Nice Koen! Looks like you got your “ducks” in a row. I like how you lined everything up on the side. Easy to work on and leaves lots of room in the sidecar.
Hi Don,
Yes, all space in the side car is still available for normal purposes ( fried ducks ?)
Koen, you may have said already, but how is that you are in Thailand ? Very familiar with a small country east of there.
thanks,
carson
I left europe to be here where my wife lives…
Planning to stay…
Can control my work in europe from here, so no need for the stress there 
This beauty needs some gas…
Toyota diesel 2L series, 2.4 L
Driving a water pump on the picture… with a vacuum primer pump attached…
Rebuild as 100% gas or running at dual fuel ?
Alright Koen! I like your larger hopper. More fuel for a longer run time and a longer run time before the gas exit temps get too high. From what I see in the picture, the charcoal gas goes directly from the gas generator to the filter. I’ve found a small cyclone does a fair job of catching the larger particles of dust thus easing the load on you filter. You also mention sulfides. I am curious where the sulfur is coming from. This is not an issue with the wood I’m using but then I’m located in a temperate hardwood forest. What wood are you using that contains sulfur? Can you change to another wood that does not have it? Another question is does the process of making charcoal remove sulfur if it is present? Too many questions.
It is really nice to see you grabbing this charcoal bull by the horns and making useful applications. Keep it up!!!
Gary in PA
The coarse dust is retained by a first sponge in the cover on top of the gasifier, the white-grey powder is very fine, might be possible to trap that with a cyclone dough. Will try to build one with the same size PVC.
The sulfides , i presume that its H2s, are from the reaction of the hydrogen with “volatiles” in the gasification process.
In the “old” days it also was an issue with the coal gasification, they tend to use charcoal and “iron ore” to catch the H2s
“sticky” valves may also be the result of H2s , caused by the corrosion of the valve stem by the acid.
Using the gilmore style, having a high pile of charcoal above the reduction zone, retains not only the heat but in my opinion also function as an excellent filter.
In my latest tests i consumed the same amount of water as i did with charcoal ( 1 kg water with 1 kg charcoal ) filter stays powder dry…
Still a long way ahead of testing 
i am enjoying every minute of it.
Been asked now to start building series … for cooking only and to build a few for motorbike-tuktuk-quad…
Future looks good to keep me busy
Above post shows the engine they want to use with gas as well, lots to do…
The fun with charcoal will not end i guess…
One mayor project i am working on, looking for the components, is to make it completely automated.
Imagine a bike starting with ethanol and automatic switches to charcoal…
Next item to convince some people to use “charcoal” or “woodgas”
Road fatality’s are about 2.000.000 people a year ( average 28 / 100K )
People dying from particles from wood-fires are , numbers from WHO, 7.000.000 a year
So , better use the green waste as charcoal to cook and drive…
So we better teach the people to start building “simple fire systems”
Regards from Thailand and the water festival
And thanks for the moral support
Koen
Building on a larger test set, should be able to produce 15Hp-25Hp
Or just using it for producing cooking gas
Two tanks welded together
Researching the minimum height between nozzle tip and minimum layer of charcoal ( as where the heat exceeds a certain level ) for determine the final layouts.
The charcoal layer is also an excellent filter…
The white lumps, powder i experienced, can be calcium oxide, from certain minerals in the charcoal.
This set i want to test in dual fuel mode with the toyota engine from the earlier posting and working my way up, step by step.
For the motorbike startup and for the cooking aparatus, i am building ( experimenting) small low amps suction blowers
The one i used t’ill now , drains 4 amps . looks to be an over fed 6 VDC running on 12VDC to obtain the needed RPM
Now experimenting, need probaly an DC-DC upper to create more RPM if needed.
