Wood burning truck!

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Paul, are you saying the gasifier sweats as it cools, and that wets down the pellets   I thought the wood, pretty much burns up and turns to ash, after the gasifier is shut down similar to how a modern wood stove smolders.

[SwampDonkey]

Probably a certain amount of water no matter what you burn, whether it comes from free water or bound. As far as the pellets, it's bound water. Oven dry is only in a controlled environment, EMC would be more accurate. I'll be first to admit I don't know anything about the set up of a gasifier and how it deals with water that is burned off the fuel.

[Paul_H]

Harold,

The imbert style,like mine is closed and pretty well airtight with the lid closed and the moisture in the feed tank(bunker) runs down the wall and collects in the little holding tank.
When the gasifier cools down and the lid is opened,there is a lot of condensation on the lid and on the walls.The wood chunks are quite dry at this point and even have that "clink" sound when you move them around.
I just went out with the moisture meter and checked the Birch chunks left in there since November and they read 12% MC.The chunks are quite charred even though they are a couple feet above the nozzles.

I guess that is good for woodchunks but not so good for pellets? 
I'll hunt through some archives and see if I can find where I heard of the problems with pellets.

I thought the wood, pretty much burns up and turns to ash, after the gasifier is shut down similar to how a modern wood stove smolders

We have to take care not to completely run out of wood or the charcoal is lost.When the gasifier is shut down,the fire is extinguished and the charred wood and charcoal remains for the next light.
Sort of like keeping a sourdough sponge,I guess.

[TexasTimbers]

Ah yes a glo plug would be the cats jammas.

[Paul_H]

The Bees knees,too


I went looking for the talk on pellets and found this over on the yahoo woodgas site,

I learned recently ( FRIENDS DONT LET FRIENDS RUN WOOD PELLETS IN
THEIR wood fueled GASIFIER HAHAHAH)
 what probably happened was after you shut down,the
water
vapor that accumulates in the hopper got to the wood pellets in the
entire fuel load and turned them into a soft guey giant sloppy messy
mess,,,(( been there )),,,and when you fired back up ,,,you were
partially plugged somewhere,,,,,,,that would make a totally unbalanced
reaction area in that thing unti
l it all burned off

Looking in Vesa's book,it was more or less the same issue as well as problems presented by the pellets small size but Harold,mentioned large pellets which might work.I'm sure the pellet problems will eventually be worked out.
Some of the Finns run their cars on peat!

[TexasTimbers]

The Bees knees,too

Man I haven't heard them in a long time.

"I started a joke, which started the whole world crying....."

[Fla._Deadheader]

  What's the thinking behind the glow plug   I think I have an idea about it, but, not sure

[TexasTimbers]

The glo plug would be the ignition source, in lieu of cramming the lit page torn out of the Montgomery Ward catalog.

[Paul_H]

I don't "cram" the paper,it's placed scientifically 

There is a little propane torch that is usually used to light the gasifier and some use a wick on the end of a wire that is kept in a kerosene filled tube near the lighting port.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 AHhhhhhhhh. I was thinking to heat the cooler chamber, and help keep the pellets from absorbing the moisture. 

[Ron57]

  hey thats pretty good!! " Scientifically placing the paper"

[Paul_H]

How is the gasifier coming along?

[Ron57]

  Hi Paul; the gasifier is almost finished,I was looking for a leaf spring for the lid hold down couldnt find any thing junk so we went to NAPA they wanted $65 for a set of helper springs and I couldnt talk them into splitting the set up.  A neighbor called last night said they had a whole trailer axle I could have its almost to nice to part out electric brakes, hubs, axle and springs all assembled. I put a couple boxes of cant ends in the kiln for three days the MC going in was about 30% ,coming out was 10.% I am wondering if that is to dry to get best gas production any way I cut them into pcs like you discribed.
   I am building the unit in a shop but to run it I  will move it outdoors ,because of the CO dont want to take any risks.Its easy to move just pick it up with the forklift by the flanges but the refractory lining added quite a bit of weight ,almost to heavy to handle by hand. All I got from MEN was building instuctions didnt see any start up directions so I saved that gengas web page link and can still refer to your startup video. I need to put on the lid buy or produce some charcoal, hook up the flaring fan just to test run the gasifier A neighbor is working on the cyclone, I want to build a dry  filter and cooler ,less mess
                                                                                                           Ron
   

[rowerwet]

did anyone mention the trabant, there were some powered by a coal fire in the back that produced the gas for the engine in the front. they were east germanys answer to the volkswagon.

[shtickhead]

[One of the changes made to the woodgas truck back in the Summer was the addition of a secondary fan under the hood.I went with the second fan because I wanted a more powerfull fan to draw the gas through the cooler and filter,right up to the carburator so I could eliminate the need for gasoline to start the engine.



Anybody have suggestions for a good 12 volt blower? Automobile heater blowers with the squirrel cage fans don't draw enough.



[/quote]

 Just a 'shot in the dark'  could a starter motor drive a turbo, say from a diesel motor for this purpose? Maybe to much draw on the battery and starters not good for length of time needed?

Anyone who has built one of these has my respect. I'm good at scrounging materials,finishing projects....
So far I've only read the first 10 and last two pages of the tread so my questions may have been answered already but; given all materials and tools on hand,roughly how many hours would you guess it would take someone with basic metal working skills to cobble/fabricate a unit like this? Also what is the expected life of the unit/burner?

[Paul_H]

It's hard to call someone shtickhead 

shtickhead,

I never kept track of the hours but I have no shop to speak of,just a shed with a work bench by the house and a welder some 800 feet away out at the mill and the truck in the driveway and I seem to spend a lot of time wandering back and forth and between looking for misplaced tools or tools left at the shop when needed at the welder,etc.I couldn't even hazard a guess but I can tell you that a lot of hours after work and on weekends were put into the whole truck but the gasifier was started in January and I think it was done by May and then the cooler was done by June-ish and the summer was hit and miss.Lots of time was spent scrounging parts and in between times was family obligations and social life.

I'm not sure what the burners life span will be althought the unit as a whole should last but metal near the hearth may need to be replaced at some point.

I had read somewhere recently that a turbo isn't so good at drawing air for something like a woodgas system.Jim Mason,who builds and sells the GEK gasifiers has built and sells blowers as a complete set or will sell the fan itself and I remember correctly is a 5 blade radial fan and the blower motor is the type which drives the cooling fans on a automobile radiator.

[bandmiller2]

Quickie question,how do you guys with the mobile gas generators get an inspection sticker on your truck,if they have to sniff the exhaust.I can see an inspection station operator getting awfull nervous.Frank C.

[SwampDonkey]

I don't think they have mandatory inspections in BC.

[shtickhead]

It's hard to call someone shtickhead 

 That's just 'cause you don't know me!

Seems like I'd better get the 'you promised me you were going to...' list pared down quite abit before I started on something like this.
 
I was thinking about the bridging problem and wondering if a window sash weight in a piece of bike inner tube ( to muffle the sound) could be rigged up as a pendulum like a grand father clock. You would hand wind the spring so when the motor was idling the weight would bang the side of the burner. 

[woodmite pj]

Hi  people for gassification go to KnowledgePublications.com with Steve Harris got some of his books there great .