Vulcan Gasifier

Keep me posted as you test it… very cool

A trick I learned at work watching the operator at the sand plant.
His goal is to catch a certain grain size of sand for blending in to fill.
Too much fines and the sand won’t drain.
Too large a cyclone will not catch the desired product.

At the School of mines up your way they have a mill in the basement and the ground control mechanics .
They teach cyclone and particle size ect…

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Yup, I reduced our cyclone size on the larger machines, not enough velocity. Because this machine is so compact the gas does not get to travel very far to cool and filter. The cyclones on this are the same as our Flex R-1 so at this velocity they should work very well. If anything they will be very effective at cooling. Even if they do not drop moisture it will drop later in our mixer canister and that would actually be more desireable.

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Thanks Matt! The link as very helpful. McMaster has all the good stuff. I keep forgetting how much stuff they have.

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Finished up the loading plat form and hopper lid tonight. Looks more finished now. :fire:

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I wanna see it run…

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Here is the the Autofeed hopper add on system for the Flex R1. This will fit all existing 2015 M-IV models as well. The stock hopper will just need replacement with an updated version.

This hopper should extent run times out to 12 hours @ 5 kW output. The Flex R1 stock hopper is 1.5 CF this hopper increase this capacity out to 26 CF.

We will begin building the very first one next week :fire:

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Matt - Sorry. I am late to this thread. What kind of fuel does this thing burn?

Wood chips like the Wayne Kieth gasifier. Matt has adjustable nozzles so you can tune it for different fuels. He has a reduction plate for the micro so it can run pellets. I don’t think the flex needs the reduction plate for pellets, Matt?

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That’s pretty impressive. I had considered a large hopper design very similar to that as a later add-on to the KG, but I was concerned that it wouldn’t feed the wood chunks well enough.

Glad to see that Matt was able to make it work.

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I think Matt’s Vulcans run chips (no bigger than a large coin, could fit dozens in one’s hand); whereas Wayne’s systems use chunks (roughly the size of a baseball/orange, could maybe fit 2-3 in one’s hand)

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The Flex can run fuels up to 2" squared. We typically run chips about the size of a domino. You could run larger or smaller. If running anything smaller it must be sized enough so it still has density and weight to it.

The auger hopper on the Flex Version it runs a 4" shafted auger. So as long as the fuel will process through it, they will work.

Pellets do require jet tuning and if the 4" x 3" restriction is installed, it would need replaced with our 4 x 2 restriction.

Yes the micro has an insert for pellets

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Oh yeah your machine shipped, actually you might get it today :fire:

Do you have a way of making “domino” size fuel in quantities for daily running?TomC

Wood chipper comes pretty close.

Fuel processing is a big issue to me.

I have thought of how to “feed” my Keith gasifier, and the best plan I have come up with is to buy wood scraps from a nearby handle mill. These scraps are 100% hickory, and come in pieces measuring about 1" to 2" square, with lengths typically in the 1 foot range. I would have to make a “mini-chunker” to cut these down to about 2.5" long.

I think a guy from my area (Denny) brought some of these scraps down to Wayne a few years ago, and they worked out pretty good.

I am a little frustrated that, even though I have a sawmill and access to an unlimited supply of slabs, etc. I can’g come up with an idea to process the fuel as efficiently as I could those hickory sticks. However, I can get the sticks for very cheap, and they are uniform.

Most mills nowdays have chippers, and I would add a chipper to my mill if it made good gasifier fuel. However, I am thinking that it might be a little too fine for the Keith gasifiers ???

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that would be a Chris or Wayne question. You can always try it too, chunks are going to get you a better fuel density and may bridge less on a larger machine.

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Good morning Kyle .

I remember Denny and his wife coming down for a visit several years back. If I remember correctly Denny was getting cull hickory drum stick material . Seem like they were just over an inch in diameter and about 16-18 inches in length… They would be perfect gasifier fuel if cut in 2-3 inch pieces .

A chunker works really well with green material but these sticks are dry. I think your best bet on this dry hickory is a saw . These sticks being a uniform diameter it would be very easy to build a jig ( tube ) ruining them into a chop saw or table saw .

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I think this rig would be great for your uniform sticks. Since I’m not into electronics, I would use a crank to move the carriage back and forth.

Or maybe this one. Heck, with this one you could add an angled chute and the pieces would just slide down and drop into the notches by themselves.

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That is a negative Matt, it was supposed to arrive yesterday but the driver was a no show.

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