JO´s 8" gasifier

Made a short video today going to work. I have 10 miles there and 10 miles home. This time of year I usually go by bicycle, but woodgas is so much more convenient and fun :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the ride. Things sure are green and nice there=== and no sign of rain. Got to love it
. I see you have some "round abouts’ to go through. Wisconsin just leaned about them an have them everywhere. Coming off the Freeway in Green Bay I have 3 or 4 to go through one after the other. I feel like a race car driver coming off from a very short race track. TomC

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Simple and effective Procedure. So you start right on petrol at the end of the shift? Does the char wayt that long?
Those boxes on the parking place… l think l remembered what they are. For hooking up the batery at cold winters right?

I have a nother one for you… how much petrol did you burn from when you started to DOW? I have a petrol consumption of about 1,5 l/100km on my seat runiing on charcoal. A bit is startup fuel but it tends to consume some fuel when the engine is under vacuum eaven with the pump off.

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HA! Funny. I’ll show you rain. Won’t be long.

No, I have to light it. I only use gasoline for about 10-20 s to pull gas to the engine. If the truck sits for less than two hours I ca do that without lighting.[quote=“KristijanL, post:364, topic:1928”]
For hooking up the batery at cold winters right?
[/quote]

I guess you could do that also but here almost every car has an electric heater to the engine coolant and also one in the cab.

Maybe 5 L for my 1800 km DOW so far. Only startups and such. I don’t think I consume any as long as the pump is shut off. Maybe you should use a small valve to be on the safe side :smile:

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Enjoyed the ride JO.

Keep smiling and keep the videos coming :relaxed:

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Spoken like a true wood gas driver. Great ride, thanks.

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Questions to anyone:

Went for a longer trip today. I knew that usually gives me low vacuum ratios and high temps. Therefore I brought some smaller really dry fuel and added that as hopper no2. Same thing, 2:1 and high temps. Why?
On shorter trips around home I usually suffer from borderline constipation.

Also running down the big road I could not hold it down more than 1/3 throttle, pulling 8/4", or the engine would stumble and missfire a bit. Rich or lean - no difference.
Is it possible this has to do with moist and my tiny cooler area?
My theory is that when on short trips things never get hot enough and can still suck up heat. When on longer trips even the hayfilter gets warm and passes moisture through to the engine.
Would the engine react this way from high moisture content?

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Do You have a paper filter at the engine? After a long trip that would show moisture if your theory is correct.

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Hello JO .

If moisture is going all the way to the motor it should be easy to spot. It should show in the piping and the entrance to the motor.

On the longer trips it seems you may be using the char faster than it can be made .?

I can’t remember my hay filter having any temperature .

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That theory wuld explain a lot. If what Max says is true and hot woodgas contains 25% water vapor thain the engine gets 25% less fuel. + larger wolume due to heat so eaven less energy.
Maybe you try and find an old imtercooler and mount it before the hayfilter. Perhaps eaven put a fan on it just for a test.
I know they make excelent woodgas coolers, might go with it on my project. Try to findd a Renault Megane intercooler, it has a surface area near 1m2!

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I am not going to try to answer your question or solve the problem, but I am trying to understand the problem.[quote=“JO_Olsson, post:368, topic:1928”]
I knew that usually gives me low vacuum ratios and high temps
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Your vacuum ratio is 2;1 or 2 in. H2O ; 1 in. H2O?? Are the vacuum readings coming from the cooling tubes and one from the “hopper” or “ash pit”?? If it is 1 in.; 2 in. that sounds like an air leak that is burning up your gas. But you have a meter hooked to the O2 sensor, right? Where are the high temperatures coming from and what do you call high or normal? My grate temperature runs good at 1000 F or better.

Have you been able to do anything with adjusting your timing??

