Thread: Wood Gas for stationary engines.

Originally Posted by bee utey

Have you considered steam? Try this mob:

STEAM ENGINE MANUFACTURERS

I have heard good things about this mob.

I'm ten to fifteen minutes from Goolwa at the moment. Think I'll pop in for a looksee.

Originally Posted by bee utey

Have you considered steam? Try this mob:

STEAM ENGINE MANUFACTURERS

I have heard good things about this mob.

I've often thought that steam power had a certain appeal, relative quietness being one. I can't get my welding, grinding , drilling etc over and done with fast enough with that bleedin noisey Briggs and Stratton hammering away in close proximity to my work station.
Wagoo.

Hi wagoo,

I had some experience a few years back when I was involved in some research revolving around wood gasification etc. You are correct, it is old technology but with a few refinements it can be a very functional piece of kit in the righ location. There is still lots of research going on in a few locations, principally in relation to developing countries revolving around wood suitability trials and platation work etc.

First experience involved an old Fiat van from the commune I stayed on periodically with wood gasifier on the back fuelling the engine. I was too young to appreciate it at the time so paid little heed to the inner workings. Needless to say, it travelled well and with a few stops to gather wood, travelled long. This was in the late 70's and early 80's.

The second involvement was slightly more recent, 1999. Check out Doug Williams website - Fluidyne Gasification and a PDF document that may be of interest out of LaTrobe Uni. Loads of links from Doug's site. Last time I met Doug was at a large rock festival (Sweetwaters 1999) in NZ where we (two of us from Massey University) connected our converted Datsun 120Y motor onto his gasifier and ran it on offcuts from one of his neighbouring furnture joinery factories on a variety of timbers. All timber was very dry as you would expect from a joiners factory. The motor was a re-tuned Datsun 120Y motor with intake converted to run on gas. This 120Y motor ran a genset which powered the main display marquee housing all the usual weird and wonderful stuff found at such events. My memory of the details of this gasifier and our motor is jaded now after 20-odd years of different work.

Another link you may be interested in if not already in the know of it - Bioenergy Lists - Gasifiers and Gasification. Loads of links off this one and it is a forum type environment once signed up etc.

For further research into such a technical topic, abandon Google and use Scirus. This search engine is specifically orientated to searching scientific and technical websites etc. Many of the websites referring to journal articles will cost to download the article but if you live within an easy travel to a University library, take the reference for the journal and see if they have it on their shelf and photocopy the article. other websites will obviously still be freely accessible. A quick search using the term "wood gasification" yielded 6,825 Journal articles, 5,373 other websites including research centres, and 27,000 other websites.

Good luck

Cheers, Phil

Your 6KVA generator sounds like a bit of a dinosaur. I suggest a little Honda is better for charging batteries, then a bigger inverter to run the shed. Then your steam/producer gas generator can be smaller as you mainly use the batteries as surge levelling.

The other thing to do is banish the briggs to a dog house lined with rock wool blankets. My mate built a portable sound cover for his briggs so he could power the local Safety House trailer at fairs. Worked a treat.

This site : Power Pallets: Integrated Gasifier-Genset Skids Gasifier Experimenters Kit
Advertises a complete gassifier and generator on a pallet. Interesting idea, shame about the price. I can't imagine shipping would be cheap either.

Still, worth a look if you're interested in this stuff.

Originally Posted by bee utey

Your 6KVA generator sounds like a bit of a dinosaur. I suggest a little Honda is better for charging batteries, then a bigger inverter to run the shed. Then your steam/producer gas generator can be smaller as you mainly use the batteries as surge levelling.

The other thing to do is banish the briggs to a dog house lined with rock wool blankets. My mate built a portable sound cover for his briggs so he could power the local Safety House trailer at fairs. Worked a treat.

Not really a dinosaur, That's just the way Briggs and Stratton are.Crude, noisey but reliable and easily serviced or repaired.The 240 volt alternator is belt driven off it at 3000rpm.I run the engine at 1000RPM to drive a Bosch 85amp alternator through a step up pair of pulleys to charge a bank of 6x100amp deep cycle batteries.A small Honda may be better but fuel consumption and noise of the B and S at 1000rpm when charging batteries is not a great concern.
I've got a load of used bricks to build a dog house for the gen set but a portable sound cover is a good idea as this unit is trailer mounted.
wagoo.

PS, what is rock wool? (asbestos?).are the blankets available still?

Originally Posted by wagoo

PS, what is rock wool? (asbestos?).are the blankets available still?

The stuff used in R1.5 wall batts. Glass fibre insulation, used to be called rock wool. Not sure why. Used to come in rolled up in blankets, probably when it was thinner than today. Try an insulation specialist for some fire and noise retardant insulation.

Originally Posted by bee utey

The stuff used in R1.5 wall batts. Glass fibre insulation, used to be called rock wool. Not sure why. Used to come in rolled up in blankets, probably when it was thinner than today. Try an insulation specialist for some fire and noise retardant insulation.

its called rock wool because its fibres made from rock melted down and turned to fibres, it looks like fibreglass but because its rock, it can withstand temps of up to 1100c.

I dont know if these guys sell them yet but about 10 years ago I went and visited Ted Pritchard at his house, he was in his mid 70's then and has scince passed away. He made a steam car and then moved to steam generators. This comany seems to have taken his company on and are looking to sell steam generators. Probably much more efficient than coal gas.

Uniflow Power Ltd - Renewable Energy and Resource Efficiency