Quite possibly true. It was released in 1989, which is the end of the Reagan Regime.
Reagan killed any and all attempts for renewable energy.
Honestly the FEMA probably runs better more like a DriZzleR then an imbert.
I honestly don’t think you are far off.
For shits and giggles, try operating it like a drizzler. basically keep a thin layer of new material on top and on fire, and the gas and flames gets sucked through the charbed. you should see small flames on top. block all air input except through the top. However, be forewarned once suction is removed or blocked it can shoot up flames.
With the larger chunks of wood like WK uses, you might be able to have a hopper full since air can pass through without restriction, and suction is limiting the air to the thin layer.
It is just the opposite of what we are telling you, but after looking at the plans again and seeing the drizzler run. i am guessing it works. just not like an imbert. To be honest, I don’t think I would drive with it even if it does work for safety reasons and I don’t think it will be as efficient.
I may just try that Sean, but a further question to help me diagnose - if I try running it drizzled style, open top and still do not produce syngas, would this then positively indicate that I must have an oxygen leak to deal with somewhere in the gas collection zone past the choke point? I am assuming that would mean yes?
It would be a good indication yes. You should probably pressure test it anyway. Just playing the percentages of how many leaks in first time builds over the years, is pretty close to 100%, and usually 2+ attempts to correct them.
and it really needs more of a funnel shape angle on the sides, it is basically the kon-tiki of gasifiers. but eventually char will build up on the sides, and do that. Usually the issue with the Fema’s isnt that they don’t work, but they just make tar. The wood might be too wet as well. I don’t know.
It depends on what he has for a wood source and processing as well.
Looking at the drawing, I was thinking where will the water and tar condensation go if it is a woodgasifier? And the extra tar gooy mess that will drip down the sides of the hopper wall?
Maybe make the hopper taller and not insulated with cooling tubes like a WK hopper, and a gutter to catch the water and tar flowing down. Draining it into a tank.
Bob
Tone cast iron brake rotors were Mike LaRosa’s design. His no-welds. Used as face-to-face doubled up.
Other times used as a single forming the restriction, open upward as the entry. Or opening downward as the exit.
Some have worked forwards from his designs.
And we all have been saving back take off disc brake rotors as a some-day, maybe need.
So has been proven. Used. Works.
Regards
Steve Unruh
It is kind of like LaRosa’s but I think it is closer to what his next one was going to be after the one in the video. He sounds confused or like he is hiding something in the video, but it works more like he describes it but not exactly like you think. It is just a bit dangerous and that is what he was hiding. And I am guessing it probably worked well.
gas, flame and oxygen of course. IIRC Mike had a scare with it, and didn’t want 100s of people copying it especially if it went viral with ID10Ts like MrTeslonian.
The timeline is all mixed up for me. And there were patent trolls on the yahoo list. So any open discussion like ‘hey why don’t you try xxxx’ resulted in xxxx getting patented. Mike really didn’t like that.
This patent expired because of non-payment though:
BTW I was trying to say OMG that isn’t original or dissuade you from doing it.
The only criticism I would have is the bell coming down is going to be a heat magnet, and probably melt quickly.
One of the key aspects of the nozzles, and I don’t know if many do it or not, is you are trying to get even oxygen over the whole bed and reduce channeling in the bed, and other flow issues.
The only gasifier I can think of offhand with nozzle pointed down is the Kalle which is a charcoal gasifier and supposedly fairly popular. But that reused exhaust gas to limit oxygen.
Excellant reply SeanO.
Meaty. Lot to chew on there.
Some was the kind of guy MikeL was. He was not a throw ideas up on a wall and see what sticks. He only wanted to show his ideas after he had made and tried them. Wrung them out for advantages and disadvantages.
On the useing heavy mass drake drum rotors as your core one of the disadvantaged he pointed out to me was long from cold heating up times.
S.U.
That had to have been annoying. I wonder if there’s a GNU GPL style license agreement but for physical inventions. Free to download but don’t monetize it.
I have a thought , its only a thought mind you as i only speak about what i have personally attempted or built and i know 100%sure there are guys on here that could get clean gas from a baked bean tin for sure .
Derrick i am a charcoal user , i did just like you i started with a FEMA , we all have to start somewhere right anyway i built it i guess just as you did following the instructions posted on forums around the world , i did not add my bit too it as i did not have a clue what i was doing , anyway the out come was a burnable gas , yes amazingly it worked first time , and i am sure as sure can be the reason was because i am a crap welder i went over every welded point and pipe joint with silicon i made sure even the fan was sealed with no chance of a air leak , i even offered the gas up to a generator and blow me if it didn’t just start up and work , how lucky was i .
Before running again i stripped out my filter material of sawdust and found a horrible black/brown foul smelling sawdust pile from inside , so refilled with clean sawdust
and later i did the same routine of firing up the gasifier and again i got great burnable gas but now no way would the generator start up , i noticed that it was spinning over far too easily first thing i did was plug out ,was ok so then the rocker cover came off and yep the exhaust valve was stuck down tight , it had been a few days since the last run and so with a little gentle heat and some very large screw drivers and levers i got it free and back together and running again , but almost straight away after that second run i came across Garry Gilmores simple fire on YouTube and have not looked back since as it does all i need it too do with hands off run times ,i don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken , i guess what i am trying to say is before you change anything on that fema as i can tell your itching to have one more go before tearing it down , go back check you have every joint and weld and i do mean every pin hole sealed up and a good suction fan on the end and you will make burnable gas , and as soon as you have achieved that it will inspire you more than words to move onto a proven design gasifier be in wood or charcoal . there is not a week go’s by that i am not impressed with what the people on here build ,they are all artists of the highest order and my hats off to them all we all learn from everyone’s mistakes and achievement’s
All the best Dave
Dave,
You would make a great wood-gas motivational speaker. Very impressive. I had already gotten the memo on the FEMA’s shortcomings before building anything, so I started with the SimpleFire and, I too, am satisfied that it provides what I need. Thank you, Gary Gilmore.
Thank you Steve , i just say what i see and what i think i know , but sometimes it does get me deep in the doo doo though , when i misinterpret how something works !
Dave
Thank you Dave for your encouragement, and thank you again to all on this forum. A person can go on Google or Youtube and figure out the basics of gasification, but there is no where to get good troubleshooting advice I have found except this forum, what a unique treasure.
I enjoyed watching the charcoal gasifier video and I could easily change over what I have to what was pictured in the video, but in practicality I don’t know where I could get a constant supply of charcoal that would not entail a massive amount of work to make it and chop it up into a usable size. If I can get the wood gasifier functional, at least the fuel source will be much more feasible to me.
I think I am getting closer. I stopped up the hole where the shaker linkage passes through and checked the seal at my ash clean out door - these are really the only two places vulnerable to an uncontrolled oxygen leak. Like you mentioned Dave, any joint that was suspicious, I sealed with RTV.
This last test was a little better, after heating up for a few minutes, I tested my gas at the flare, it was a very light smoke and when I put the propane torch to it the smoke immediately disappeared and you could see a hint of an orange flame igniting, but try as I might, I could not get it to stay lit. I took this as a sign of progress, but what could this be indicating? I am guessing still uncontrolled oxygen getting in the mix? I am thinking I need to rework my ash clean out door and make sure the seal on that is doing its job. I wish I knew how I could pressure test everything as some have suggested but I don’t really see how I can do this since I never did get the hopper lid to fully seal so I know the whole unit would not hold pressure.
