Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

[Kernopelli]

I am currently building a gasifier to run a generator using Ben Perterson's book Wood Gasifier Builder's Bible: Off Grid Fuel for the Prepared Homestead: Wood Gas in Minutes: Peterson, Ben: 9798633811865: Amazon.com: Books

I will be sticking with a gas/LP engine but he does state you can use wood gas to power a diesel but he doesn't give it much attention/input but he states it can be done by fueling with 20% diesel/80% wood gas mix.

 

[etpm]

I am currently building a gasifier to run a generator using Ben Perterson's book Wood Gasifier Builder's Bible: Off Grid Fuel for the Prepared Homestead: Wood Gas in Minutes: Peterson, Ben: 9798633811865: Amazon.com: Books

I will be sticking with a gas/LP engine but he does state you can use wood gas to power a diesel but he doesn't give it much attention/input but he states it can be done by fueling with 20% diesel/80% wood gas mix.

Please let us know how well it works for you. Wood gasifiers still seem to me to be one of last ditch solutions for energy. I wonder how they compare overall to growing an oil producing crop and using that oil straight in a Lister type diesel engine. Once established trees require less tending than some sort of oil seed crop and don't need to be harvested every year. In fact, the trees may already be full grown woods that take care of themselves completely. But they still need to be cut down, sawn up, and then split and dried. And there is still the waste from distilling wood. How is that dealt with responsibly? Seed crops need to be pressed but at least the leftover stuff can be fed to livestock or just used as fertilizer.
Eric

 

[Blue hood]

etpm

I don't know your needs but growing an oil producing crop like canola is a lot of work and probably could yield around 95 to 240 gal. per acre. Even if you get lucky using it to fuel your Yanmar it will burn it in about 200 hours (1.2 GPH) in summer, in winter you will need to hit.

To develop my project I'm trying to use a wood gas generator to burn the biomass as fuel because I already have the raw material at almost zero cost.

By the way, MossRoad sent an excelent link that will give you a good idea of efficient wood gas generators.

GEK Wiki / Run an Engine with the GEK

wiki.gekgasifier.com

 

[etpm]

etpm

I don't know your needs but growing an oil producing crop like canola is a lot of work and probably could yield around 95 to 240 gal. per acre. Even if you get lucky using it to fuel your Yanmar it will burn it in about 200 hours (1.2 GPH) in summer, in winter you will need to hit.

To develop my project I'm trying to use a wood gas generator to burn the biomass as fuel because I already have the raw material at almost zero cost.

By the way, MossRoad sent an excelent link that will give you a good idea of efficient wood gas generators.

GEK Wiki / Run an Engine with the GEK

wiki.gekgasifier.com

I guess I wasn't clear. I am only curious about modern woodgas vs oil seed for powering a simple diesel engine, I'm not gonna do either. I did notice, according to the link you posted, that you will need to use at least 200 pounds of biomass per hour to run your tractor. And it looks like the unit will be so big i wonder where you will put it?
Eric

 

[MossRoad]

I guess I wasn't clear. I am only curious about modern woodgas vs oil seed for powering a simple diesel engine, I'm not gonna do either. I did notice, according to the link you posted, that you will need to use at least 200 pounds of biomass per hour to run your tractor. And it looks like the unit will be so big i wonder where you will put it?
Eric

I think you're reading the chart wrong. It doesn't look like it says 200 pounds of biomass per hour. It looks like it says 200cubic meters of biogas (smoke).

1 ton, or 2000# of biomass to equal about 100 gallons of liquid fuel.
200# to equal 10 gallons of fuel
20# to equal 1 gallon of fuel.

So if a tractor burns 1 gallon of liquid fuel per hour, you'd need 10# of biomass per hour.

At least that's the way I'm reading it.

 

[etpm]

I think you're reading the chart wrong. It doesn't look like it says 200 pounds of biomass per hour. It looks like it says 200cubic meters of biogas (smoke).

1 ton, or 2000# of biomass to equal about 100 gallons of liquid fuel.
200# to equal 10 gallons of fuel
20# to equal 1 gallon of fuel.

So if a tractor burns 1 gallon of liquid fuel per hour, you'd need 10# of biomass per hour.

At least that's the way I'm reading it.

From the link the Rule of Thumb was 2 pounds is about equal to 1 HP hour. His tractor is at least 100 HP. So he will need to use about 200 pounds of biomass per hour.
Eric

 

[Blue hood]

etpm

What could work for me may not necessarily work for somebody else, building up the reservoir dozing dirt or moving it with a dump trailer as in land clearing, being repetitive short distances chores that involve round trips, (point A to point A every 10 minutes or so) ), to have a large generator's hopper to carry big biomass loads isn't necessary.
I have to build the gas generator around the crawler tractor's heavy duties not the other way around. Logistics.
Later I could disassemble it and used as a regular diesel crawler if it takes the beat.

 

[etpm]

etpm

What could work for me may not necessarily work for somebody else, building up the reservoir dozing dirt or moving it with a dump trailer as in land clearing, being repetitive short distances chores that involve round trips, (point A to point A every 10 minutes or so) ), to have a large generator's hopper to carry big biomass loads isn't necessary.
I have to build the gas generator around the crawler tractor's heavy duties not the other way around. Logistics.
Later I could disassemble it and used as a regular diesel crawler if it takes the beat.

I certainly hope it all works out for you. The link you posted had a lot of information. But if you go this route please be aware that some stuff suggested on the site is truly half-assed. If using a spark plug in a diesel the site says that spark plugs threads are usually pretty close in size to injector thread sizes and a spark plug can be forced to work. The site even mentioned press fitting a spark plug into a Lister diesel engine. They didn't think it would work because the Lister engine used indirect injection. It did work after all and the author was surprised. I was surprised that they would press fit a spark plug into an engine. This method would not seal against compression very well. The spark plug would probably blow out in a short period of time. And replacing the plug would ruin the pres fit for the next spark plug. And why on earth would anybody ruin a good engine with this method unless it was an emergency. So please be careful in how you use information from this site.

Eric

 

[Jchonline]

How to make a million dollars: First, start with a million dollars...

If you can't afford $60K on your project then you can't afford the lifestyle you want to become accustomed to. Erase any notions of such dreams and go rent a small apartment in town.

If you still have champagne tastes then marry a rich woman to be your sugar momma.

Man I love your posts Mike!

 

[Jchonline]

Just how often do you have to add wood? Does it matter if it is green? I assume so as it would not burn as hot if it was. If it needs to be dry then you better get started. In Florida it will probably take 2 years for the moisture content to drop below 15%....

Heck I would watch a DIY thread on this just to see if it works...but I would not try it myself.

Have you gotten bids to have a contractor do the work?