I am considering a project of building a wood gasifier. Is anyone familiar with this science? I would prefer buying one but I haven't seen any for sale that are large enough to run a sizable generator. Having one of these will make my waste wood very valuable. Here is one of many websites on the suject if you are interested. http://www.windmeadow.com/node/46
Wood Gasifier
Comments
01/28/2008 - 16:17
old but unheard of
This technogly was used in the 40s during WWII and 70s during fuel crisis. It's funny how these types of energy sources just don't catch on. We are so stuck on oil. Again it looks pretty easy to build so I'm gonna give it a shot, but I'd rather buy it now! Maybe some of you entrepreneurial ought to give it a wirl.
03/18/2008 - 21:48
Wood Gasifier
I've sent for the downdraft gasifier plans put together by F.E.M.A. to run a 35HP tractor. I want to have one made to run a generator which will recharge a battery bank every few days, not run 24/7. I'll run the washer and dryer on battery charging days. So I'll want a generator that puts out 120 and 240volts. But how many kw? I think the batteries need to charge slowly so will a 4kw generator be good? I will have it all mounted on a small trailer so I will have power while building. I found a welder who will put together the gasifier, it just need to scale down the F.E.M.A. plans after I figure out what generator I need to run.
03/18/2008 - 23:53
Website for the wood gasifier plans?
Does a website exisit for obtaining those plans?
Wood gasification seems to be catching (back) on. It has many great uses. I've been looking into a gasification boiler as a source for hydronic heat.
Mother Earth News has an article in it's archive about wood gasification, though it's burried a bit. It's there article about a wood fired car/truck. Hmm... if you can convert a small car/truck engine, shouldn't be that hard to rig a generator (or heck, even off the car's alternator) to charge a battery bank). It would even be portable.
03/19/2008 - 01:09
Wood Gasifier Plans
I sent for mine through Biomass Energy Foundation, $23.00 with shipping. At one time the plans were free from F.E.M.A. but are out of print. Can you really charge a battery bank off a cars alternater? Would you connect a 3 prong plug to it and plug your car into the battery bank?
03/19/2008 - 09:28
Gaseous F.E.M.A
Here are the plans for the FEMA wood gas generator. Its near the bottom of the page.
( Construction of a simplified wood gas generator )
It comes in two flavors, HTML and PDF. The PDF is about 9MB download. They also
have a video of one in action.
03/20/2008 - 00:58
Wood Gasifier runs Generator
I found a video on you tube that illustrates the wood gasifier to electricity idea. I'll have it run a generator that you just plug into rather than that old (whatever it is) so I'll have power from wood while building then hook up a battery bank for it to charge when the house is done. On you tube look up "wood gassifier line synchronous generator pt1"
07/08/2009 - 22:50
Wood gasification
Here is a blog I found for a unit going into production at the end of this month at Victory gas works.
It's called the "Woody Off Gridder. This is a great site and very educational. There are many training videos.
Check it out. It looks like what I've been hoping for. We will see.
http://victorygasworks.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sneak-peak-woody-v-3-the-off
07/15/2009 - 16:34
So what are these things
So what are these things fueled with? If anything but wood (like propane), it would make more sense to use the fuel to run the generator (or whatever) directly and not encounter the inefficiencies of gassifying wood.
On a related note, i'd really like to build a steam engine with a couple power takeoffs. One could drive a generator and another any number of power tools. Would be a fun project.
07/15/2009 - 17:57
Article on the subject
http://www.woodgas.net/files/FEMA%20emergency%20gassifer.pdf
Not sure if this is the FEMA article discussed above, but it may be helpful.
The site upon which the document is located has basic information on the subject. It might answer some of the questions raised.
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-A
07/16/2009 - 04:53
Woodgasifing
In my case there is about 10 acres of wood laying around from a recent forest clearing project. It makes sense to me to put that "waste wood" to good use. I'll admit that gasifiers are still in a development stage since they were abandoned when oil became so available; so it is a bit experimental.
07/18/2009 - 01:39
of course
mdredmond wrote:
So what are these things fueled with? If anything but wood (like propane), it would make more sense to use the fuel to run the generator (or whatever) directly and not encounter the inefficiencies of gassifying wood.
a wood gassifier of course uses wood, or other biomass, as fuel. you burn the wood in an oxygen depleted environment, so you get partially burned gas. This process is called "cracking." This gas is then run directly into a gasoline (or even diesel, I believe) engine. you can replace the carb with a simple Y fitting with a ball-valve throttle on the air intake. I would mount this a foot or so away from the engine, to give the [wood] gasses a chance to mix with the air (oxygen). Only hydrocarbons used are for starting them in some designs.
There is an inherent loss of efficiency, though. you make a fair amount of heat, that is just wasted. You need the heat (and corresponding temperature) to make the thing work, otherwise you can't "crack" the cellulose.
However, they are working on fancy catalysts and enzymes that can do without these losses, and produce a viable liquid fuel from wood chips. I don't look for this to be a cheap or readily available method for running a post apocalyptic generator, however.
01/18/2010 - 04:56
Gasifiers availible for purchase
Go here for a unit that you can use in stationary applications:
http://woodygasifier.com/
Go here to get schooled in woodgas:
http://www.wood-gasification.com/page/gasification-101
Go here for a unit that you can purchase for mobile applications:
http://www.almostfreefuel.com/gasification.html
Joined: 2007-08-31