A Wood Gassifier ... My next project !

[janmarsh]

Bob, Here in UK, The Holly Bush has a wood which is supposed to have a higher calorific value than all others (Native anyway) when burned.

I am wondering if that would also apply when gassified ?
                                                                                  Marshall.

[Bob]

I am Sure it would , sense that is how they measure caloric value they weigh the item before and then burn it to a crisp with a Bunsen burner and then weigh it after...the difference is the calories.
(amazing what ya learn in High school biology uh ?,...whats more amazing is that I even remember that!  LOL!)
...
HAHHAHAHA
...
Bob.

[Bob]

if it ain't one thing....its another !
 Ok I got all the pipe connected, and just now installed a switch for the blower fan on the Fine filter
and so besides the bolt down operation and the air filter....she's ready to go..
so I tried to start the truck...didn't want to fire up.... acted like it wasn't getting fuel...which is normal for this beast...so I pumped the heck out of it and opened up the air mixture valve on the top of the carberator and it started to catch a few times.... so I reached over and turned on the blower fan...and it started to pick up fairly good... and then it finally took off on its own running on about 6 cylinders instead of 8 ! after a bit it started to run better picked up the dropped cylinders (mostly) and started to idle good again.... the only time this truck acts like this is when the points need filed...and re set... and its a bear to do sense the distributor is at the back of the engine on this 318cid. and I put it off as long as I can usually ! LOL
well, if its having that much truble running on gasoline  I ain't even going to try running it on Woodgas till I tune it up !....
...
While I had it running I closed the air-mix butterfly with no effect...(as I thought it shouldn't effect it...)... and I turned off the blower with the same results... no effect...which is good!
....this is without any wood in the burner however and that may make some difference its hard to say.
....
So its now ready to try... as soon as I do the last 3 things
bolt down the wood burner in the back.
fill the burner with wood and fine filter with wood ships
and TUNE UP THE TRUCK !
...
I did put a spring on the air-Mix control rod, to make it stay put, and it does now... there is only about 1/4 turn to the control however and that may be a bit course....I may well need a finer control of that butterfly...but we shall see!
the blower when its on really blows good through the pipe and out the air-mix valve which will make good and sure the gas is getting to the engine !
....
I did not put a test port on it yet and I am thinking I should have one.... if nothing else it will look Kool ! LOL !
...but at this stage I can light the gas at the Air-mix butterfly with no problems , all I have to do is have the hood up.... which I will have for the first few starts I'm sure !
... I am not sure if the flame will be extinguished when I shut off the butterfly or not but I guess there is one way to find out !  if nothing else shutting the butterfly and cranking the engine through should suck the flame out....then I can open the valve and try to start it on Smoke !
....that's the plan anyway !
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Ok a few pictures of the Unsuccessfull test I just did on the woodgas truck.
the reason it was UNSUCCESSFULL and of this I am quite sure is I couldn't get a good fire going fast in the burner.... and I flat gave up !
I put a bunch of bricketts in first and then a bunch of dry oak cut up into 3" or so inches long.
...I know better than to try and start a bar b Q that way... why I did it on this thing I dunno..
but I did... with no small stuff to spred the fire it managed to smolder real good and never take off
HAHAHAHAHAHA
 I started the truck on gasoline and let it idle a while trying to suck the fire into being bigger but after about 15 min I said fooie on it and turned it all back off
 I just went back up to check it and see if the fire has gone out and NO it hasn't... but it is very small now and should peeter out eventually.... I hope !
...
I never did get a flame from the air/Mix port and I tried to light it with the butain torch...
(bricketts are not very good woodgas producers) so if I have to I'll dig it all out of there and start a real fire with a few bricketts and a bunch of small stuff ...then add the wood and all that way....   its obvious to me that a 5 gal propane tank and a blow torch would be a good addition to that thing...something to get the fire ROARING fast....
the bottom pic is the REASON the fire didn't take off real good... you can see that ! its Obvious NOW!

anyway, heres a few pics...
...
Bob....
 

[Bob]

here's 2 more
 in the top pic you can see the smoke but it did get much better than that before I tried to light it
but its got to have a good fire going before its going to work and I'm too tired to mess with it right now... 
 I'll probably tackel it tonight !
Bob.....

[Bob]

Hummmm....
well I let it smolder for about an hour and went back up to the truck and turned everything back on ...
and the smoke was bellowing out the 2.5" Air/mix pipe and out the top of the Wood gas burner too...
fired up the truck on gasoline and then turned off the fuel pump in an attempt to get the thing to run on the smoke.... every time it died.... I finally got the propane torch and tried to light the smoke...
and nothing happened but the flame almost went out.......
I even tossed matches into the burner with no results ...no Fwoooom! and big toung of blue flame at all
absolutely... no flame !....
SO the only thing I can gather from that is my wood is too wet... ( it has been laying out in the rain)
evidently its supposed to be very DRY WOOD.... that is going to be hard to come by around these parts but I'll get some cut up and cover it with a tarp to keep the rain off and maybe that will burn better !
....
the burner was going good enough to start bubbling the paint on the outside of the barrel, and the high temp silicone was bubbling in places too... so it was going very good.... just that there was no Hydrogen to speak of in that smoke.... and I really don't know what to think of about that!
... I tried to get it to run on the smoke but it only hit a few times never would catch...
and the course adjustment of the air/Mix butterfly makes the adjustment very difficult at best!
....
...
..
  one thing I have learned already... I do NOT like that stainless steel bowl as a fire grate...
I need to remove it and put a large frying pan there instead...with many more holes in it !
....
Bob.....

