Hey Gary, I’ve been following you on Youtube, and was delighted to find you discussing your gasifiers here! You mentioned a nozzle free intake earlier on this thread. Could you elaborate? I’ve just begun to design a gasifier for my commercial size walk-behind mower and am hoping to keep it as simple as possible without damaging the engine.
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Welcome @CoryW.
You’re probably going to want to look at Gary’s smaller charcoal gasifier, the Simple-Fire, which can be found here: Simple-Fire I believe there’s PDF plans in the files/thread as well.
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Thanks Brian, that’s exactly what I’m planning, but when he mentioned not using a nozzle, it sounded like something that could be incorporated into his simple fire design.
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Hey guys, Time to give you a status update on the 2004 Ford Ranger. Right now it is sitting in the driveway awaiting some upgrades. The rear brakes were fixed over the Christmas vacation when I wasn’t feeling too sick to work on them, Fired it up to go back to work on Jan 4 and it just did not run well. Needed to use gasoline to help it along getting to work and then used gasoline to get back home, I found some water collected in the low spots of the hoses which impeded the flow of chargas to the engine, However, I do not think it was a total blockage. So what else could be the problem???
I’m also making an oil bath final filter to see if it can eliminate any soot reaching the throttle body, The gasifier was emptied and I found a small hole burned in the side of the fire pot. That should not have affected the gas quaility, but now I want to rebuild the fire pot and tuyere. Am thinking of making the unit a little higher to increase the amount of charcoal the unit can carry and therefore increase my driving range.
In the mean time, gasoline is CHEAP so the push to get this project done quickly is not as urgent. I’m also building a kinetic log splitter and that project has been taking up prime floor space for over a year now and has to get done!!! and moved out.
Here is a picture looking into the gasifier at the firepot and tuyere at the bottom, There is several hundred miles on this unit and you can see the ash has built up around the tuyere. Every time I load the gasifier, I use a long rod to break any ash located over the tuyere. This ash can then fall down into the collection area and dumped.
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How about some pictures, and details on the log splitter? thanks, Al
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I have a question for you Garry. You dont seem to have any gas cooling unite on the Ranger. How hot does the gas and filter get?
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I believe that the later charcoal gasification processes are so endothermic (absorbing heat to reduce CO2 into CO) that the gas exiting the reactor is fairly cool without any needed extra cooling.
I think Gary once said that he knows his charcoal is running low when the gas leaving the reactor gets above 100F (37C) or so. Don’t quote me on that number, it’s just a rough memory.
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Wonder if that is only true for an updraft sistem like Garys becouse my crossdraft gas gets quite hot at the exit…
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My guess is that is the reason folks were saying that 20cm wasn’t really enough space/charcoal to fully reduce the combustion gases from the nozzle area. I would think that with a larger space of charcoal between the nozzle and the exit, that a cross-draft would also have low exit temperatures.
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Mine runs about 120f but still cool it some before the plastic tubing. At first it runs hotter but after it warms up and the engine is running strong the gas cools down.
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Well that is interasting! Tells alot of whats going on in the heart at a cold start!
I just cant understand one thing. CO2 reduction can only hapen in a about 700C + enviroment. If the temp gets lower the reaction stops right? Doesent that mean that the gas at the edge of the reduction zone is always 700? How is it possible to cool it down to 50* then? Does the gasifier walls in a updraft sistem and the fuel bed cool the gas so much?
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My charcoal might be a bit wet because it’s about four years old. Just no time to make new charcoal. So the moisture might get cooked out in the beginning of operation carrying the heat with the humid gas. As it drys out the temp drops.
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I think Jeff is right. Dry gas can’t hold a lot of heat energy. No mass to carry it. Temps can be high but the amount of heat energy is low.
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Hey guys, will try to answer some of the questions. The log splitter is nearly done. Some pictures when finished and running on chargas. Look for it under its own topic.
My exit gas stays relativley cool until the depth of charcoal over the reduction zone is getting low, then the temps climb. My cut off temp is around boiling (212F) on the cyclone inlet. If I open up the gasifier at that time, I will see glowing coals meaning I am losing the ability to reduce the CO2. Time to refill.
A cross fire gasifier usually has a short distance between the nozzle and gas outlet. This means a lot of hot chargas will be exiting the gasifier and need cooled. With my system, the hot chargas has to move through at least one and up to two feet of small diameter charcoal before it can exit the gasifier, This charcoal is a very good insulator and captures the heat. As noted the CO2 reduction happens at 700C but that hot reaction is well insulated by lots of charcoal. As the hot CO leaves the area of reduction, it’s heat is absorbed by the charcoal. This makes exit chargas from an updraft style charcoal gasifier relatively cool. (until the charcoal bed is lowered allowing hot gases to escape)
As Jeff relates, if you leave charcoal around for a year or so in the humid climate of an area like PA, it will absorb water. I too had the same issue and found water condensing in my pipes. Fresh made charcoal did not do this.
