next meeting in slovenia…i start with pasquali a month before, with tent and a bath tub for coaling during the way…
italian- german- english speaker, but unfortunately no slovenian and swedish…
I really want to meet you guy’s, i checked some distance on Google maps a while ago-i don’t think i make that trip on wood though
But if i don’t buy tools and chainsaws for the money i save on gasoline, maybe some day wife and i buy a cheap mobile home…
I wonder how many Americans speak any language other than English. When I was young you were required to have two years of some language to get into college I think. I had three years of German and now may be able to wish you a good day. Of course I also studied and could read music. Now a distant memory as well. I don’t remember when a second language was taken out of the schools here. I know none of my kids took one. I think they were taught more important things like there are more than two genders. No. I guess that science was discovered in the last few years.
Most colleges require a year of foreign language.
German was used a LOT when you were younger for scientific papers but that has changed.
whether anyone can speak a lick of foreign language after 50 years probably hasn’t changed unless they have a reason to use it.
Language skills fascinates me. We can drive 10 hours in any direction and there’s no reason for anything but Swedish. Even in Denmark, Norway and on Finland’s westcoast Swedish works well - or you can always fill in with English. I took 5 years of German in school but never hear it, so my level is probably similar to Tom’s after 40 years of no practice. I would probably have more use for Arabic
Johan and I talked about the meetup possibilities and came to the conclusion that maybe one northern meetup and one southern would be easier. People from the south could fly in and be picked up - and vice versa. Probably even cheaper than several days of traveling. Just an idea.
OH!! I knew you guys had a super top Secret gasifier you were working on! I couldn’t figure out what it was until now! Let me know how the conversion of the airplane to wood gas goes. Make sure you get a video.
Some thoughts on the comparison of charcoal gasification compared to wood gasification:
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charcoal is gasified by an oxidation process, where the charcoal burns directly near the air nozzle into CO2 at a high temperature, which is then converted into CO in the hot zone. Here we can see that half of the available energy of the charcoal is actually used. The efficiency of the process can be improved somewhat by returning the “waste” heat by directly preheating the fresh air and producing steam. It is essential to return the high temperature to the process, i.e. infrared radiation and the energy of the hot gases, which come directly from the hot process, and use the lower temperature to produce steam. It would be interesting to test the theory of “ideal” humidification of the inlet, by sucking it through water heated to about 80°C with bubbling.
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charcoal has a specific energy density of about 8 kWh per 1kg, if the theory of losing half of this energy in the “classic” gasifier process holds, we get 4kWh of energy in the form of gas into the engine, but the engine can produce
maybe a little more than 1/3 of the useful energy, which would mean about 1.5 kWh/1 kg of charcoal, well, if we compare this with the gasification of wood, where the result is 1 kWh/1kg of wood. -
Now let’s look at the entire process of obtaining charcoal from wood and using it to power the engine.
From 100 kg of wood (400 kWh of energy) we get 15 kg of charcoal (120 kWh), here the efficiency is 30%. From these 15 kg in the engine we produce 22.5 kWh of useful energy, which means 5.6% of the initial energy of the wood, if we compare this with the wood gasifier, where the efficiency is 25%, the ratio between these two methods is 1: 4.5 in favor of wood.
I apologize for the long contribution, but I will try to draw a sketch of the gasifier with improved efficiency in the coming days …
let us turn back to gasifiers ( good joke from sean, that leads to gasifying again) in the coal gasifier the heat is from itself very high, so from my modest insight preheated primary air is contraproductive, in opposite to a wood gasifier where you should keep most heat as possible inside, will say by heat exchangers ecc…
we try actually with steam addition from the nozzle cooling system, the result is without steam addition i get a slag ball in size of a lemon, with steam addition a crunchy slag that falls in pieces…the steam cooles the fire a bit, i read somewhere optimal temperature is 800 degree celsius…
other experiment is with the wet horse hair filter, the gas reverser is under water level and in this way dust is partially washed out , other dust remains in the filter hair, and the filter is kept in constant humidity…this system but requires for starting a bypass system- see the video- otherwise the ventilator is not able to pull the gas through the water, when the motor starts, we close the bypass walve…
another advantage is that i can clean the filter in the filter housing without taking the material out, only washing with water what escapes at the bottom valve…
we have not noticed less power with this system.
actually we prepare pieces for another diesel engine modification, same lombardini-pasquali as the other.
the conversion was so successful that we looked for another pasquali…here we will try original compression and see how it will run
@giorgio I would like to see a photograph of your water cooled nozzle.
