Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

[Blue hood]

I guess I have received more negative responses before questions have been asked in regard to the equipment and/or the project itself, so now I will be clear giving more details I first thought were irrelevant.

In regard to the Cat D4D crawler tractor, I still haven't purchased it, and yes, it has been rebuilt and upgraded with a bigger engine. It's an old iron but is in excellent condition.
There are a few bigger crawlers (D5 180 HP), but I don't think that I should go over what I need, even if they only cost 20% more.

If I'm going to use a wood gas generator as a fuel alternative I would rather install it on a pre-computer crawler than a newer one for obvious reasons. The additional weight around the heavy crawler will not make any performance difference. Actually it will give me more ground pressure and stability.
Another advantages of the crawler is worldly common, easy to maintain and repair

The new wood gas generators aren't the ones used to be, now they are cleaner and more efficient (EU) .
I'm looking in the USA for who couldt custom build it using the same technology.

In regard to the TBN member who asked me why I don't buy or make a biodiesel generator. Is a good question, actually, was my first choice, but where the project it's going to take place, (abroad), it will be impossible to collect 55 gallons of restaurant fryer oil daily, and to grow canola to get clean oil. I would rather stay away from that business.
As I said, I already have tons of raw material that I could burn in the wood gas generator

Please send me some information if you know about some wood gas generator builder.

Thanks again and I'm sorry if there was something misunderstood.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

I'm afraid your DIY gassifyer will eat up all the time you'd planned for your project.

 

[MossRoad]

I guess I have received more negative responses before questions have been asked in regard to the equipment and/or the project itself, so now I will be clear giving more details I first thought were irrelevant.

In regard to the Cat D4D crawler tractor, I still haven't purchased it, and yes, it has been rebuilt and upgraded with a bigger engine. It's an old iron but is in excellent condition.
There are a few bigger crawlers (D5 180 HP), but I don't think that I should go over what I need, even if they only cost 20% more.

If I'm going to use a wood gas generator as a fuel alternative I would rather install it on a pre-computer crawler than a newer one for obvious reasons. The additional weight around the heavy crawler will not make any performance difference. Actually it will give me more ground pressure and stability.
Another advantages of the crawler is worldly common, easy to maintain and repair

The new wood gas generators aren't the ones used to be, now they are cleaner and more efficient (EU) .
I'm looking in the USA for who couldt custom build it using the same technology.

In regard to the TBN member who asked me why I don't buy or make a biodiesel generator. Is a good question, actually, was my first choice, but where the project it's going to take place, (abroad), it will be impossible to collect 55 gallons of restaurant fryer oil daily, and to grow canola to get clean oil. I would rather stay away from that business.
As I said, I already have tons of raw material that I could burn in the wood gas generator

Please send me some information if you know about some wood gas generator builder.

Thanks again and I'm sorry if there was something misunderstood.

It sounds like your trying to talk yourself into ignoring the obvious.

Let's say the wood gasifier you go with is clean (it's not). You'll still get considerably less power than you would with diesel fuel. Gasifiers were common during WWII because the petroleum-based fuels were going towards the war effort. So people made the gasifiers to get SOME work out of their machines. It wasn't optimum power. It was bare necessity power.

You're also not putting a monetary value on your time. I'd guess, based on my own experiences with heating out house with firewood for the past 10-12 years, that you could get a part time job at minimum wage and work fewer hours to make enough money to pay for diesel fuel than the hours you will spend harvesting and making the wood fuel for your gasifier. Don't forget the standing around time waiting for it to heat up, the time you'll have to spend cleaning it out, etc. It's all additional time you'll be spending VS just filling it up in 5-10 minutes and going again.

How large is this thing going to have to be, and where will you mount it on a dozer where it will not interfere with your operator's vision, clearance on whatever side or end of the machine you decide to install it on, plumbing to the engine compartment, etc.?

If you make a smaller unit, you'll be stopping to add wood more often.

It just doesn't seem financially reasonable if you put a value on your time. I don't see the ROI (Return On Investment) in 2000 hours of operation.

