Yeah, I am going there!
It seems like woodgas is awesome, yet has two huge drawbacks. Fuel, and fuel processing!
Wood chip gasifiers require alot of wood processing to get uniform wood to burn as fuel. They also have some tar issues for longterm use in ICE.
With gasifiers you also have alot of heat being put off that has no value unless captured for heating or such
Charcoal gasifiers seem to solve tar issue, but How do you get charcoal? If you buy it your burning your wallet, and if you make it, then its worth more to just sell to someone instead of using it.
However, steam, you just take all your wood and throw it in a boiler, chunked, wet, dry, or whatever. No huge amount of processing, as well as no need to make charcoal. You are using all that woodgas for more heat to create steam. ICE cannot run on steam, at least not for any reasonable amounts of time.
Why is steam powered not looked at more closely? I feel like it solves many issues. I know you cant run your vehicle stock with steam, but this would be more of stationary unit for electrification.