@Tone , I notice that I don’t have to cut wood specifically to make charcoal with. The charcoal is derived from waste wood, gathered from my son’s wood cutting operation. In this case, I believe the efficiency should be measured in the amount of time it takes me to load and unload the burner, and store the charcoal. I have to clean the wood cutting area anyway. Otherwise the waste piles up, and my son will move to a less cluttered location.
Also, do you have a picture of a water cooled nozzle?
If a high compression engine is operated with a throttle valve for power regulation, there is no problem with detonation (self-ignition), since it does not capture the full amount of combustible mixture, but when the load increases, the engine speed decreases, and the throttle valve opens, in this case the engine captures the full amount of mixture and if the CR is too high, knocking will occur. CO gas tolerates higher CR, but if it is mixed with hydrogen, knocking will occur.
All of this discussion in my mind can be broken down as Primary Factors; Secondary Factors, and even Tertiary (third level) Factors.
And these can swap levels of importance.
Let me explain.
I strongly believe Tones math analysis of the maximum potentials of raw-wood to fuel gas versus pre-made charcoal to fuel gas.
The experiences of many now though says on charcoal systems the nozzle materials destroying heat has required Cooling the air-jet/nozzles. Not more air preheating worsening the material failures.
So a secondary factor overrides a primary factor.
In my case only having poor coaling conifer trees; And upwards of 120 days a year in NO outside burning allowed (wildfire hazards and air pollution regulated trough five separate agencies) . . . these secondary factors dictate absolutely which direction I must go. Raw wood gasification.
And then as BruceJ. illustrates an overriding secondary factor will aways be the stepped labors needed from ground harvest to the fuel gas feeding the engine.
Who Is the labors? Who is sweating out the labor steps? Who is willing?
BruceJ. seems to be saying his son likes the lumber milling. Dealing with the resulting edging cut-offs and sawdust utilization, likes not-so-much.
So always; as in all things: it Depends. Depends. Depends.
Steve Unruh
Hi giorgio, how about a small hole where gas enters, just above water level, this hole should only be big enough to let gas, when using blower and on low idle, bypass without to much restriction.
When gas demand increases the small hole cant let all gas bypass, and most of gas passes through water.
I use this on my chevrolet cooler, where gas enters under water level, to bubble and “wet” the cooling pipes, there i have a 20mm hole just above water level, this is well enough for a stable idle.
When standing still, and hit the throttle bubbling could be heared in the water tank.
For your engine i think a 10mm hole would work as “automatic” bypass.
göran, also when all gas goes through under water level, there is no problem with idling, i think because of the strong suction of the modyfied diesel motor…and all gas must go through the water for cleaning…the motor is so strong we mostly go with low rpm, higher speed is inconvenient with our stone streets and without pneumatic tires, but the engine has fast gears also, maybee thought for racing on the asphalt…where we but cannot drive because of the modifications of the vehicle, when the cops find you, you pay a fine and the vehicle goes sequestred ,
bruce, in my topic from the motorcultivator there are fotos of the nozzle during building…also in the topic “transmission belt from tires…” of my stationary gasifier are fotos of building a horizontal positioned water cooled nozzle, this produces more steam because of less water flow as in the down slooped nozzle of the motorcultivator- pasquali gasifier…( same gasifier for 3 engines , in the moment)
do you like to build one?
water consumption is really very low, no stress with controlling during work
@bruce here the downslooped nozzle in the pasquali gasifier…in best conditions, also the hearth metall (1mm thick only)
starterbypass on the wet filter
the valve with the black handle is for filter cleaning…right behind is the cap for the water level in the filter (inside the gas reverser goes down with a curve)
repeating the work again for diesel conversion to 100% chargas…throttle block and regulation connection on the new pasquali
today the machine got iron wheels…
Today I tried to find out at what temperature the autoignition of wood gas occurs, well, again there is no real data, because the composition of wood gas is not precisely determined, but it ranges from about 500 to 600°C.
Let me break this down a bit:
- CO2 …600°C
- H2…530°C
- CH4…530°C
Since wood gas can contain some water vapor and nitrogen, this slightly raises the autoignition temperature. When calculating the final temperature when compressing this mixture and air, it is necessary to take into account the initial temperature of these gases and the engine temperature, so I actually come to the result that CR 1:12 is the extreme limit for safe and long-term operation of engines running on wood gas. A theoretical calculation for CR 1:17 would yield a result over 600° C (close to 700 °C), which is undoubtedly too much. It is only possible to operate such an engine safely if we ensure that the pressure in the suction line is below 0.8 bar.