[Lee Hazleton]

Bob,
 Don't get discouraged....at least you got your wood wet

[Bob]

hehehe
 I'm Prudy certain that's what the problem was... that or perhaps the fire wasn't going strong enough even if it was as hot as it was.
....
we all know wet wood smokes a bunch more than dry wood... and perhaps all that moisture in the smoke stops the separation of the gasses at the reduction zone down there... I do know that I never did get a flame from within the smoke.... and in all honesty that supprizes me ! 
and if there's not enough gas to burn it sure ain't going to run the truck
....
Bob...

[Bob]

LOL Now... that was very close for a bit... in fact I think it was running on smoke for a few seconds but it needs to run longer than just a few seconds just so I'm sure its not running on gas still in the carburetor....  yah after all this time the fire was going very good in the fire box so I turned the fan on .... shook the grate and started it on gasoline and then turned off the fuel pump and in about 1 min the carb runs dry and its usually like you turned the ignition switch off...but it didn't do that it was staggering and fussing and I was trying to adjust the Air/Mix valve to get it to run smoothly and it finally ran for a few on just Smoke..... I THINK.... and then staggered and died....
so I went and got the torch and tried to light the smoke and no flame at either place.... by then the flame in the burner had died way down.... and I figured it needed more DRY WOOD...
....the back of the truck bed is covered in liquid Smoke the condensation of the smoke that drips out of the wood hopper..... if its dripping out of the wood hopper its not very air tight... is it ? LOL ( maybe that's why the fire didn't go out when I shut it down? LOL )
... anyway that bit was encouraging.... it ran for a second or two on smoke I think....
but it in no way would sustain it in a good run.... heck the hopper is empty now and there was only the stuff at the bottom of the burner to work on ....
...
so 3 things I need to fix....
1. DRY WOOD
2. The coarseness of the Air/Mix butterfly valve needs to be a finer adjustment....
3. Air tightness of the wood hopper & wood gas generator.
....

I'll tell you how wet it was when I was trying it earlier.... water was dripping out of the Air/mix port where the smoke was coming out.... that is allot of condensation !
makes me wonder if the filters caught any of that moisture !  I expect there is probably about 2" of water in the cyclone filter and an inch in the fine filter....
both of which will have to be cleaned out tomorrow
...
So... its back to the work bench with it !
HAHAHA
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

Ok I think I found the culpret, for why it didn't work.... the fine filter's LID was not down tight
and that would have been sucking air and mixing it with the smoke making it far too lean to run
....the long connecting pipe from the engine to the fine filter is putting its weight on the top of the fine filter and cocking the lid to where its not sealing up good.... I don't have a barrel band clamp for that small of a barrel so I will have to come up with something else to hold the lid down on the fine filter.... also I need to get something in side that can so it will actually filter the smoke... right now its empty ! (LOL)
....
I took the wood hopper off the burner and have the burner propped up so I can use some silicone on the joining surfaces.... i  forgot to do that before... and it leaked liquid smoke all over because of it
hehehehe

More than anything it annoyed me that when I shut it down the fire didn't go out... its supposed to ... which means its far from air tight... and it has to be air tight in order to work... thats one of the prerequisites of the workings of a wood gas generator LOL
...
  I'm fighting an Ear infection at the moment and I've lost allot of my want to go out in the cold because of it... I think its on the mend now though... too much Spa time I guess ! LOL
...
I might make up a Pole to lift the burner out of the barrel today... something so I can get the fire tube out of the generator so I can work on the grate.... it needs many more holes and flattened out some...the bowl is too deep.   a 2"deep 14" stainless steel frying pan would have been a better choice for the grate, but I think I'ed probably have to get a loan to buy one ! LOL
....
so.... i got the truck backed down close to the welder and have the woodgas generator all appart
and am fixing the air leaks...that I THOUGHT were already fixed ! LOL
...using real dry wood next time should indeed cure the problems  I had before and getting rid of the air leaks .... I'm fairly certain that's what the problem is...
I may attack the butterfly adjustment too while I am at it....because it definitely needs a finer adjustment to it....
...
Bob.......

