is needed.

You might create the coolest process for turning garbage into a valuable fuel, but you have to bring mountains of garbage to your processor; and that takes great quantities of valuable fuel. :???: Can you say conundrum? jd

[Gator 45/70]

Does this process have any similarity to a whiskey still?


Plastic to diesel sounds like a possible real “cure” for a major problem, plastics in land fills, in the water and scattered across the landscape.

Pretty much like a still, Guy uses drift wood, It's more like a pressure cooker crammed and packed full of plastic waste.

[john.k]

One ready source of fuel oil is used tyres......tyres contain something like 20-30% of oil,which can be recovered by heating..........unfortunately ,a bad smell is also produced ,that has shut down near every oil recovery plant.

[Baltimoreed]

Had thoughts of a methane digester to run a stationary generator many years ago but never got beyond the research stage. Now I have a generac.

[MaryB]

A wood gassifier works by starving the fire of oxygen, really similar to producing charcoal

[dverna]

Most videos do not show the downside of gassifiers. Do what you turns your crank. I will stay with gas, diesel and propane.

https://peakprosperity.com/wood-gasification/?msclkid=aa0579d2b10511eca3f39b703174cf78

[gwpercle]

So how come we're not driving Pellet Powered Cars !

[country gent]

Several countries used vehicles that ran on the fumes from wood and or coal fires in WW 2. While ot can be done in the weather you need a generator going out to fire a burner or stoke it might be nasty. I also think there might be some "lead" time involved between when the burner is fired and the generator can be started.

[metricmonkeywrench]

They built a car on Monster Garage on Discovery that used the process and there was a good primer on how the system works if you can get past the over the top presentation style.

I first read about it years ago in a story of a family escaping the Nazi invasion of their country, the storyteller was a child at the time and remembered the adults looking for wood to power the bus/truck they were in.

[MT Gianni]

So how come we're not driving Pellet Powered Cars !

We feel like we need to travel over 20 MPH. Add to that many States requiring an inspection.

[Idz]

The biggest hurdle for commercialization is the mountain of government regulations, licenses, taxes, etc. Long ago FEMA published a brochure on how to build gasifiers to run generators in emergencies. But that was before the bureaucrats took total control.

[Armorer77]

Wood gas is a by product of making charcoal . Set up a 3.5 HP motor with an alternater to charge your batteries . The problem is removing the tar , this will freeze your valves solid if not cleaned before it cools .

[Nobade]

Colin Furze built a wood gas generator to run his lawn mower on on Youtube. It did work, sort of, but as mentioned above the tar like components in the gas gummed his engine up pretty fast.

[john.k]

Charcoal is a much better fuel for a gas generator,otherwise large tar filters and water traps need to be included in the gas generator.........wood which burns cleanly in a stove is a much better fuel than green sapwood,or a softwood..........back in the 70s,someone drove a modified 1960s Ford around the country using wood gas,his fuel was dry ,dead,eucalyptus .

[Bmi48219]

In 1980 Weyerhaeuser built a OSB plant near Gaylord. The company I worked for installed high temp linings in two ‘HOG Burners’. Pretty good sized, 30’ diameter x 55’ tall. They used damp waste sawdust kept smoldering with hot air for fuel. The gas coming off the sawdust ignited in a constricted area near the top. Never saw them running but the entire units were lined with 2800 F refractories.
As most know the wood itself doesn’t burn. The gas released when wood is heated is what burns. That’s why the flames start sometimes an inch or more above the wood.

[john.k]

It was once common for sawmills to have producer gas kilns that ran giant single cylinder engines ....the gas also ran drying kilns if the sawmill did dressed timber.......Although big mills had steam plant ,often turbines driving 3 phase generators,that burnt all the mill waste.

[waksupi]

I would prefer the old Stanley Steamer system. An old friend was at a steam convention in Pennsylvania, and another guy took him for a ride in his on the freeway. Highway Patrol pulled them over for doing 120 mph. They didn't get ticketed, because the HP guy was fascinated by the car going that fast. He also probably didn't want to explain ticketing a Pioneer license plate at that speed!