Ok I changed my mind. I will make my time old suggestion. Make sure that the mixing box and tbi or what ever you have is sealed to the point where if you put your hand over the opening, feeding the air/gas to the engine, that the engine will stall. Got to have a good seal right at the engine. TomC

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Hi, Kritijan!
20. of August 2016

25% relative humidity at ~750 – 850*Celsius at the grate does not translate into 25% humidity at the mixer!

There is cooling and condensing and shringking in between!

At the dew point condensing happens at 100% “humidity”, at almost ambient temperature.

Then, in a good installation, reheating takes the relative humidity down to ~60–80% so the paper filter “feels” and behaves like in dry air.

If you are interrested in how much factual water a motor takes in with the gas, study the water content tables at the actual dew point (temperature) at the cooler outlet.

Calculate the small expansion from reheating to get the consumption volume of the motor in 50/50 mix…

I am sure you get something else than 25%!

If the motor is fed directly after the cooler, The relative humidity of the gas is ~100%.

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Thank you all !

I don’t think my loose charbed problem can be explained in a better way:

That one sentence cleared my mind. Long time, high load, dragging oxygene down low will of course eat char. I belive the best I can do is to bring very small fuel when on those rare longer trips and hybrid when necessary. Performance at low and medium load is so good I don’t want to make any further changes.

Cooling and moisture is a different story. I do have a plan for adding to my cooler.
The question is: Is the moisture really the reason for the motor to stumble when holding it down even only for a short burst? I don’t know. It never happens when the system isn’t hot.

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What kind of wood are you running JO?

Hi Tom,
I think by 2:1 most of us mean only ratio, wether it’s 8:4 or 10:5. Not a specific leve of vacuum in in.H2O.

My probe is at the condence tank inlet. Right after the cyclon outlet. By high temp i mean gas temp. I have no grate probe.

Yes, I advance it when on woodgas. Runs fine anywhere but a bit more power when advanced.

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Mostly bulky alder and mountain ash. Some birch.

Edit: That’s an idea. Maybe more birch when high load. It doesn’t disappear as quickly.

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Bigger prices take longer to go to char… I wouldn’t use sizing much larger than 1 1/4 inch square. I’d personally use much smaller :slight_smile:

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Hi Max
I appologise that 25% was irational. l understand what you are saying but look at the numbers. near ambient gas at 30c has 10g/m3 of water at dew point. Hotter gas at 45c has 60g/m3! If my calculations are correct that is 9% of gas by volume displaced by water vapor. And the number is in fact higher becouse there is allso vacuum involved but l havent found a chart to show that. This is just the same as haveing lean gas (10% CO2). Lean gas, more throtle, more heat, eaven leaner gas… you get the idea.
As l understand gas reheat is only good for highering the dewpoint, it doesent actualy lower the water content! Kind of like brooming dust under the carpet. It cant be seen but its still there.

I dont want to be a smartass but the numbers usualy dont lye.

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Are you getting a lot of “ash” in the “ash” pit or do you get a lot of char. If what you are saying, you should have much more ash after a long hard pull compared to what you get going back and forth to work.

Still trying to understand your vacuum ratio. You say you get a 2;1 ratio and that could mean 8;4 or 10;5. So you say 2;1 is low ratio. Does that mean you can get higher ratios, such as maybe 4;1 or 6;1??? My two vacuum gages always read 2;1, usually about 10 in; 5 in. Never any other ratio.

Just want to throw something out there and maybe Carl or someone will jump in and straighten me out. The only thermocouple reading I can count on is my grate reading which is from 700 ti 1200 F. My gas temp, in and out and my hopper temp, all under 700 F are not consistent. You are measuring after the cyclone so I doubt if your reading is up in what I would call the working range. TomC

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Yes! I usually do…

…wich would make me end up 10:1 in 10 min at low or medium load :smile: This is why I started using bigger fuel.

The only time I see as low ratio as 2:1 is when longer runtime than 30-40 min (one hopper).

Well, well - running good 90% of the time :hushed:

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