Vulcan Gasifier

Outstanding video Matt! I like the center barrel dropbox/cyclone/cooler setup. How hot does that get? Do you find most of the stuff that settles out is at the outside perimeter of the barrel where the cyclone effect throws it so it doesn’t get sucked up again by the center drop pipe? How large (2 cylinder) engine will that handle?

Hi Don,

I had many doubts about this machine. How much it would run, stability and that cooler / cyclone thing. The cooler was very surprising it works!! Yes we took off the top and sides are coated nice and evenly and you can see the swirl pattern. It does get quite hot and it is more of a precooler before getting over to the fine filter. This is fine I think, the gas is plenty cool by the time it leaves the cooler and the added moisture in the hay filter aids the filtering process. For what it is Im quite happy with it. We did a lot of stupid simply things that work, that the high end machine may inherit.

I think 15 hp is going to be the maximum this will run for practical and stability reasons. The engine in the video is a 9.5 hp Kohler and it runs that very stable, so this is the range Im going to recommend.

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Well finally got things caught up and ready for the 2016 model year. I got our shop all cleaned up and reorganized and set up for the new production systems. CNC is mostly done so we are cutting full sheets at a time now on all products. This is so much faster than one piece at a time like we have done before. Thats a lot of work without the software, this is like a giant jig saw puzzle trying to fit all the parts onto a sheet with minimal scrap.

So anyways back to building the Flex R-1 builds, they are coming along so nicely and look cool. The new ash clean out turned out really nice and is just going to be nice feature. No more breathing all that dust during ash clean out :fire:

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Really nice and clean looking unit Matt!!!

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Yup… what Herb said, nice looking machine

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Yup little by little.

And to think this is the very first Micro and all developed from here.

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Good evening Matt R, Those 5 too 15 horse machines should sell pretty good it seem like, Are the tubes easy too clean out from soot build up, Looking good

Use your largest gasifier to feed a modified NG furnace or radiant gas fired tube heaters.

Unfortunately we don’t make enough to afford one of our big ones. We have two barrel stove kits on order now and a wood furniture manufacturer next door that will supply us all the fuel we can stuff into them :smile:

I do have a 2015 ES-IV for sale if anyone is interested. This is normally a $16,000.00 gasifier and we are going to let it go for $10,000.00 and will come with the management systems. The customer has decided they want to upgrade to the new technology slated for next year. We are working on replacing the hopper with a gravity feed hopper so we need to do this yet.

Well here is the first 2016 Flex R-1 machine, I built the electrical box tonight and will work on the fuel mixer system tomorrow. Should have this ready to run this weekend. :fire:

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Looks good Matt R, that must be the one made too run the 12.000 watt generator around 5000, I could hook that too my plasma cutter.or mig welder and build all day long on wood chips.I run across anyone looking for a top notch unit i will send them your way.

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The electronic fuel mixer controller is now available. It comes standard with a 1" valve but we can build up to 2" valves upon request. Pricing $950.00

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Burning the machine in today, we ran the generator for an hour on full auto mode. The chips I have suck they are seasoned but have been left in the rain and are soaking wet. I got a clothes dryer at my disposal, we are going to dump some chips in that thing and see what happens lol :fire:

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[quote=“Matt, post:205, topic:279”]
I got a clothes dryer at my disposal, we are going to dump some chips in that thing and see what happens lol :fire:[/quote]
Your genius is unsurpassed at times like this. :smiley:

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Well if you are in a pinch and need to dry your fuel this does work. What I did was wrap a load of chips in a bed sheet and zip tied the corners together. Our fuel is soaked, the meter we have wont even register. It took four full cycles to fully dry. I got this dryer at a second hand store for 25 bucks a few years ago. :fire:

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Good enough for a pinch in time,on the wood drier idea.I only see the pics , no actual vidio of it working the generator, no gas in the tank this time, jokeing, I really like too see it plasma cutting some 1/4" plate off the generator, while powered with wood. :hourglass_flowing_sand: :dart: Nice work and nice setup.

Ok here is the Flex R-1 with Predator running under load in action!!

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Have you tried the plasma cutter around 35 amps,or is that too much for the gasifier,Thanks

Our plasma cutter does not have the right plug or I would have tried it. 35 amps @ 220 V I is 7700 watts, this would be more than the rated 5 kW rated output. When we rate the machines we cut the generator output by 50% this gives the machine a reasonable rating that we know can be achieved. However, 70% of the power can be harnessed but conditions must be perfect and this is not always going to be the case.

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Looking good Matt.

Thanks for the video :relaxed:

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I have a lotos cutter,and i havent measured the voltage yet though i thought the voltage was reduced too save on watts overall, have you checked the voltage while cutting on you plasma cutter,Thanks