# My Little Charcoal Gasifier



## justallan (Jan 29, 2018)

I've been mildly interested in wood gasification for quite awhile now and for whatever reason got to reading up on it quite a bit and decided to give it a go. Gasification is basically building a fire in an enclosed tank or vessel and using the exhaust from that fire as fuel for a gasoline engine. It does work, check it out.
I started with what's called a Simple Fire" which burns charcoal rather than wood.
Here's what I came up with. Notice that the generator has no gas tank and in the video the rubber tube I point to is the line that should be going to the fuel tank.

Reactions: EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 9


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## David Van Asperen (Jan 29, 2018)

Fueled some interest here

Reactions: Like 2 | Funny 1


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## gman2431 (Jan 29, 2018)

Holy Eustace.... Lol! 

Cool man!

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 1


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## CWS (Jan 29, 2018)

Must be lonely out on the range. A lot of time to think. Very very cool.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 1


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## Lou Currier (Jan 29, 2018)

A good skill to have for when the world goes to crap.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Tony (Jan 29, 2018)

That is too cool Allan! You could power your tools with your offcuts! Tony

Reactions: Agree 2


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## rocky1 (Jan 29, 2018)

Yeah, being able to run your generator on wood is a nifty trick. 

Any modifications necessary to the carburetor?


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## justallan (Jan 29, 2018)

rocky1 said:


> Yeah, being able to run your generator on wood is a nifty trick.
> 
> Any modifications necessary to the carburetor?



This one runs on charcoal which is plenty simple to make. The wood gasifiers are a LOT more complex than this, but you can run a truck on them.....HMMM!
The only modification I did on the generator was seal the air filter box and plumb the incoming gas into that. I should get some better pictures, but basically I have a "T" coming out of the air filter box with one leg of it for the incoming gas from the gasifier and one leg it to draw in oxygen. I put an old faucet on it to regulate the mixture.
I used a 12 volt mattress pump to draw from the gasifier and get it started, then shut it off and let the draw from the engine pull what it needs to run.
My plan for this is to put it on a riding mower, 'cause I can.
I've been asked if I am a survivalists and if I'm a prepper. Nope, but I'd be pretty darned popular if things did go to crap.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2 | Funny 5


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## rocky1 (Jan 29, 2018)

Yep... You will be everyone's best friend when the defecation contacts the rotary mechanism! No doubt!!

Reactions: Funny 3


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## justallan (Jan 29, 2018)

My girlfriend thinks I should just go ahead and box this one up and stash in the corner of the garage. LOL

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Rich P. (Jan 30, 2018)

Allen, that is pretty cool. I never realized you could a motor on combustion from a fire. I understand the the compression and combustion process of a motor but who would think of an external fire for fuel.

RichP

Reactions: Like 1


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## justallan (Jan 30, 2018)

Rich P. said:


> Allen, that is pretty cool. I never realized you could a motor on combustion from a fire. I understand the the compression and combustion process of a motor but who would think of an external fire for fuel.
> 
> RichP



I'd never gave it much thought up until recently, but on forest fires you will sometimes see the air itself seem to actually light on fire. Turns out it was a pocket of unburned gasses that just happened to get just the right amount of oxygen and a spark and "whoosh!"
I imagine someone noticed something similar and got to thinking.......
There is a great site called "drivingonwood" that is some very neat reading material, a forum and free plans for these things.


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## ClintW (Jan 30, 2018)

Very cool! My cousins build one to run an wood to power a generator. I think they threw it in the truck one day for awhile too. Was pretty neat but he had to fill it with wood chips, so that meant chipping the wood first. Too much work he said. Eventually went diesel and runs some things on recycled veggie oil. Pretty neat though if you have time to tinker, I wish we made use of these waste products more readily than just dumping at the landfill.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## justallan (Jan 30, 2018)

ClintW said:


> Very cool! My cousins build one to run an wood to power a generator. I think they threw it in the truck one day for awhile too. Was pretty neat but he had to fill it with wood chips, so that meant chipping the wood first. Too much work he said. Eventually went diesel and runs some things on recycled veggie oil. Pretty neat though if you have time to tinker, I wish we made use of these waste products more readily than just dumping at the landfill.



