Wood gasification

[antiquestuff]

Okay, this thread is about wood gasification. Other gases like propane, etc., may be a bit too pricey and we really need to stop using petroleum, so...I've gotten back into a topic I think is a good one. How to build a simple portable wood gasifier, just big enough to run a small gas burner for cooking and/or make some gas for old open flame gas fixtures? The process itself is simple enough, but, how to make something simple where the pressure can be regulated well, and how to store the gas? They used to use big rubber "bladders" to hold gas, but I doubt they are still available, and they had some dangers to them...

I had a thought, maybe a large pressure cooker (well, severl if need be) could be modified some to make the gasifier itself, as it is easy to take the lid off and load/unload with wood to gasify. Good idea or bad one?

Charcoal of course is the best heat source.

Well, any ideas....I think this is a good thing for many of us to work on. I'm interested in a small portable gasifier, others obviously will want a large one...

[Blu3duk]

while the site is promoting farming using producer gas it may give you an idea.

Lindsay Books has information on turn of the century [1900] Mathot designs, plus a fella built a destructive distillation device that produces coke for his forge book is 10 bux called Wood Into Charcoal and Electricity.... which is not what you are after, but could give you another idea....

One thing ive seen done is methane production for a gas stove using an inner tube, hose clamps and a line into a small RV type stovetop.... put garbage into the inner tube, clamp it shut.... hook line to the valvestem and into a regulator... then to the stove... place tube in the sun and away it produces.... have compost when its used up.... not the most efficient thing in the world but it works.

hope that helps you get to where you wanna be

William

[sylvar]

Have you seen the wood gasifier stoves? They don't capture the gas for later use, they use it right then. I am not sure how efficient a captured gas system would be. It takes heat to gasify the wood and if you use the gas right then you get to take advantage of that heat as well.

Still...It would be neat to build something like that. I think you could use a Pressure canner. You would probably need to fill the emergency release plug then run a copper tube from the steam vent to a vacuum pump of some sort. You are going to need a condenser to extract the steam, and a bubble filter to get other impurities out. You could probably get away with just the bubble filter. At that You could pressurize it just like a recaptured methane system, With a counter balanced tank in a larger tank of water. Sounds like a fun project for someone.

Shane

[Cyngbaeld]

http://journeytoforever.org/at_woodfire.html

[sylvar]

Excellent Site!

I especially liked this link:
http://www.gengas.nu/byggbes/index.shtml

The title is: Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines in a Petroleum emergency

How timely is that!

Shane

[antiquestuff]

Thanks for the links everyone--I'm gonna have to find some time here someday to do some experimenting with this (after I find a few parts that is)...I think it'll be a good thing to try!

[bearkiller]

Also go check out Moder Earth News archives. They built gassifiers to run a truck, others to run a genset.

I don't have the specific issues, but look in the archives.

bearkiller