# Gasified Wood



## georgec (Jul 9, 2007)

I read a short article in the Farm Show magazine. There is a guy that runs his pickup on gasified wood. He says he can go 10,000 miles on a cord of wood. Has anyone heard of this?


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

There was an article in Mother Earth News at least 20 years ago about a guy who converted his little truck into a wood burner.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
There was quite a bit of work done on this in the past, including some detailed plans and manuals.

I've collected some here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/BioFuel/biofuels.htm#WoodGas

There are some safety issues, so be careful!

Gary


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

Search for "wood gas", "wood gasification", "gen gas", "producer gas" will all get you some sites of interest, although there will also be links to wood furnaces etc in the results of the searches.
A good one is http://www.gengas.nu/byggbes/executive_summary.shtml
The booklet used to be available from FEMA (our Federal Government Emergency Managment folks), which is where I got my copy.


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## mdharris68 (Sep 28, 2006)

OK, so now I have this vision of a 15KW generator sitting there with a small 3 cylinder engine attatched running untill I have a barren landscape, because I cut and burned all of my trees. 

Seriously, if anyone has any detailed instruction on building one of these, I would be interested. I have looked at many sites and the sketches are not detailed enough for me. I need to see one in person to be able to build one. If there are any working models out there, that would be better. Any one know of a working model?


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## ed/IL (May 11, 2002)

Type in wood gas on Utube search and you will have several videos to look at.


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## artificer (Feb 26, 2007)

Take a look at this site.  

About $1,000 plus shipping.

Michael


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## WayneR (Mar 26, 2007)

There is also a Yahoo group on the topic


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## Sand Flat Bob (Feb 1, 2007)

georgec said:


> I read a short article in the Farm Show magazine. There is a guy that runs his pickup on gasified wood. He says he can go 10,000 miles on a cord of wood. Has anyone heard of this?


This is old technology. The Europeans and Japanese in WW2 ran their trucks on charcoal after the Allies cut off their access to oil. The product of incomplete combustion contain gases that can be burned in a spark ignition truck. Not very practical, but if you have no other fuel, it works.

Bob


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## Metcalf (Feb 15, 2007)

The same general technology is the first step in the Fischer-Tropsch process used in WWII to produce fuel. There has been some interesting work done since then to investigate the use of bio-mass to make fuel. The bio-mass is broken down into CO and H2 gas in the woodgas process. In the FT process you use a heated catalyst t to long chain hydrocarbons such as synthetic diesel fuel, wax, some crude gasoline, etc.

The research I have done on the FT process is estimating about 50-100 gallons of diesel fuel from one ton of wood. A 'cord' of wood is something like 2500lbs correct? The FT process might be less efficient than a straight woodgas system, but I don't know about 10,000 miles/cord. 

Woody bio-mass can be grown fairly quickly. Switch grass produces up to 10-15 tons per acre annually. Fast growing willows are another great source of woody bio-mass that might work well. If you happen to be living in a forested area it doesn't take much work to gather 2000lbs of wood. I think in most national forests you are allowed to gather about 10-cords of firewood per person per year. That could amount to a good deal of wood between an entire family to turn into fuel. There is going to be proximity losses depending on how close to the trees you live, but I know in my home town you can gather a cord of wood on a lot less than 50-100 gallons of fuel.

The beauty of liquid fuel like diesel and gasoline is the portability and energy density per gallon. Its hard to beat.


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## georgec (Jul 9, 2007)

Wow, this information is very interesting. I am very suprised that I have not heard of it before. I am also quite suprised that more off grid folks are not running generators using this process.


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## WayneR (Mar 26, 2007)

The use of this technology is now limited because vehicles use liquid fuel injection. Newer engines would require extensive modification of the intake maniflold and a carburator of some type. Lindsay Publications also has a book(s) on the topic .


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

georgec said:


> Wow, this information is very interesting. I am very suprised that I have not heard of it before. I am also quite suprised that more off grid folks are not running generators using this process.


I was thinking the same thing after seeing a friend charge his solar battery bank with a generator this winter.

Does the smoke require any kind of cleansing?

A person might be able to charge an electric car using wood/hay smoke as the initial source of energy.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

It takes quite a bit of wood, and the gas is poisonous (carbon monoxide content). It also is a dirty gas and needs filtering, and is still hard on the engine. Good info in the posted links.


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

WayneR said:


> The use of this technology is now limited because vehicles use liquid fuel injection. Newer engines would require extensive modification of the intake maniflold and a carburator of some type. Lindsay Publications also has a book(s) on the topic .


Lindsay Techincal books hada great book but no longer has it in stock, it was written by the Cash brothers in Australia in the early 1940's no you cannot have my copy, from it and the gengas site above i believe i have a workable design that uses the fema design and adds a water injector to increase H2 production for combustionable power. i just aint got it built yet, the parts are just sitting there in storage for now til i back get out on another place with a usable shop area..... maybe in a couple months.

The principles of destructive distillation are sound, the efficiency could be better, ergo the addition of a water injector to increase production. The europeans had a whole industry devoted to gasification for their auto's, and such would be required in the several states if a person were to "take off" on an adventure with their power plant. The MEN unit was huge, in the back of a pickup truck but it worked on a cross country trip, there was a local fella [ok maybe 5 miles over in the next county] that had a similar unit in his pick-up, he went over the mountain to Missoula MT with out problem, but his carrying capacity was greatly diminished too. The olde units were often added into the trunk of those old cars so they too had lttle room for luggage, ergo the cartop carrier was invented from necessity.

If a person had access to coal such could also be used with a little higher efficiency than wood for destructive distillation.