I'd sure agree that it would be a huge amount of time used feeding the thing and definitely not worth the effort for anything other than a hobby in my day to day life, but for the folks trying to go off grid or those that have the time to do something like this, it's free money.
There are guys that use sawdust, pellets, charcoal and wood. The wood gasifiers can use 2-3" chunks, so you could ideally make enough fuel in a day to last you a month.
I just find it interesting and between buying a house, a shop, and getting new teeth I was just to darned broke to buy a new toy this winter.

Reactions: Funny 1 | Way Cool 1


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## Mike Hill (Jan 30, 2018)

Back in the 70's and Carter's "gas crisis" (before they sold out to commercialism), Mother Earth News had an article about a guy who built a wood gasifier on his truck and pulled a trailer of wood across the country (ocean to ocean) a couple of times. Granddad, got to travel the world with the Army in WWI and WWII. He told me about all the wood fueled cars that were in Europe in the 30's.

Reactions: Way Cool 2


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## justallan (Jan 30, 2018)

I've read about the ones built during the wars long ago and there are sure some interesting machines.
I haven't read the article about the truck that was built for Mother Earth News, but have heard quite a bit about it. Right now it sounds like a guy named Wayne Keith from somewhere down south is the authority on consistently driving long distances. He's a great guy and is a huge help on his site for helping folks out with their projects.


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## ripjack13 (Jan 30, 2018)

Very cool....

Reactions: Like 1


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## barry richardson (Jan 30, 2018)

That's brilliant! Curious how you start and keep the fire going in the tank?

Reactions: Like 1


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## justallan (Jan 30, 2018)

barry richardson said:


> That's brilliant! Curious how you start and keep the fire going in the tank?



Barry, I have an inline 12 volt mattress pump that I've turned way down to create draw on the gasifier. You could use a mechanical bellows pump if don't have a battery handy. At the beginning of the video I show the fire through an inlet hole in the lower section of the barrel. What you do is start drawing with the air pump and light it through the inlet port. After the fire is going you then fire up your engine and turn off the air pump. Your engine will create the suction to pull more air into the inlet port, keeping your fire going. The "fire" in the gasifier isn't a fire at all, but a bed of embers that stays lit by the air that is drawn into the system. So basically it's a self governing system, within reason.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Strider (Feb 3, 2018)

Good work, sir! A nifty trick indeed! Do you have issues with overheating the pump or tubes?

And you have the exact voice I imagine, looking at your avatar! :D

Reactions: Funny 1


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## rocky1 (Feb 3, 2018)

He doesn't sound nearly as sexy as his Avatar, but that's like a 20 year old picture of him!

Reactions: Funny 2


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## justallan (Feb 4, 2018)

Strider said:


> Good work, sir! A nifty trick indeed! Do you have issues with overheating the pump or tubes?
> 
> And you have the exact voice I imagine, looking at your avatar! :D


I only run the pump long enough to get burnable gas, then the draw from the generator engine runs it. I do need to add a filter though to catch charcoal dust. As for overheating, if you pull to much air through it to fast it will build the "fireball" and create lots more heat. Some of these are made with dust cyclones and cooling tubes.
Another trick is to pipe some of the exhaust from the engine back to the air inlet on the gasifier. Since exhaust gas is C02 it's not flammable, so mixing part C02 with your oxygen going into the fire is giving you the airflow needed to feed the engine, but limiting the oxygen needed to make the fire bigger. I've only read about this part of it all, but may try it in the future.




rocky1 said:


> He doesn't sound nearly as sexy as his Avatar, but that's like a 20 year old picture of him!



That's just wrong!
To be fair though I've recently had all of my teeth pulled and haven't shaved in a month. Hell, I'd almost bet I'm safe out in the oil patch even, but I'm not trying to go find out.

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Strider (Nov 18, 2018)

How is the gasifier working out for you?


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## justallan (Nov 18, 2018)

Strider said:


> How is the gasifier working out for you?


I tried starting it some time in the spring it seems and it wasn't happening. I believe the charcoal that I made took in some moisture and just isn't acting right. It will light, but takes a bunch of vacuum to make it keep going.
While processing an elk a couple days ago I was telling some friends about it, showed them the video and they want to get together and tinker with it and we may go ahead and put it on the riding mower.
Winter is getting close, so it may actually happen.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Strider (Nov 19, 2018)

Getting close? Is MT also affected with the lack of cold?

Anyway, I've been spending time browsing vids like this. My fingers are itchy.

Reactions: Great Post 1


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