Hi John,
It looks that you have build a "Ben Peterson " model ?
From the looks of it, you might start with checking everything for air leaks, just blow backwards from your gas outlet and spray soapy water everywhere.
Can you tell me where you are located ? Based on the coconut shells lying around, might not so far from here ā¦
Regards from Thailand
Koen
After checking for leaks Iād suspect that blower. Might be too many cfmās to flare.
Thanks Tom, i will try to attach speed reducer to my blower so i can control it. Thanks again.
Yeah it is a ben peterson model already testing it might consider reducing blower speed.
Hi JohnL.
You can reduce blown flow by throttling easier that motor speed reducing. A quarter turn ball valve. Or a gate valve. The work unloaded motor will speed up. Expect this.
It appears you using crushed coconut shells are your fuel?
Are they interior cleaned enough?
Are they sun dried enough?
Here watch Toneās last video for how to stoke up for a flare:
Welcome to the DOW
Steve unruh
Hi John, any problems Iāve had with regards to flaring, have almost always been traced back to air leaks, especially around loading doors etc. Once due to wet fuel.
Maybe a stupid question but, did you fill the gasifier with good charcoal at startup ? Any further info on fuel used, size, internal dimensions of the gasifier , nozzle size, gasifier build size ( how much engine size it is intent for )
I think we didnāt fill up enough fuel bparticle size are way to big. Also the end used is just to conventional cooking. There is a burner that will be fabricated once flare is indicated sa reactor size is 200 mm and 370 mm height no throated but there is nozzle for air intake I think 10 mm each there are 5 of them
Hi John,
After a good airleak checkup, then first fill the gasifier with charcoal, not to big, nice and even parts, on top of that you fill with your normal fuel,
Then try again to lite your gasifier.
If your charcoal is good smokeless quality, then you will quickly see the output quality / working of the gas being able to ignite.
Once it starts to transition from first charcoal into new / fresh burned from your fuel, to observe if the gas quality changes into to much fumes / smoke / moistā¦
From that stage we can conclude the issue , determine on what to adjust.
What size of cooking stove you want to use with this gasifier / what country are you at ?
I might give you some hints on how to improve the easy way. ( if you use Asian fuel ) or others if you are using more normal fuel.
Anyway, we are all willing to help you succeed !!
Iām form Philippines sir
John,
This wonāt help you with your problem, but may be interesting to you since you are in the Philippines if you are not already aware of it.
Hilarion G. Henares, ādeveloped the famous IPOPI charcomobile which ran cars and trucks on coconut charcoal, solved the transportation problem during the war (WWII), and saved the cities from starvation. IPOPI stood for Industrial Products of the Philippines Incorporated, but everyone claimed it meant in corrupted Visayan Tagalog, āItulak Para Omandar Pag āIntoā ā (Push to start when it stops). Another source, familiar with IPOPI, wrote, āIPOPI vehicles were also known to be under powered. Every time it reached an uphill road or an arced shaped bridge, all its passengers had to get off the vehicle and push it up the hill or over the bridge.ā
I donāt know whether you built it from Benās own plans or if you used the āoffgrid48ā approach.
Here is one of Steve Offgrid48 videos on starting the gasifier up: There may be some hints for you in there.
Pete Stanaitis
john, try to blow the air for starting in the nozzle (like in a smith forge) and not sucking through the system, so air leaks at this moment doesnt matter till not a motor is sucking with negative pressureā¦because in this way no air can enter in the system and spoil the gas, and you see if the misfunction comes from air leaks.
also if you create a hollow burn while trying to start (with to strong air blowing), you must stick with a metall rod in the glowing area, so all the coal falls together and you can try again. also when filling the hearth with coal is good to stirr it a bit with a metal rod in way there are not too much big hollow space. coal size is also very important, pieces like hazelnut and smaller like as corn crops and a bit smallerā¦
Hi John,
Can you sent some picture about the fuel used ?
Suggestion, you can use dry bamboo chunks, as i do here similar.
If it is for cooking only, then you might simplify your system a bit, no problem with smoke and tar.
Link to one build hereā¦
I crushed a little bit the fuel. Also yeah it is for cooking, could you help me simplify my design doing the same principle ( downdraft) but for cooking?
Hello John, charcoal is gasified at a very high temperature, if there is an area where we blow air, we must imagine that there is enough oxygen directly at the exit of the nozzle and CO2 is formed. If the temperature is very high and this gas moves forward between the charcoal, this charcoal tears one oxygen atom from CO2 and CO is formed, the main condition for this is a sufficiently high temperature and a suitably tight filling of the charcoal.
You have a wood gasifier, which also works, except that raw pieces of wood or coconut shells are cooked at the same time above, the gases dry out a little above and travel down through the area with glowing charcoal, where the charcoal converts them into pure gas. Here we must pay attention that the charcoal glows over the entire cross-section of this area, so there is no possibility for tar gases to get past this thermal-chemical conversion.