Hi Krisitjan:
I didn’t notice you have a cooler in your system. Where is located, before or after the Felt filter?
Eddy Ramos.
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Sorry Kristijan: I got it. It is too late in the night for me. The cooler is right after the reactor and before the filter.
Eddy Ramos
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Correct Eddy! Hidden under the car. I actualy only use half of it, and will most likely to ditch eaven that. No real need for it with charcoal, a 2" pipe runing beside the drive shaft will do the job.
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Hi Everybody.
I have started a new topic with a collections of my drawings, part list, spec’s sheet, and/or operations procedures, it is call: “Drawings of charcoal gasifiers for vehicles”. In this new topic is included the work I have done fot this topic.
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Hi @gasman,
You are right, lets leave Rons topic for his project.
To continue the talk from his topic, is this what you ment?
Allso, whats the restriction diameter and restriction-grate height?
Forgive my curiousity, my engine is wery similar to the Volvos and its nice to be able to compare things like that.
Since l bumped this topic back from the dead, l might as well anounce a DOW comeback of the old Mercedes. I finaly have some time off so today l started doing some body work, rust started to bite some parts. But still remakrably litle, after all, the car is 29 years old!
Anyway, when thats done, l will make a new woodgas system. Nothing realy wrong with the old one, but l realised there are ways to make the system better, more reliable and stelthier. I might start a new topic when l get that far.
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Oh Boy, looking forward to this Kristijan, this is great to see the car evolve from wood gas to charcoal gas back to wood gas again. With new improvements, are you going to go with the WK or Imbert or a new design?
Bob
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Hi, Kristijan!
2.11.2018
Exactly! It has been changed several times, but soon the current measures will appear.
That will be interresting, in a long time no new presentations have appeared, with exception for the 2 toroidical builds.
Let’s see if Ron “gets ashore”…
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Kristijan; May I make a suggestion. Do NOT take the MB system apart until you have the new one ready to drop in. I took my truck apart and started making changes and then other things came up ( rebuilding my shop) and because I took my truck apart I have been another year without a gasified vehicle to drive – gas has gotten up to bumping $3 a gallon and I like JO could save a little money if my truck was running. TomC
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Hi Tom, we have not seen $3.00 a gallon for awhile now here. I notice every year it has been slowly going up. On the over side of the pond, they would love to pay $3.00 a gallon or the equivalent there of.
You are right about back up gasifier vehicles. Wayne gets to pick and choose which gasifier truck he wants to drive to town for shopping or coffee with friends.
Bob
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Bob, we are on the same path, make things better and better!
Ha, none of the above and all of the above 
The idea is to build a all fuel gasifier. The firetube will be wery WK looking. A WK can easy be made in to a lmbert (insert a midle restriction) or a Mako (take the choke out). The reason why l am not going for a clasical WK thugh is size. I am limited to placing the gasifier, cyclone and ashbox in a 1x1x2 foot compartment.
Anyway, primary fuel burnt will be charcoal with a few % wood added for hydrogen and temp tempering. But shuld a chrisis like this years occur, when l was unable to prepare enough charcoal for a years drive, l culd throw in a restriction and burn wood.
Ha, look @JO_Olsson, our idea is geting put to the test in Finland!
Tom, unfortunaly l hadnt driven on wood since around April. A mix of events lead to lack of time to collect wood/make enough charcoal, and now that l need to throw the rig out for anual inspection anyway, l might as well change it some.
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What others said. Looking forward too this.
My nightshift brain can’t process the details right now but I hope the picture will clear up.
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Hi Kristijan, so it looks like a gasifier to do both, wood/Charcoal and I think you are still planning on having it go to hybred drive at higher speeds because of the space you have in the trunk of the car.
Bob
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Correct. The gasifier will most likely be limited to a certain gas output becouse on the hilly terrain l live at can cause overheating wery fast.
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Hi Kristijan,
I remember you writing somewhere that you thought charcoal was easier. But now maybe your opinion is changing?
Rindert
In my situation charcoal is superior in all aspects. But l bet for most others a pickup with a wood burning WK wins evwey time. Steve says it nany times, everything woodgas related strongly depends on situation.
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Hi Kristijan,
I also think for smaller vehicles charcoal is superior by some means, because he system is not that heavy and quite easy in the daily routine, especially if you can use the created heat in the charcoal process so that it is not wasted.
It is interesting that you want to change to a design inspired from the Mako S gasifier. Downside is a probably higher pressure loss and lower heat economy compared to an updraft system.
Advantage is its better ability to crack tars from brands or low quality charcoal. So it could be possible to run on BBQ charcoal if you run out of own fuel on a longer trip which is not engine grade for an updraft gasifier. Also it might be able to handle briquettes (compare to the gasifier Francois Pal builds for his recumbent bicycle). This fuel has a much higher density and would allow longer distances with a hopper filling.
What is also very interesting is its ability to run from dust to pieces of 60 mm (best range 20 to 40 mm) as stated in the Swedish book describing it. So it might be possible to use more a “raw” char in it or don’t sieve out the fines after crushing it.
I believe its greater ability to handle dust is due to its downdraft principle: The fines drop from the hopper right in front of the nozzles and are burnt instantly.
Creating hydrogen by adding some wood is a good idea but requires a hot enough and concentrated reaction zone. A very rough method could be just to wet the char in the hopper a bit. This method is mentioned in the article about the Källe gasifier.
Or use a more sophisticated water drip with heat exchange like Francois Pal.
Also the idea of making it a pure wood gasifier by adding a restriction if needed is a great idea.
I’m looking forward to see this next build.
Regards,
Til
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Hi Kristijan, all of what Til has said. Also do you have any preliminary gasifier drawings on what you are planning on doing so that we can look at them.
Bob
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Hi guys, not many skeches yet as l am still throwing things together in my mind.
All l know for sure is l am going downdraft, the gasifier will be located in the mufler compartment and the hopper will be long and narrow with an auguer that feeds the gasifier. That way l loose practicly no trunk space.
Good idea on charcoal briquettes! Making and mixing those in for long trips alows me to make the hopper eaven smaller! 90% of the time it only needs ~50km of range anyway.
Thermal efficiency. I plan to do full air preheat here so this shuld retreat some wasted energy. Second, l plan to lead the hot gas trugh a steam boiler. Rough calculation says the gasifier shuld produce just enough exess heat to provide enough steam for ideal H2O-C ratio. Self regulating too. Plus this shuld cool the gas close to 100c, a major plus on a system like this!
Pressure drop is not mich of a problem, the gasifier needs to be choked down anyway (lack of room means small gasifier).
While on this, Til, do you maybee remember what the Mako was lined with inside? Refractory?
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Hi,
the Mako had only plain mild steel walls of 4 or 5 mm and no insulation in the hearth zone. So it was quite lightweight compared to the refractory hearth of the Svedlund gasifier. But this will cool the reaction zone close to the walls and probably tars can find there way through the reaction zone here. Especially if some wood pieces are mixed in.
Anyway, not a problem to change this and probably use a lighter material like ceramic blanket.
Creating steam with the hot gases is a good idea! Much more heat can be used this way than just preheat primary air. A small boiler could also be made less problematic in freezing winter conditions (probably just empty it when not in use longer) or made in a shape that is less fragile to ice formation.
But, it may be a bit slow reacting. No steam in the beginning when water is still cold, excess steam if you stop after suddenly after heavy load.
Max once brought up the idea of using a carburetor for the metering the water to the primary air. This is also self regulating, and fast adopting to the actual amount of air. But more complex and fragile in winter.
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But likely practical if a water - alcohol blend is used.
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