Thrive Energy Systems is on the way! Im roughing out one of two new websites for our 2017 launch. Check out the about page and brief history of Vulcan and the introduction of Thrive Energy Systems. Many reasons for the change we need a better marketing platform in order for us to diversify and also need to separate our marketing side as we now have a distribution network.
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Ok four days of very long hours designing these sites. The logo will probably change but will do for now, I have the basic ground work done and infrastructure setup for both sites and business operation moving forward. Official launch will be October 1st, this is when we launch our next model years. However, both sites will be up and running tomorrow with redirects from both VGLLC sites. Some pricing has been lowered but some pricing is higher. All Evolution machines all have very detailed data sheets as well.
Thrive Off Grid Store
http://vulcangasifier.wixsite.com/thriveoffgrid
Thrive Energy Systems Main page updated
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Hey Matt, Great looking site. I took a tour , you seem to have it nice and neat.
Iād love to demo some of your unites here in ILL. Hope you make a ton of money. Great job.
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Hi Matt, glad you have things up and going with your new websites. I notice you use Predator OHV engines, is there any modifications you do other than the intake for the wood gas?
Iām thinking that I will buy the 13 hp (420cc) Horizontal shaft and mount it on my wood chunker so I can gas or woodgas.
Bob
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Hi Matt,
I just took a quick tour of your sites and am very impressed with your drive, history( really liked this) and new products. Best of luck to you, you certainly earned and deserve it. Pepe
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No we do not do anything to the engines it just is not cost effective enough to deal with those challenges. We size the engines with a 50% derating to meet our target outputs. On the Cummins engines they are already setup for natural gas so we dont need to do anything with them. They are truly tuned as well, not just an adapted engine they are built and designed for NG, this goes way beyond timing and other tweaks. The 15 kW machine we will be using a tiny 2.4 ltr engine, to hit this output; this will show what the capabilities truly are with specific built engines.
But you donāt need to do all of this; with engines at this smaller level just factor in a 50% derating and be done with it. You can then always tweak on some things later and then you will have an even better system, if this is something your up for doing.
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Right on Pepe! Yeah its been a long long road!!
For all you small engine wood gas guys. Find yourselves a twin engine. they are usually a little bigger and they have many advantages. They run smoother and are more stable, your gasifier can be built a little larger as well. Small scale is just not easy to do, knowing what I know now, 12" diameter is about the limit for a practical small scale system. As start going smaller than this, flow issues and heat will become an issue. Make it easy for yourselfs and stay in this 12 to 14" range. you still can drive geometry to tune for your desired engine range and this will get you more practical run times.
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Thanks Matt, I appreciate your input on this.
Bob
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Matt is correct, smaller is harder. My units have 6 inch diameter hearthsā¦ they work good but a well designed hopper transision is a must to keep feed stock flowing. Can be done just takes more work
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Thanks Arvid for the info. Yes my 18" WK gasifier eats large pieces of wood. No feedstock problems there. I will probably just use a charcoal gasifier to power my engine on the wood chunker. Simple to set up. I have been looking at a Twin Horizonal Shaft 22hp. I will need a little more power to run the conveyer belts for piling wood up into my wood drying crib.
Bob
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one of the best advice ever postedā¦
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I dont mean too interupt this conversation but what is matt talking about 12 too 14 " the hopper or burn tube hearth.?
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the top of your hearth diameter should match your hopper diameter. You can not change physics however you can overcome them. 
On the Imbert dimensions chart use specs from one of the first three lines. Pick the one that will best fit your target goal. Do not make any changes to this, use the jet hights, ring diameter, restriction size and jet openings for chipped wood fuels. If you use a flat plate restriction system vs and inverted cone then use the face of this plate to the center height of your jets for the jet height dimensions. Your over all hearth dimensions will be 2" or more larger than what is specified in the chart for these first sets of dimensions in the chart. You can also go larger with your grate diameter, this will allow your machine to breath a little better.
Terminology, ha!! If you were to come to our shop we do not use typical terminology. We look at things much differently. The āhearthā, āfire tubeā , āburn chamberā is what we call the oxidation zone our first stage reactor. All stages after this starting at the restriction and throat deal with the reduction and is broken down into different stages of the reduction processes.
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I supose with a stationary system the hoper might better be same size as burn tube, too keep the wood from bridgeing, is that what you are saying.??
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Not putting words into MattRās mouth . . . . but . .
the most easiest and fuel flexible stationary use woodgasifier that Iāve operated was configured with a TALL narrow hopper (and a center height extending drop tube section) only slightly larger in diameter to the lower hearth section.
All the blend in transitions were at ~5-7 degrees.
Video somewhere of this up: 2010 Victory summer BBQ. The system set up that was āUnicorn poopā supplement fed. (wild deer poop)
Well worth the ladder needed for refuelings.
Stationary woodgasing should not ever be handicapped by mobile/vehicle limitations of space, weight and compactness needs.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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We may go to something like that on auger fed systems. Since the primary hopper capacity is not relevant, on these systems. So the bottom of the primary hopper will be slightly smaller for transitioning into the oxidation zone. The fuel level will also be small and kept linear keeping the energy in the drying zone also linear and more effective as the fuel capacity is in the means of the process. The hopper shape Im thinking will have a slight cone shape (inverted cone).
Cheers
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That make good engineering sence,thanks for clearifing my slow reading, Steeve U and Matt.R
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Here is an example of sticking to the Imbert specifications. On the new Utility Series II system this thing just kicked my butt. This has 2" restriction with an 8" heath. I jetted this with smaller jetting and tighter jet ring than what is specified for a 2" restriction. However, since this has a much smaller hearth I figured we would need this. I jetted this machine about 5 different times until I went back and looked at Imbert chart and studied it bit. The only thing this machine had in common to the smallest specifications was the restriction size. So I dialed the jets openings and the jet ring to line 1 or A depending on what one you are looking at and lo and behold it finally worked. This is not to mention we also completely rebuilt this machine with a deeper reduction system and added a reduction bowl. Neither of these revisions worked or made any improvement.In the end it was the relationship of the restriction to the jet systems that made the difference. Im sure the other revisions have made some improvement. The carburator addapter we build has a small hole drilled into the bottom of it. Thsi is to expell moistures that build up in here with out it moisture will just collect and eventually the engine will suck in this water and bog it down and will do this intermitantly as it accumulates. Ok before we come up with the proper jetting; this hole would expell tars almost like spray paint. It would have made a great method of coating your driveway with a tared top coat. haha. So now that we installed these new jets it went from this to nothing not even water condensate. The machine ran cooler as well, I think what was happening is the char bed was burning out and unable to keep up with the machine. There is an exothermic reaction that is taking place in the machine. It should be very hot at combustion and gas temps should cool dramatically after it exits your grate. The higher heat diferentail you have the better this is telling you have a good char bed. If you have very hot temperatures coming out of the machine and weak gas this is indicating you do not have a good char bed and many things can cause this. Bridging can be the issue as fuel flows stop above your oxidation zone and your char bed is then consumed. The bridge breaks and then raw fuel drops in with raw fuels now in place of where your char should be. In our case the jet ring was too small, so it was not processing enough fuel to fill our redcution and it was never able to keep up. 
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Hi matt, sounds like you are makeing great progress on your designs, good luck and blessings from above with your good working gasification systems. I found a motor for my truckāits a 350 out of a burnt too the ground truck, getting bearings ring kit tomaro ordered. Caint wait too start the 75% of DOW.PS. the truck burned out from a gasoline line his mechanic forgot too put the clip on the fuel line.
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