Small Engines to Woodgas Run

Andrew, Put a collection jug in your supply line. A half gallon might be all you need to smooth out the pulses(a full gallon would be better).

Good morning Don, Terry and Andrew ,

This pulsating doesn,t seem to interfere with the performance of the gasifier or the motor but as Andrew stated it may be a small waste of the gas .

The cause of this pulsating is the same reason the old water ram pumps work. I know air and gas doesn’t weigh much but a sudden stop of the gas flow in the piping should cause a pressure increase for an instance . Keep in mind the motor is pulling gas 25% of the time and no gas in coming in 75 % of the time .

On a gasified vehicle going from idle to WOT and vice versa will through the full / air ratio off momentarily for the same reasons the ram pump works .

To minimize the pulse you can build an air cushion as Terry has suggested or add in the fresh air a distance up stream in the pluming .

The negatives of the air cushion or mixing air in up stream are if there is an intake back fire it will be a little bigger …

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Ah yes, I hadn’t thought of the inertia part of it. with that understanding, my check valve idea is pretty much no good. I’ll try the buffer jug as terry suggests. Thanks to all for the input.

Well, I just cleaned out the cyclone catch jar on my mower. I found a small quantity of black crystals kind of sugar size. what the heck is it?

Hey Andy ,

Good description of the material ( black sugar ) ,

I don’t know what it is but do know that it is common . I find it mostly where the soot or ash has been moist. ( under my trucks in the condensate collection tank )

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Hey AndyH
I first saw this winter of 2010 when Ben Peterson switched from cyclones to water cooled quick heat extracting vertical heat/extractors that soon proved to be mondo soot droppers. Like I suppose your cyclone separator these were very close coupled to the Hot-Hot gasifer hearth output.
At the time because of the black crystallize appearance I’d thought it was hot gaseous mineral ash vapors cooling condensing down to Chrystal encapsulating black soot as the color.
Since then I’ve been made familiar that elemental carbons are capable of chaining up from soft, soft opaque plate-like graphite forms to transparent hard, hard diamonds chain forms.

No matter. Not anything you would ever want to reach the machined IC engine bores and soft piston sides. Cause sticking of the have to move freely piston rings

Wayne, your observed stuff gotta be different down in a cooled, less turbulent part of the system.
I still think very minor trace elements out of the woods cell wall have to be contributing to these funny formations forming.
Cooking . . . especially high sugars candies gets very complex to watch the different sugars crystal changing states. Plants make the waters and airs with their traces into “sugars” with the solar energy.

Regards
Steve Unruh

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Hi All,
Here is a very appropriate new addition to this topic I just became aware of:

View on YouTube and click the “more” and then scroll down for all of the units specifications.
System loaded oscilloscoped sine-wave pattern shown at 6:35 here

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Thanks for informing me of my new dream purchase. One to save up for perhaps.

Edit: looked up the price, “in my dreams” are definitely choice words. 5000 dollars.

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Yeah. Be a big bite for anyone CodyT.
The usefulness is some folk will buy this new.
That current $5,000 USD is in the same pricing range of many pad mounted whole-house back up systems.
Then down the road those once-new will be used, available. Death in the family - gone the thoughtful person. Divorces. Fire/CO fears. Carbons emitter compliancers.
Even cheaper . . . broken, not working, used.
S.U.

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Its the same as the Predator. Just the controls and Duel fuel option is spec’d for DuroMax. They are made in the same factory. I was looking at haveing them produce a version for us. But we dont have that kind of money lol

Go on Made in China and you will find other versions of this same generator along with the actual supplier.

Oooohh oops I take that back. V twin action nice!!!

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Hopefully they have the standard head style with this engine. Dont care much for the inverter and Im going into an inverter so its pointless. Saves some big dollars that way.

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Hmm.Yes I understand for you MattR. You are already vested in PV solar, controllers and inverters.

My suggestion is for those who just want, “I will fuel-in; and just want direct useable equipments safe power out”.
This one downrates to 13,000 on propane.
Woodgas/Charcoal fuel gasses should be good for ~10,000 watts.

Puts a lot of guys now at decision points.
Me . . . the 1980’s J.D.-Yanmar tractor now hillside living I am afraid to use - easy sell for $5,000+ and get something instead I can use.
For another; it might be a now set-aside boat - sold. A motorcycle now aged too valuable to ride - sold.
For some few here; one less buildup hotrod dream car not done. One that’s been done; fair weather coming - then sold off.
Power the family instead.
Share out and support.
S.U.

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The nice thing about the V twins is they have oil filters and hydralic oil pumps. That alone puts them way above the small single cylinder engines. Keep the oil changed and they will last a long time.

Yeah Im really lusting after that 744cc twin on that Duromax. If its going to make noise then at least its a noise I like to hear. That thing sounds awesome!! haha.

Found this Champion though not sure I can justify getting new genny;s though. Our 9500’s still have some life left I think. One is smoking and the other is broke. If the broken one is fixable Im sure will get another year out of it. Then once this smoky one dies Im going to tear it apart and see if the the 459 stand alone engine HF sells will plug and play. It will be hard to justify spending $3k verses $500 for a direct replacement. Then we can still run them in tandem.

