Brian, if it’s of any help I am angling towards the use of fibre reinforced silicone hose. Most can withstand 200-260 degrees celcius (390-500 in Fahrenheit).
after seeing this on my mechanic’s floor I think this is the route I will try…
http://www.fumeavent.com/exhaust-hose/crushproof/FLT200.html
-ridged for crushproofness, temperature stable, fairly cheap real easy to bend…
David: Thanks but that is 2" and still almost 80$ (only .77 cents/foot but only available on 10’+ rolls). If it works totally fine for you and you have extra, I might buy some from you. I have 1"ID (1.25" OD) pipe though so the 2" ID would need an addaptor, something that can seal the ridges too.
Brian, I get my flexible exhaust hose from Rock Auto. This should be the link.
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php?ck[ID]=0&ck[idlist]=0&ck[viewcurrency]=USD&ck[PHP_SESSION_ID]=ubehqt71kke4ufut3a01kdgq14
It is $40 for 25 feet. I really like it.
Gary in Pa
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Hello Garry. The old saying is ‘never re-invent the wheel’ so i’ve been studying gasification for about 2 years now reading as much as I can find. I reckon the simple fire design is what I’m looking for. Im planning on running a 13 hp generator for emergency use. I have access to unlimited wood and can easily make charcoal at home. I have two questions. 1 How many hours total run time have people had useing a simple fire and have they had any engine problems? 2 why dont you have some sort of cooling racks in the design for the gas? I thought the gas needed to cool to be more dense?
Thanks
Adam C
Would one of these work for a nozzle in the reaction area or would they be too thin and melt? I’d cut a hole in the bottom center and then flare out the end of my inlet pipe (tuyerer?) to hold it in place.
Hi Brian, I do not see that stainer working very well for a Simple-Fire style charcoal gasifier. If you drill a hole in the bottom of that stainer and extend the steel pipe nozzle into it so the air is forced out the hole you see in the picture here is what I see happening. The stainless around the area next to the charcoal will get hot enough to melt leaving a blob of metal there. But then if you use exhaust gas to temper this oxidation zone, it may last quite well. Another idea that just occured to me is the air from the inlet nozzle can be distibuted to the charcoal through the little holes about the perifery of the main hole. If the charcoal is not lit around each of those holes, this will allow free air to move through the charcoal fuel without being converted to carbon monoxide. This leave free oxygen mixing with your charcoal gas in the presence of heat which could cause a puff back at the worst. At the least, it will dilute your charcoal gas with excess air. I don’t recommend it.
Gary in PA
Oooh. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of air getting around the reaction zone from all those holes.
I figured it would spread the reaction zone to a wider but thinner area. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a propane campstove fuel line break and catch but it produces 1 giant flame. One doesn’t want to cook on the one big flame which is why they spread it out to many small flames through lots of small holes. That was my original thinking. The center wouldn’t get as hot at any one area because the same heat was spread out to a larger area. I see that my thinking might have overlooked a few things.
OK, heres another cheap-and-easy idea. So the “Black Steel Pipe” we use is just mild steel with an oil treatment and thus can’t take much heat. The pipe fittings they use on these pipes, though, are “Malleable Iron” which is a form of Cast Iron which “should” have much higher heat and corrosion resistance, correct? Could one shorten the BSP tuyerer and put a few Malleable Iron fittings on the end to withstand the heat and be replaceable?
Hi Brian, I just cleaned out my large Simple-Fire generator I used for running my log splitter. Probably put five hours of run time on it. The following two pictures show the nozzle and stainless steel sleeve. The iron pipe nozzle is in great shape. The sleeve is really in good shape too with only a little erosion. There is a pile of clinker or slag included in the photo. This system uses engine exhaust to cool down the oxidation zone and it really works well. In a round about way, forget about using fancy nozzles for now and stick with the iron pipe. This will at least get you up an running.
Gary in PA
Hi Brian, Just cruising around and saw this question. I use 1.25 flexible exhaust hose that is made by Walker auto. I buy it from a distributer called Rock Auto. It comes in a 20 foot roll, about $40.00. I am sure you can find a source for it in England too. Great stuff. It will rust if left out in the weather but it is cheap and works very well.
Gary
Steel hose
Source: William ([email protected])
Here’s links for Walker Flex Pipe: (scroll 1/2 down)
http://www.rockauto.com/dbphp/x,mfrname,Walker,parttype,1001157,d,Walker_Flex_Tubing.html
http://www.walkerheavyduty.com/products/flex_tubing.asp
Feedback (MP): WALKER Part # 40001 More Info 1 1/4" ID- 1 3/8" OD, 25’ OAL FLEXIBLE TUBING–Plain Steel, $1.52/ft, 9/12. Good delivery. A 1” nipple will essentially “screw-in” to this pipe. Not an airtight seal, but close. With some high temp sealant, may be airtight, and sealant may last, depending on how close to the engine the connection is.
I have not been on the site for a few months and I am very encouraged by your system Gary. I have tried woodgas before but with no success running an engine; FEMA, need I say more. Anyway a small engine is where I wanted to start, but still a wk unit is pretty complicated and involved for my experience and skills. I have some questions or comments that, with feedback might help me to understand a few things and spark an idea or two. By the way I plan to get started on the simple fire today.