[crb]

Bob,
How is the ear infection? Better I hope.
Any more luck with the wood burner?
crb

[Bob]

I think the ear is as good as new now... not positive but it don't hurt any more so close enough ! LOL
....
I put the Hopper back on the burner barrel without the band clamp and it actually brought the 2 barrels closer together so I left it that way and then sealed up the joint with my last tube of high temp silicone sealant... ( buy it at wal mart for $2.98... at the auto parts store the price is $6.59 each and its the same stuff!)
... so I have the burner all sealed and ready to go again... and am working on the fine filter's top... sense I didn't use that band clamp on the other barrel I think I'll shrink it to fit the fine filter and have a good seal on it !
....
I had a bunch of DRY wood all cut up but it rained for 3 days and now everything is soaking wet...and like a dummy I forgot to get out there and cover it ,so there is no sense in trying to test it when the wood is that wet!  its gott'a dry first !
....OOOOPS !
anyway I havn't done much to the Woodgas burner in the truck for about a week now as the weather has really been bad lately. (rain and Cold as heck, but it's looking better in the forcast! <GRIN>)
...
...
While I was at Wal*mart today I found some 1/2pt standard,stainless steel pet bowls
for .97cents each...(their to feed the Pussycat in!)
  so I bought 22 of them and think they will make a great High capacity Hydroxy cell the plan is to separate the dishes by 1/16" to 1/8" and  feed them "Randy Style" through 2 threaded rods (which I'll need to pick up still)
the bowl size is Just perfect for a 6" ABS Pipe and should give me a massive amount of plate area.... now if I can get the amp's up to .5 amps per sqr inch I should have one heck of a producer!  and it will fit in the 22" ABS pipe I had originally in the truck.... time will tell if the cell will be worth the effort or not!
...these bowls should be better than the condement cups that I bought earlier in the year.... as it just didn't look like it was worth the effort on those... these are big enough to almost fill the 6"ABS pipe so it should work really good!
.... for $22.00 I have enough for 2-11 plate cells or one 22 plate cell,so I thought it was too good a bargin to pass up ! LOL !
 the bowls are 4.5" in diam  and about 1.75" deep...and a quick estimate is 29" of area for each bowl on one side....x 22=638" sqr. x.5amps=319 amps.... YEOUCH!
ok lets try 11 plates...319sqr in x.5amps=159 amps..... that's more like it !

I'll need a 200 or 300 amp alternator to run it but it should produce a large amount of Hydroxy gas if I can get the amps high enough (which I doubt)
... its a thought anyway... an idea I am playing with
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

Well, it rained almost all day again... and I didn't get anything accomplished at all
... I think I'm getting "cabin fever!" I want to get OUT ! LOL
...
next thing on the truck to do is make the top clamp for the small fine filter barrel
and make that top air tight...
...
I THINK, (not positive by any means,) that I have the GAS-Burner portion of the system
air tight now... and it "should" put out the fire when shut down...if not I'll be upset! HAHAHHAHAHA
...
On the engine of the truck I simply took the incoming smoke/gas into a manifold I made up to funnel it down the throat of the 2bbl carburetor... no butterfly on that section, unlike many plans out there, because I am trying to USE the existing carburetor butterfly as the throttle control... and it looks to be working or at the very least promising ! <GRIN>  sense I have the AIR/MIX butterfly on that same manifold the mixture is done right at the carburetor so what gas the engine does use is mixed with air at the ratio that is determined by the setting of the air/mix butterfly.  in my initial test I never did get the Smoke to burn...
which is more than likely the reason the truck never ran on the Woodgas....(DUH!)
...
in my next test I am contemplating using Wood pellets as part of the fuel as its about as dry as you can ever get!.... using about a 50/50 ratio of the driest wood I can find and wood pellets should get me some usable smoke... I hope...LOL
...
I never would have thought that having DRY would would make that much of a diference
but in the Pyrolization process its a must as the charcoal and CO2 and Hydrogen must react together to make Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen which are explosive.
without that reaction there is no boom.  and it looks to take a large bed of coals to get to that point ! ....
 I admit I only ran the burner for a short time on the initial test for a few reasons, I'm not sure of the heat it is going to produce, and if a heat shield is going to be necessary or not to protect the cab from catching on fire!
 and I incorrectly figured a small fire would be enough to test with ....
after watching the Planet mechanics a few dozen times I realized that they ran their burner for a few days straight and just kept adding fuel to it, while they were trying to start it... although they had a good flame from the smoke.... I never got that... and that may very well be why.
another big difference is the SCALE of things I am trying to run a 318CID v8 they were running a 4 cyl mini truck and that's a big change !
and if you look at my instillation I have 3" pipes that are feeding that wood gas to the engine... and its a good possibility I should have as big as 6" diameter pipe do do this with.... not 3".... but I THINK it will run on the 3" pipes, it will be one of the last things I change if I have to change things!<GRIN>
but never the less the burner is much bigger than their burner and is sized to the 318 cid engine, but the connecting lines are the same size as they use... this has me wondering... it may well be a choke point and not feeding enough woodgas to the engine...
but until I get the gas to burn good I'm not going to say its WRONG YET ! HAHAHA
if I get the woodgas to burn real good like it should and the engine doesn't run on  that gas ...THEN I will really suspect the pipeing as being too small for the job!
....
Bob...

[Manta]

Bob,

Don't know if you have this site,  but here it is.

http://www.powercubes.com/listers_12.html

Manta

[Bob]

No I havn't seen that one yet ...thanks for the Link Manta!
I wish I had one of those old Lister engines he has! LOL!
...
Bob.....