Thats the only con going to with a standard head type is you lose the ability to run in tandem. Imagine hooking up two of those beast together!! That will open up some big posibilities with a wood fueled system.

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Afternoon porn ! Nice .
Prob wont be able to sleep tonight now Mr Unruh

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Hey Dave, here is some audio to go with your watching:

Dean Lasko’s V-Twin running loaded on woodgas.
The third different V-twin unit I’ve seen woodgas loaded running.

V-Twins even with thier theoretical “compromises” seem to be a wide sweet spot doing well on woodgas systems.

Enough evening out of the intake pulses.
Larger displacement so drawing better and then needing using more fuel to keep a gasifier system draw up hot.
Larger generating capacity so deep well pumps and larger air compressors; house AC units are easy done even fuel-power derated.
Ha! And making less power out then the electrical and electronic packages will operate cooler and should have longer service life’s.

It always pays off to operate systems at 50-70%. No greater than 85% continuously.
Steve unruh

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Maybe I’m missing something, other than portability, why fool with these small air cooled gen sets? when you can buy a good very lightly used liquid cooled 1800 rpm generator that will last through multiple small sets, use less fuel per watt. I bought my 17k 4cyl. water cooled that was taken out of a hospital wing barely used for $2000 with transfer switch. I can pull the Ranger up beside it and run it on wood, They both have basically have the same engines.

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Well Al F. specifically the recent systems I was putting up were Inverter-Generator units.
So a guy or gal would just make one purchase without first going PV; controllers; battery bank and be able to electronics safe power up most any of their current electrical uses.
Use easy gasoline. Use easy propane. Then step into woodgas. Or charcoal gas. As a DIY engine fuel.

As new production units then hundreds, thousands world-wide could easy-go that way.
Old Iron water cooled is Great. But as old, make-no-more; are actually rarer and rarer birds to find.
New iron water cooled 1500/1800 rpm engine electrical units are available too.
Marine. Remote telecommunications. Remote railroad systems.
Then you are talking high $,$$$ to $$,$$$.
Get started feet wet with a $3,000-$5,000 variable speed QUIET 2200-2800 rpm inverter type air-cooled. After it’s stretched out 2-4,000 hour service life (Change the oils! Change the oils!) just buy another. Setting aside the original for electrical electronic service parts. Then a few years later even buy a third. And still be less than a new iron water cooled 1500/1800 unit. Get optimally your 6,000-12,000 hours of service life. Some where in that service time even a water-cooled 1500/1800 rpm unit will need rebuilding too.

By the way the older welder generators 1800 rpm are great units to find too. But if/when the generator side goes bad you will never be able to affordable get the parts to repair-fix that.
Can again buy a whole new air-cooled unit for the costs to repair.

S.U.

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Something that needs looked into is the standone versions of those engines. If the output shaft matches then you are not in it for a whole new generator. Just swap in a new engine, then take the original and see about getting it rebuilt.

I bet this engine is getting replaced with the new version thats in that new one. $1000 bucks to renew that generator after five years is not bad and worth the effort to swap. But I can tell you from working on ours those things are a PAIN tear apart and put back together. But it can be done over a weekend easy.

By the time that one you posted wears out I bet there will be a replacement for it.

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Thanks Steve ! lol I once ran my ride on mower on charcoal gas and it was the easiest engine ever to fire up , although not loaded down under mowing conditions i did add a 100 amp alternator to the power take off pully .
Dave

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There you go, 1200-1400 watts of DC electricity made on a variable speed woodgased IC engine possible. Easy gas/air mixing not having to slave for a fixed RPM.
Direct battery charge. Or go into an inverter for your AC.

Sadly I am no longer able to bring up a wood gassed 3 cylinder water cooled Kabota wood gassed system I set up using two 100+ amp DC alternators. Four belts driven.
Add in two capable separate inverters and then the costs would have approached that $5,000 USD mark for at best 5000 watts.
That system later done with the $$$ worth of Kubota engine adapters as a direct drive DC alternator; or AC generators. Still gets spendy for either the durable capable DC-to-AC inverters; or a fast reacting electronic mixer speed controller system.
That way was virtually no-maintenance’s. But then be very dependent on a very few 1st world sources for later repairs.
My belt drive DC pickup truck alternators for a bit of annual belts maintenance’s could use 500,000 to several millions of pick your brand of vehicles for alternators replacement. And several hundred of thousands of RV’s for inverters replacements.

So 12 years down the road then an ~10,000 watt package system as in this Duromax seems not so unreasonable. Easy any RPM mixing. Any engine RPM above ~2200 will give the oil pressure and cooling flows needed for engine-generators-electronics life’s. Want; need; the higher end watts then work towards richer fuel gas out of the gasifier. Work to wards getting up to 3000 loaded engine rpm.
Utilizing the three different blowing out heat sources for winter wet wood conditioning. Even use the exhaust heat for separate water heating.
Steve unruh

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