# Firewood instead of gasoline ?



## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

Interesting article on wood gas vehicles.

Never seen one on American soil.

Pickup trucks would be ideal for this.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-cars.html

Mother Earth news article on a P/U truck conversion

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Transportation/1981-05-01/Wood-Gas-Truck.aspx


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

If I remember my history right, they used fire fueled vehicles during WW2 in this country. I know for sure they did in Europe on the mainland. 
It would be neat to convert one just for the "fun" of having something different.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Unless you live very rural and drive very rural and are buddies with the local cops, it would be a bit like waving a red flag in front of a bull to go down hiway or street with such a vehicle.

What I think producer gas systems would be great for are stationary electric generators and farm tractors. Our yuppified society focussed on uber saftey and uber regulation of everybody else's buisiness is not going to want you driving around with a "fire" in back of your pickup. Just think how upset some of them get if you paint your house the wrong color or have wrong color drapes. Well homebuilt producer gas vehicle is going to impress such people even less.

Now in some European countries the laws are still on books allowing and regulating producer gas vehicles for hiway use. I dont have link for it, but was a really interesting blog of couple young guys in Sweden that converted an old Volvo to producer gas (yes pics and details), all perfectly legal, got it inspected and took a road trip around Sweden. You find that blog and read it and you will get good idea of what driving a producer gas vehicle is like. 

Now the old TMEN article from 1970s where they did this and took Chevy short bed pickup cross country is interesting too. Notice they put a 454 big block engine in the truck. Producer gas used in a gasoline engine gives only about half the horsepower, so they needed a BIG engine to keep up with traffic. And that was in era where 55mph speed limits were taken lot more seriously. You better be able to go at least 75mph on interstates anymore or get run over.

Oh and converting a modern computer controlled car would be quite the engineering adventure. I imagine it would take some creativity and replace the factory computer control system with a roll your own system like Mega Squirt, mostly to control the ignition since simple throttle body can control amount producer gas enters engine. Modern engines dont have ignition distributors, the computer system controls ignition advance. Everything is all inter-related in the factory system, even the automagic transmission as few modern vehicles still even offer manual transmissions.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

A few years ago at the MREA Energy Fair in WI. a *local?* high school had a truck with all the goodies on it for the wood gas concept.
Worked very well.
Unfortunately I did not have an interest in woodgas at the time so I never went to the workshops on the subject......


But today with the middle east thing, if somebody pulls the trigger, the cost of fuel could go through the roof............
A wood gas truck . . .not a bad idea...........


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

Here is a video of a wood gas car start up and in operation, European style

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG8iR5DRLpw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG8iR5DRLpw[/ame]


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I remember that MEN article. Even if it couldn't be used for a highway vehicle it could be used for on the farm machinery or to power a generator or wood saw/splitter. Lots of applications that would use a stationary wood gas powered engine.

You could even run the excess coolant heat into the house or greenhouse in the winter.


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

Seeing some home wood gas electric supply units from different mfgs.

This one has prices listed 

http://gekgasifier.com/gasification-store/gasifier-genset-skids/

Also click around the site for some ready made or kits for vehicle retrofits.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I think the DOE has free plans for wood powered generators.


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## allisonhome (Dec 1, 2011)

Interesting.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Yahoo has an active wood-gas group. There is a fellow in Alabama who is pretty famous for his wood gas stuff. Like any technology, there are some problems - bridging of the fire, slow startup procedure, etc.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

the only way a cop would care is if you where speeding or going to slow. 
Now a Tax collector that be different. 
As far as I know there is no particular legal requirement as to how a vehicle is fueled.
the only thing I can think of is propane fueled vehicles and DOT approved systems.

One guy trying to promote wood gas drove his truck cross country. and built a couple others. 

there a lot of wood fueled vehicles here. just look at you tube. 

Problem is though its going to end up like WVO or "BIO Diesel" or really Napster for the matter. Once the mass's adopt it, the value of that wood will go up and those its hiting in the pockets will figure a way to get their cut through regulation and manipulation.

Its not for everyone either.Here I could support a home generator and vehicle from dead fall alone.
Out on the plains be a bit different. there are folks playing with other Bio Mass options.
I sort of wonder how corn would work in one? A lot of folks are using wood pellets in their units. if corn would work , may be a savings over the pellet manufacture or ethanol process now employed.


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## Joshua Tree (Jan 5, 2011)

fishhead said:


> I think the DOE has free plans for wood powered generators.


This link shows how to construct a wood gasifier for powering internal combustion engines. 

www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/fema.woodgas.pdf

Biomass gasification is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to biomass based fuels (liquid, gaseous and slurry). There are also a myriad of ways to convert these fuels into shaft power and/or heat.

Be warned: The 'blue gas' or 'Holzgas' created by this process contains a substantial amount of deadly caronmonoxide, so be warned. Also, plan on changing your engine oil more frequently if you make one.


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## sevenmmm (Mar 1, 2011)

woodsy said:


> Seeing some home wood gas electric supply units from different mfgs.
> 
> This one has prices listed
> 
> ...


Very interesting. I now wonder if it would take tire chips.


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