PREP economy Wood Gasifier unit

jed turtle

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
for when the GRID GOES DOWN [GGD]...
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i've been getting very focused on Wood gasifiers recently.
no matter how many solar panels and batteries one has, a week of rain will eventually leave you without power. and the wind is even more unreliable in most places than the sun. so how does one get through a month of gloom? (or maybe a couple of years if all the volcanoes start rumbling hard?):shkr:

we attended the wood gasifier get-together a few weeks ago in Argos, Indiana, with some really great people who congregate at a great new site: http://www.driveonwood.com/ , who came together to share their knowledge and experience with their wood-gasifier fueled trucks and tractors. one smaller unit ran on home-made charcoal and ran a generator.

came across this site tonite which offers reasonably priced practical units (including a kit) for operating small engines/ generators.

http://www.vulcangasifier.com/

there are a few other commercial units available but the price seems pretty good on this one.

if anyone has any experience with one of these please chime in. i'm interested in them because i have virtually zero welding experience and this is the shortcut for people like me with zero experience and massive interest.

the nice thing about a unit that can run a generator means that there is an opportunity to utilize the waste heat from the generator by heating hot water, or in the case of the charcoal fired unit at the Argos meet, the generator engine exhaust was returned into the charcoal retort where the water vapor and carbon dioxide was used as feedstock to create more fuel (hydrogen and carbon monoxide!)

so, anyone else out there messing around with wood gas?
 
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willdo

Veteran Member
That is not a bad price for what it is. We have an over abundance of wood resources, just cleaning up dead trees, and I would like to put them to good use. I don't like the idea of a noisy generator that can be heard for miles though. Is there a way to charge storage batteries off of the gassifier without running a generator?
 
The Mountain

The Mountain

Here since the beginning
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willdo said:
That is not a bad price for what it is. We have an over abundance of wood resources, just cleaning up dead trees, and I would like to put them to good use. I don't like the idea of a noisy generator that can be heard for miles though. Is there a way to charge storage batteries off of the gassifier without running a generator?
Click to expand...

It would involve adding a much higher-tech component to the system, but I'd bet a fuel cell could be run off the syngas from a gasifier.

And, for those who feel they can't afford this, there are plans available for free on how to build one yourself. They don't require any complex components; people were building these by hand back during the Great Depression to run tractors and whatnot.

Here's a link on it:

hxxp://www.build-a-gasifier.com/FEMA-Gasifier-Signup.html

you'll obviously need to edit the url to make it live.
 
jed turtle

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
the trouble with older designs is that they weren't adequate to eliminate tars and soot and consequently, when gasoline became available/cheap, they were left behind. the new designs are based on the understanding of what needs to happen in terms of the gasification process (higher temps, better re-use of waste heat,etc) and followup condensation of the vapors and filters to produce clean gas. there are Tons of youtubes on various DIY gasifiers, but imho, the one focused on at driveonwood.com (Wayne Keith's) is the very best out there for a vehicle. it's the smaller gasifiers that have my focus at the moment, that can run a genny. if you put your generator in an insulated shed, run the exhaust through an auxilliary muffler, perhaps even put that muffler in a box down in the ground, i think you could nearly eliminate any troubling noise.
 
The Mountain

The Mountain

Here since the beginning
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Frankly, all I want it for is to get rid of trash. That I can extract gas for cooking is a side benefit. That's why the older DIY stuff that uses trash cans and oil drums seems ok to me. If you happen to have plans for one that's newer i.e. more efficient/cleaner, but still uses relatively easy-to-find stuff, I'd love to get a copy.
 
jed turtle

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
The Mountain said:
Frankly, all I want it for is to get rid of trash. That I can extract gas for cooking is a side benefit. That's why the older DIY stuff that uses trash cans and oil drums seems ok to me. If you happen to have plans for one that's newer i.e. more efficient/cleaner, but still uses relatively easy-to-find stuff, I'd love to get a copy.
Click to expand...

ta da: the gilmore gasifier

i actually saw this setup when we went out to Indiana last month to a wood gasifier get-together.

this design is very interesting because it can be built with little to no welding, and using charcoal instead of wood eliminates the tars from the process that normally have to be dealt with when using wood.

but first, :

how to make charcoal (for the gasifier etc)
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFHX...feature=relmfu

part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyzY9...feature=relmfu

how to make the gilmore gasifier part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srLET...feature=relmfu

part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUf8P...feature=relmfu

part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pbuJ...feature=relmfu
 
jed turtle

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
bttt. i am really trying to get people to notice that woodgas has come a long ways from what it was when it kept all the civilian vehicles going in Europe during WWII.

i have researched a LOT of alternative energy approaches, and for anyone who owns or has access to wood, THIS now makes sense. a lot of sense. this can be run on wood pellets (they also make pellets from some kinds of grass), and just about anything organic that can be made small enough to auger into the feed hole to supplement the initial charge of charcoal. and people are experimenting with ways to use the "wasted heat and gases" that normally escape useage during the creating of charcoal. one setup boils water above the retort where the charcoal is being produced. scale that idea up and suddenly you have a system that heats your daily house hot water needs while you're creating fuel for your generator and vehicle.
 
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