[Screwbolts]

You can down load the plans for wood Gasifier from FEMA to run a tractor and the come with a nice instruction booklet.

https://www.build-a-gasifier.com/PDF/FEMA_emergency_gasifier.pdf

[WRideout]

Although it's not wood, the principle of coal gasification is the same. In years past, industrial size coal gasification plants were built to provide gas for streetlamps, etc. in major cities. Nowadays when conducting a phase one environmental study for commercial properties, coal gasification plants are on the list of previous "dirty" uses for the property. Aside from the combustible gases they produced, there was an enormous number of other chemicals, some carcinogenic.

Wayne

[ulav8r]

Maybe in the 70's, read an article in Mother Earth News about powering vehicles with wood fired gasification. Another article, maybe in the same magazine, told of a farmer using wood chips from land clearing to produce methane. He got quite a bit of gas from cleating his land so he could farm it.

[GregLaROCHE]

Does anyone produce a small steam engine that would be practical to run a home generator?

[john.k]

Your best bet is to modify a small gasoline engine ,like a B&S or Kohler.........there is a Utube,made in some 3 rd word country,where a young guy has made a trike which is steam powered.....using a car LP gas tank as a boiler,inside a 50 gal oil drum as the furnace.........its very simple.......he takes a screw cap off the LP tank,pours in a drink bottle (2l) of water ,quickly replaces the cap,and he s off ,until the water boils off......the trike steam engine is very inefficient ,and could be considerably improved economy wise.......but that would need a lathe,which he obviously doesnt have......great effort ,IMHO,10/10 from me.

[john.k]

i have the bits collected to make a small size steam engine from a GM 3/53 engine .....pretty sure Im not the first to make a GM 53 or 71 into a steam engine.....about 20 years ago,GMs were just scrap,and could be had for a few dollars,unfortunately they seem to be a cult item lately ,and people want stupid money for junk.

[.429&H110]

I worked for a Yankee who collected antique stationary engines. Some of the Wisconsins were very valuable and some of the cast iron curios were junk. One rig ran off a wood stove to turn a belt to turn a press that was more of a finger splitter than log splitter, would split as fast as fed. The wood smoke tarred up the valves, so he had an ethanol injector that would clean it out, just pour a little Everclear in slowly while it's running... Old Yankee thought it was fair to split wood with wood, would say "There's three horses that don't eat hay".
Nobody much cared about my fingers.

[pworley1]

Years ago before big business put all the small dairy farms out of business, I had a neighbor that pumped all the manure from his milking operation into a methane digester that produced enough methane to run his trucks.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

If you fired it up to charge a good bank of baterries once a week or so.......

[john.k]

Quite common for any kind of animal production farm to use waste for gas generation......most farms now have city dweller neighbours on hobby farms,and cant just flood stink out onto a 40 acre soakage.

[Idz]

Pig and chicken manure (probably human too) digester methane generators were used in China for years.

[WRideout]

Does anyone produce a small steam engine that would be practical to run a home generator?

Small steam engines are still used in boats and launches. Here is the address for one supplier. A quick google search will turn up lots of others. https://www.reliablesteam.com/new/index.php

Wayne

[JSnover]

Maybe in the 70's, read an article in Mother Earth News about powering vehicles with wood fired gasification. Another article, maybe in the same magazine, told of a farmer using wood chips from land clearing to produce methane. He got quite a bit of gas from cleating his land so he could farm it.
Yeah, Mother Earth had their own truck converted to wood gas and drove it all over, collecting 'free fuel' from sawmills.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I was always intrigued by the steam powered boat in the movie Africa Queen. A more modern way to do it would be to run a steam powered generator that powered an electric motor to propel the boat. Less mechanical headaches that way.

[john.k]

A steam boat can be powered directly by the engine,as the engine is reversable ,so the propellor is direct driven.........stern wheelers were also direct drive by two cylinders direct to the wheel along the sides of the boat,and side wheelers used the engine crankshaft extended either side to drive the wheels.......i had plans of building steam,but the state have gone hog wild on boilers.......a home built boiler will land me in jail.,couple of years ago it was just a misdemeanor to have an unlicensed steam boiler.

[BenTolson]

Didn't see this link posted above, if I missed it, sorry for the repost. http://www.driveonwood.com/