William


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## Randy Rooster (Dec 14, 2004)

Mother Earth news has or had plans for making a wood burning auto about 20 years ago- I have a copy somewhere around here.


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## solidwoods (Dec 23, 2005)

I've been dreaming of setting up a gengas engine to a generator for a while.
I want to draw the smoke through a water filter.
I want to try also adding scrap steel to the acidic water to create more hydrogen.
jim


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

solidwoods said:


> I want to try also adding scrap steel to the acidic water to create more hydrogen.


though it is quite different process, a simple H2 generation is made from beer/soda cans in a five gallon bucket and can of lye in water... plumbed directly into a generator intake you can run a genset on the gas produced for about 24 hours straight, there is however no way to regulate the crude setup to shut it off until the Al is dissolved and more needs to be added. no outside fuel need be added to run either as it is complete. It is basic chemistry reactions and destructive distillation in both processes using different elements to get the job done. the drawback in the beer can usage is the plastic liners are left over and need be pulled out of the bucket after a few uses. the recipe? fill the bucket up with crushed cans, add water to near the top and then add and dissolve the lye into the bucket place on the lid which is where the hose to the carburetor is located and get ready to start the genset in a couple minutes, it is a clean gas so no carbon is added into the unit either...



Metcalf said:


> The research I have done on the FT process is estimating about 50-100 gallons of diesel fuel from one ton of wood


I believe the University of Georgia or GT is doing a research project currently on wood to oil, and is finding that it it is about 11,000 pounds of standing green or about one thousand board feet of young timber similar to what is being thinned for pulp at 15 years, ergo a little over 2 cord of wood per barrel of a crude oil, thus refining it farther will yeild the fuel for different applications. I was talking with sawmill manufacturer in November about the process as his mill has diesel a power plant on it, which in these parts i would try for growing "rapeseed" or "canola" to squeeze usable oil from, as it is closer to the product needed for end use in a diesel powerplant.

William
Idaho


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## solidwoods (Dec 23, 2005)

The aluminum would work fine in a gen gas system (with a water filter, water provides the acid) except for the cost of aluminum.
I imagine it would dissolve easier than carbon steel.

The wood smoke should produce a constant amount. of H2, but the steels H2 production would vary. I imagine the outcome would be higher engine rpm (this is without a storage device to regulate gas or a governed air intake to thin the gas)

I like the concept for an electric generator since it runs at a constant rpm and fairly consistent torque load.

Or create H2 with the above , liquefy it , then use it. But liquefying is $$. Maybe a good solution for portable concept like vehicles

I don't know what you mean about plastic liners though?

With carbon steel distill (or aluminum) , one would need to know the concentration (any ideas),, then steel could be auto added (once the rate of dissolve is known).

With just wood smoke only about half of the engines hp is possible (from what I have read) So I thought an addition would help (so you don't need an engine 2x the size). 

But how much will steels dissolved H2 add?
Depends on its rate of dissolve.
Steel wool/shavings maybe better but more $ and limitations because of availability.
The filter water would be warm which should help.

I also wonder if the acidic water from the filter could be use to ferment wood for alcohol.

The reason I like wood (for me) is its a byproduct of my sawmilling/planer opns. Wood slabs and fine dust/shavings.
And H2 generation seems to be a smart way to go since the earth has allot of it and it burns clean. 
I just don't know if an auto engine is right for it though. The gasoline provides lube for its path through the engine. Although LPG/LNG don't have any oil properties and engines work fine with it.

I think one of the biggest showstoppers to H2 for engines has been Detroit.
The engine wouldn't need emissions contraptions which means a simpler cheaper engine and thats contrary to manufacturing the most complicated costly engine possible (and non user maintainable) (and lasts longer because of less carbon contamination) (and) (and).
The last thing auto mfrs. want is a simple less expensive engine.
Makes you wonder who helped the EPA get auto emission standards passed as laws.

OK- Full circle wander/rant.

My moneys on 2 guys in a garage and American inequity.
jim


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## btupper2001 (Feb 2, 2008)

Thanks for all the posts. I've started doing quite a bit of research in this area. There are a lot of rural areas in the world that use this technology to provide electrical power. I've found that a lot of people produce power using this technology with other items to fuel the stove. I've even found a company that states their product uses human waste to produce electrical power. None of these companies will talk to me since I'm an individual looking for a small scale test of this technology. I work in the food service industry and can see a ton of waste in terms of food (either down the garbage disposal or out with the trash). It only makes sense that this waste could be burnt in one of these gasifiers and the syngas could be used to produce electricity (either internal combustion, fuel cell, or micro turbine). Does anyone know of anyone that does this on a small scale? Any info would be wonderful!


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## Metcalf (Feb 15, 2007)

Comment on Fischer Tropsch research.

There has been some really good research in FT processes, specifically catalyst s and operation pressures, that will allow the formation of liquid synthetic diesel fuel WITHOUT any further processing. 

In general with the FT process you get a spectrum of hydrocarbons from low octane gasoline ( 70 octane approximately ) to diesel like fuels to heavy wax. I have been doing research into using Ruthenium deposited on Alumina. Under the correct pressure, rather low pressures overall, and temperature will yield a large portion of synthetic diesel fuel that doesn't need any further refining. It just needs to be separated from the wax and low octane gasoline. I think this technology has a lot of promise for liquid fuels. Don't forget, this process worked well in history to generate liquid fuels for Germany in WWII. I wouldn't hold that against the inventors though.

This process can work with many different systems. All the FT process does is use hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide. You can get those components from a variety of sources. I have been looking at solar hydrogen and ways to sequester carbon dioxide that could be broken down into CO for use in the process. Just imagine being able to make 120,000 btu/g fuel from water, air, and sunshine 

Never stop dreaming...


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