with moving to another house, ( living with the in-law parents now temporary, moved all my “scrap yard” there )
start building a house, working on the pine apple field i have, and tapping rubber at night…
but still working and testing with the fun of my life as well
picture one, the cooking gasifier
picture 2, mom in law cooking a meal for me with it ( staged picture )
going to test it soon
this little fella is going to drive the car generator ( 12V 30amps ) to charge my battery set
stripped the gasoline tank and carb…
engine is GX37
working on the shaft connection…
should be using it with the cooking gasifier…
looking at my setup with the heating coil made me conclude; ( i try to use as few words as possible, not native english )
the proximity from the coil, near the flame heat at the nozzle results in a kind of auto-balancing the temperature at the nozzle
if cool, less water gets evaporated, the air is more dense = more oxygen passes trough the nozzle = increasing the combustion temperature
Increasing the combustion = heating the coil more = heating the the air + generating more steam = air less dense = less oxygen passing the nozzle + more water vapor entering = decreasing the combustion temperature
Decreasing the combustion temperature = cooler in the coil… circle starts again
i keep playing with the temperature and will try to incorporate a temperature probe ( i think i will try some glow plug as been tried by some others already )
But it seems to work quit well…
.
Yes Mother can laugh the same, be it fewer times due to the hard labor she’s always putting up…
Glad to see you’r comments again and hope you keep them coming…
Warm, wet greetings from Thailand
Koen
Trying to kick in an open door i guess…
My findings, with my equipment;
Size does matter …
Depending the IC engine displacement ( gas flow volume needed ) i choose my nozzle size and charcoal grade.
Small gas flow volume = small sized nozzle + small grain charcoal
I will try to work out a chart with some numbers,
but as a rule off thumb: always keep your charcoal grain size smaller then your nozzle size. ( sounds stupid, i know, but it works for me )
This keeps the charcoal bed dense and keeps the heat in the feedstock
Charcoal is an perfect temperature isolator;
In my gasifier it cools about 1400°C down to ambient in less then 60 cm
Also the reactor walls stay below 500°C in less then 2" ( depending the gas volume of course )
Nothing makes a big boy more happy then the sound of an engine…
very interesting work you are doing with the charcoal and water injection Koen. Since my first run I have had no wet gas at all. I guess it was just not burning hot enough the first time. What is the largest engine you have charcoal run? Mine is 398 cc. using a simple fire with a 3/4" intake nozel and 1" output to a 11/4 carb intake. I see you use smaller nozel and was wondering on engine displacement. it seems mine is inline with gary’s and I belive he and I have simmalar sized engines. I am going to build a larger unit for my mower and put this one back on my moter bike project. I don’t know if I should use a larger or multiple nozels to reduce the restriction on the airflow to create more power . I also want to try adding water to make more power. I can and do mow in 2nd gear same as with gasoline but in tall grass I have to slow down to 1st gear
I suppose you will be wanting to run the alternator at 5000 rpm or more to get most of that 30 amps. Is that a weed-whip engine?
Pete Stanaitis
ya They sure need to spin fast to get the rated output, but they will charge a battery pretty fast even at less than full power.
@ Jim, i use small engines so far. Biggest is 220cc, 200 cc, 160 cc, 125 cc, 110 cc and now also 37cc ( weed wacker Honda)
prepping a 2400 cc toyota diesel and a yanmar 400 cc diesel
@ Pete, it’s going to run somewhere between 2000 and 3600 Rpm, i calculated that i have between 0,3 and 0,8 Hp available
so if this alternator is not sufficient at given Rpm, i will use a bigger one to compensate ( alternator gives max 30 amps at full rpm, so i guess it will give around 15-20 amps now )
I keep the shaft connection universal/original so i also can install the available waterpump and or outboard set ( imagine the gasifier in my inflateable kayak )
so much fun with the power of nature…
Here the design with a “floating” heating coil.
The coil diameter, length and tube sizing are given by the amount of gas needed.
I am planning to use this inside a 55 gallon barrel with some modifications yes…
on the bottom you’ll notice the water trap for collecting the excess of water ( not converted to steam in the coil ) with a overflow pipe
All the designs are based on obtaining gas , rich in heating value, cooled down already before leaving the reactor
The distance between the gas outlet and the nozzle is also depending the gas-power needed.
The hopper should always kept filled above the gas outlet.
between the outer wall and the heating coil, the charcoal will insulate and retain the temperature inside, using as much heat as possible for preheating the air and feedstock.