 

[etpm]

I guess I have received more negative responses before questions have been asked in regard to the equipment and/or the project itself, so now I will be clear giving more details I first thought were irrelevant.

In regard to the Cat D4D crawler tractor, I still haven't purchased it, and yes, it has been rebuilt and upgraded with a bigger engine. It's an old iron but is in excellent condition.
There are a few bigger crawlers (D5 180 HP), but I don't think that I should go over what I need, even if they only cost 20% more.

If I'm going to use a wood gas generator as a fuel alternative I would rather install it on a pre-computer crawler than a newer one for obvious reasons. The additional weight around the heavy crawler will not make any performance difference. Actually it will give me more ground pressure and stability.
Another advantages of the crawler is worldly common, easy to maintain and repair

The new wood gas generators aren't the ones used to be, now they are cleaner and more efficient (EU) .
I'm looking in the USA for who couldt custom build it using the same technology.

In regard to the TBN member who asked me why I don't buy or make a biodiesel generator. Is a good question, actually, was my first choice, but where the project it's going to take place, (abroad), it will be impossible to collect 55 gallons of restaurant fryer oil daily, and to grow canola to get clean oil. I would rather stay away from that business.
As I said, I already have tons of raw material that I could burn in the wood gas generator

Please send me some information if you know about some wood gas generator builder.

Thanks again and I'm sorry if there was something misunderstood.

Could you please post a link or two about the new and improved gasifiers? All that I know about them is from about 30 years ago. Back then nothing had really changed from WW2. Though they had been optimized some the gases produced were still a mix. This mix contained gases with different values as fuels. So the energy content of the gases produced varied widely. It also made a big difference which wood was used. Where is "abroad"? What kind of wood do you plan on using? Where will you dispose of the ash and how will you handle the ash? I'm really curious.
Thanks,
Eric

 

[etpm]

To the OP: I decided to look online to see what may have changed in wood gasifier technology. It looks like they do produce cleaner gas but the heavier components end up as "tar" that must be disposed of. How will you do this? Though diesel engines can be converted to run on methane the gas must be injected, not pre mixed with the air. And it still must be ignited with some other heat source besides the compressed air. Glow plug, spark plug, or diesel pilot. And this is for methane, which has 5 times the heat energy, by weight, of CO. And CO is the main gas produced by wood gasifiers. I did see one setup that converts the wood distillates to diesel fuel, or at least a diesel like fuel. 5kG wood for one liter of fuel. How are you planning to use the gasifier output to power your engine?
Eric

 

[Fixastuff]

It'll be pretty easy, go for it!

 

[MossRoad]

Read this...

GEK Wiki / Run an Engine with the GEK

Big engines don't do so well. They recommend small engines. The lager the engine, the more wood you'll need (duh), but in reality, you'll need way more than I think you realize.

Also, they discuss diesel applications. The smoke alone cannot ignite with just compression. You either have to keep running a small amount of diesel to set off the combustion, or remove the injectors and install spark plugs and some sort of timing system.

Geeeze it's going to be an incredibly hard and bothersome project just to convert it. Hats off to you if you can pull it off.

 

[Blue hood]

Could you please post a link or two about the new and improved gasifiers? All that I know about them is from about 30 years ago. Back then nothing had really changed from WW2. Though they had been optimized some the gases produced were still a mix. This mix contained gases with different values as fuels. So the energy content of the gases produced varied widely. It also made a big difference which wood was used. Where is "abroad"? What kind of wood do you plan on using? Where will you dispose of the ash and how will you handle the ash? I'm really curious.
Thanks,
Eric

 

[Blue hood]

Could you please post a link or two about the new and improved gasifiers? All that I know about them is from about 30 years ago. Back then nothing had really changed from WW2. Though they had been optimized some the gases produced were still a mix. This mix contained gases with different values as fuels. So the energy content of the gases produced varied widely. It also made a big difference which wood was used. Where is "abroad"? What kind of wood do you plan on using? Where will you dispose of the ash and how will you handle the ash? I'm really curious.
Thanks,
Eric

 

[Renze]

Make sure to document the project on film, so it can generate enough income on Youtube to let a contractor do the actual job, because you wont have time to do both...