Enough for now,
Gary in PA
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The charcoal bed realy looks like an amazing insulator. Does the engine alsow start to loose power at that point?
I just measured my gas at about 120c at the outlet of the crossfire gasifier at full engine power so looks like reduction goes all the way. Tryed to run the engine without cooling water and it ran ok. my filter got to maybe 40c but it is alsow worth mentioning the outside temp is about -10*c so some cooling will still be neaded at least at summer time.
Alsow put that theory to the test and the gas was actualy hotter (or carryed mere energy with it) when useing too much steem injected in the heart.
Thank you all for the interating ideas! (and sorry for a bit of an offtopic)
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Not in this case. The damp charcoal is on top and after the reaction zone (hearth). Just drying out the fresh charcoal added.
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When I was in high school I watched a kid hold his tennis shoe up against the tailpipe of a bus it did stall but the kid had some prety good burns on his foot
Two big yams will do the trick , you have to pound them in one after the other. I know I did this to my brother’s hot rod mussle car. After he made my mom walk home from town, three miles.
Took him several days to figure it out.
Jesse
Any update for the status of the Ford Ranger project?
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OPEN LETTER TO GARY GILMORE;
Gary could you kind of summarize your Ford situation. At first you had some problems running it. What did you eventually find was the problem. You made it to Argos, I see by the pictures. I know you are from Penn. so how many miles was it one way and I guess, most was on the turnpikes. How much charcoal did it take and did you use a mentionable amount of petrol? After you got to Argos what did you do for charcoal on the trip home or did you got to petrol. I see in one picture there was a charcoal grinder in Argos, so did you make more char down there ? I see in one video that you are able to cruise right along at 50+ mph. I love the idea of a lighter vehicle. Been looking for a Chev S10 with a 4.3 L engine that I could switch my gassier directly over to, but in my search, I see many more little Fords. Very good job in promoting charcoal and on getting to Argos.TomC
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Hi Tom, Thanks for the “push” to update the Ford Ranger project. Here is a brief over view of what has happened and the latest info. This project started in August of 2015 with the first running on charcoal. This used the fire pot design that allowed air to enter from the bottom. About 1,000 miles later I found this design was burning out and took it off. During this time I found out that running on charges can mess with the truck’s computer. The usual start up procedure is to start on gasoline then switch to charges. It got harder and harder to start on gasoline. On month later I recorded “Would not start!”
For nearly a month, I was working on getting it running again. What I have learned is the computer is opening the fuel injectors to give the engine more gas at start up. Basically the engine is being flooded. This information took months to figure out though. In fact at Argos I was shown how the Long Fuel Trim monitor can show whether the computer thinks the engine is starved for fuel or not.
In December, I pulled the Ranger off the road to fix the rear brakes and rebuild the fire pot in the gasifier. The project did not move ahead until April when the new fire pot was installed. I also installed a cooling rack to help remove excess water from the gas stream. Depending on air temp and the amount of oil drip, the wool filter could get too damp and slow down the flow of gas. I also am experimenting with an oil bath filter to help remove fine soot. A few test runs and I decided to take it to the Argos event. The start up procedure now is to start the engine on charges (no chance of flooding it) then switch to gasoline. It takes about two to three miles running on gasoline to get the charges generator up to heat and aking good gas. At that time I turn off the fuel pump and run on charges.
The trip to Argos was made on gasoline except for the last 15. I really felt the need to pull into the fairgrounds running on charcoal instead of gasoline. 
The project is far from over though. My travel range is about 25 miles before needing to refill the hopper. This means a bigger hopper and right now I’m leaning toward using a 55 gallon drum. The current gasifier is a 30 gallon drum. I’ve also have an idea for a different nozzle that if successful will give me a more depth to the charcoal bed.
So I need to get this posted and then get to work. I’ll be taking the Ranger and smiling with every mile!
I’ll be meeting with several people to plan a field day event at a local ranch. This guy does intensive rotational grazing to fatten the cattle. He is using charcoal to supplement the minerals the cattle eat. My part to the presentation is on how to make the charcoal. (Go figure!) I remember a post from Wayne about two years ago where he showed charcoal dumped in the pasture It was followed up with another picture of what happened to that charcoal the next day. Basically the cows ate it! There is something to that and just another use for that amazing black stuff.
This evening I’ll try to post some pictures of the old fire pot and the new one.
Gary in PA
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