Mercedes-Benz E230 vol. 2, charcoal powered

If you do it while it is still hot, it expands and breaks up. You might not have to grind it at all. It holds a lot of water and takes forever to dry out…

I should mention, there isn’t much for dust. the ash and dust gets washed away, and so handling it there isn’t dust. Running it through the meat grinder, there was minuscule amounts of dust and if it is really wet it comes out more as a slurry.

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Thanks for the manual and regulations. Now I have reading material.

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I was mostly refering to space for ash to settle. You don’t want layers of ash to fall down from the socks only to whirl back up and stick to them again.
If you can’t go any lower, how about a setteling area in the very end of the heatex bottom? Gas velocity would blow particles that way anyway.
Your trunk should be wide enough for an ash compartment extension.

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Sean, being dust free is a major benefit. I always had dust problems on my prevous builds, refueling is a messy job.

Allso l just realised a nother benefit of using wet char. Its much safer. No danger of fire in the hopper.

JO, l see what you mean now. But l dont quite see what you mean with ash compartment extension?

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Something like this. Ash raking weekly instead of daily.

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Oh l see… l need to check but l think the bumper is on the way. Maybee a inch or two wuld be possible. Thanks for your thod.

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Yes, that’s it. Thanks!

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You don’t have to worry about breathing char dust, or having it fly all over the place or catching a motor spark either.

It might be too wet to burn well. 50% moisture is pretty high. I suspect there is a happy medium where it can have some moisture and burn well. It takes a long time to dry it out. :slight_smile: and I was going to try a barrel with slits in the bottom and a pipe in the bung and set it in the sun to try and dry it. It dries wood pretty fast. I didn’t get to it before snowfall.

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By throwing water onto hot coals we are making a non chemical version of Activated carbon , that increases the fractures in the charcoal hence gaining more surface area making it porous , maybe improving the charcoal burning area .

Dave

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Good point Dave! Loiking forward to testing all this stuff.

Ok just a couple more things to take care of before l get building. Couple of questions.
A/F guages. Has anyone got a idea if those work with narrow band O2 sensors?

Second is the gas piping/cooler. I havent yet decided if l want to pipe hot gas up front and cool/final filter there or cool in the back, pipe cold gas up front and final filtrate. Or something in the middle :smile:
The thing is, there is space for 2 ~4cm pipes paralel to the drive shaft. But working/welding under the car is a pain and going full hard metal will require crawling under a thousant times to make 2 precisely fited severely bent and cornered pipes. My question is, has someone got a idea how l culd make my life easyer? Are there any fledible or bendable materials safe with the temperature? Flex exhaust hose is out of the question, l had bad experiances with it and its outrageously expensive here…

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If you can, cool it first then send it up front using plastic piping. On the way if you come close to a hot spot – like exhaust pipe or engine block-- I put a piece f steel pipe in that area. You will get a little heat there and then your final filter will work better with the expanded gas. TomC

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Tom good point. I will test the gasifier first to see what outlet temps l get, to see if l can deal with all the heat just in the back. Wuldnt like to vacuum flaten my gas pipe (again).

One more thing. I found a truckload of those (literaly) at work

2,5" metal discs. You guys think its big enough for the hopper auguer? it has to have enough force to fill the hopper too…

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They seem perfect sized discs to me.

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If you want the make it out of metal pipe. First make it out of plastic pipe, do not glue the fittings just mark them with a black marking pen. Do your measurements and get it to fit the way you want it to fit. Remove the plastic pipe in one piece making sure you can put it back in in one piece. Weld the metal pipe up just like the plastic one. Reuse the plastic pipe and fittings for something else.
Bob

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Those disks look on the thin side for auger flights , best way is to buy large we call them mudguard washers then you can split bend and weld them together , plus you can choose the size of the hole and the dia to suit your tube .

Dave

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They might work for a charcoal hopper flight. Or an ash cleanout type of flight.

They -might- work as a char processor. sharpen up the edges, or put spikes or some other design in them, then spin them really fast. If you got tricky you could spring load them so if you hit a brand it would bounce. or use 2 opposing flights of them for a first round to break wider stuff up.

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Or, they could be doubled up, doubling the strength. Tack weld edges, or spot weld together after stretched onto the shaft…

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Just doubled up? It should be a challenge on a forged in fire episode to turn them into a 256 layer damascus patterned auger. I am sure an Auger was used by like the ancient people of Atlantis as a weapon, and it is popularized in some video game.

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How thick are the discs?
If 1mm or more i think they will work very well. Spirals are naturally strong, just cut off the leading corner to make a point like a wood screw.

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Yes I agree, the spiraling twist and the welding it to the shaft gives it strength, it should do well in the hopper to move the charcoal.
Bob

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