Question. Gary, what is left of the charcoal after gasification? Is it ash, or something else?
Comment: This might be a pre-conception or an asumption but , in the process of making this charcoal it seems that, a large portion of tar is burned off so what is left is a much cleaner and easier to filter fuel. Which leads me to a question: Gary does the tar content of this system seem to be lower that standard wood gasification? I have only a few days left on me premium subscription so and can’t renew for a while so I am trying to get as much info as possible.
Hi Joe, When you make charcoal, you are burning off the tar. Therefore, a charcoal gasifier like the Simple-Fire does not have to be built to remove tars. This makes building simple. All you have to do is remove the dust that the engine sucks out of the charcoal generator. Here is a link to a paper on building the Simple-Fire
http://driveonwood.com/content/simple-fire-pdf
What is left of the charcoal after gasification? Some ash. Wood is 1 - 2% ash and this stays with the charcoal. Easy to deal with. Let the gas generator cool down, open the lid and dump the charcoal out. Re sift the unused charcoal and put it back in the generator to be used again.
I also started out on the FEMA and had no luck getting it to run. A charcoal generator is easy to build, run and trouble shoot. It is also good for running small engines.
Make sure you charcoal is the size of a grain of rice up to the size of your thumb nail and make sure you put some of the engine exhaust back into the oxidation zone.
Hope this helps. Gary in PA
Gary, I must tell you that yesterday I ran a successful test of my 55gal drum simplefire gasifier on my 2000 dodge dakota with a 4.7 litter v8 engine under the hood. I have a video but I can not figure out how to upload it on the site. Instead of one inlet at the bottom with a 'T" for the exhaust in I actually installed two inlets.One on each side at the bottom of the barrel, 1 and a half inch stainless steel on one side and 2 inch steel on the other. The outlet is three inches. It did run quite well for a first test even without the exhaust return and only half a barrel of charcoal. Yes it got hot but not unimaginably so and mainly when I revved the engine However based on what I observed I have decided to install more inlets to allow for more airflow. I suppose, for a test unit, I can always plug the extra inlets when running a smaller engine. Thanks for the simplefire!
Here is the facebook link to my video: Facebook
Hello Joe ,
It always puts a smile on your face when you are 100% sure no gasoline is getting to the motor but yet the motor is running!!
3 Likes
Like to complement Gary on his very informative videos and simple strait forward communication skills as he explains what he’s explaining. Lots of great ideas here and it appears I’ll be needing some rainy days to invest in reading the posts not to really sound ignorant.
I live in Puerto Rico and have for the last twenty two years, I helped build my own home and then built my own solar hot water and then a couple years back built my own solar panels from individual cells bought on ebay. This is how I became interested in wood gasification, you see my solar batteries are unable to store enough energy to run my homes entire demand for electricity and solar batteries are very expensive and need regularly replaced every 5 to 7 years. So rather than invest in solar batteries I thought wood gasification would be a rather reliable means of operating a small engine on demand to recharge my battery bank much like a wind turbine would.
I haven’t had much luck finding metal buckets but came up with an idea I thought I’d present to you experts. I’m thinking to use a section of 12 inch AC galvanized duct as the vessel similar to the one in this picture… http://i00.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/519/906/498/498906519_337.jpg My plan is utilize the original Gilmore 5 gal. plumbing and to stand the duct vertical, seal the base with a mixture of sand and plaster of paris cement mixture. Then seal the top using perhaps a couple 10 inch saw blades or similar metal with a small bicycle inner-tube sandwiched in between as a method to seal it. I hope this explanation makes sense to everyone?
My plan is to operate a very small engine, lawnmower or even smaller capable of turning a small Permanent Magnet generator to trickle charge my batteries during cloudy or high demand periods.
So, the question is if I can make this unit air tight will the temperature range be safe with the galvanized tube and the bike tube seal?
Wow, I am impressed with all the work being done to advance the development and use of charcoal gasifiers. Now you wood guys don’t take that as an insult because you have my admiration, just I am in love with the black stuff. 
I finally figured out how to work my son in law’s camera so have put together a video of the latest Simple-Fire. It is 16 minutes long, but I start it with a hand crank fan and a match.
Gary in PA
6 Likes
Joe Tiner; I really like that video of you truck running on charcoal. That is the simplest way of getting a car engine to run on “woodgas” ( charcoal) that I have ever seen. Anyone thinking of running anything on woodgas should watch this video. That is a “simplifier” Great job.
Gary; As usual another informative video. The modifications look great. Glad to see you found a way to start the system without electricity. ( after all that is probably the reason we are trying to get the generator running, is for electricity) I know the electric blower uses a battery. I have been going towards a pump more like a bicycle pump with big volume and low pressure. I have seen someone trying a bellows also. Keep up the good work You inspired me to fight the cold tomorrow and go out to the shopTomC
Good morning brother Gary .
As always great video as you are always setting the bar high .
Looking forward to seeing you at Argos. Hope no more wedding interfere with your plans
SWEM
Wayne
Gary, fantastic simple explanation of a “simple fire” charcoal gasifier. You almost converted me.
Hi Gary; do you like this design , or the one with silver drums,and auger feed? Is one more efficient than the other? fire tube in top or bottom? thanks foe the videos, and all the education. Al