I think that I’ve mentioned this, but I used to live on a place with apple and plum orchards. Deer would come along and eat the fallen fruit. The deer got noticeably “wobblier” as the fruit started to age and rot. It was only during this “wildlife kegger” period that we’d see the deer eating charcoal out of our fire pit. We’re pretty sure that they had figured out that this would help with the hangover.
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Gary,
Your pluck inspires me. It took a few minutes to realize that the computer is substituting “charges” for “char gas.” I was hoping for better than 25 miles with the 30 gallon barrel. I am thinking of adding a weighted metal disc (on chains or rods) to keep the charcoal descending evenly and to provide a thermal barrier when the reduction zone starts radiating through the reduced overhead charcoal. What do you think?
-Bruce
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Bruce,
That metal plate sounds like a good idea. I noticed when I open my hopper that the charcoal has a cone shaped depression down the center and one time when I refilled I could see glowing charcoal down in the center but when I leveled out the charcoal and filled the depression the glow was covered by at least 3 inches of charcoal.
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Don,
Thank you for this feedback. I was thinking about using a vibrator from a sand spreader, but then thought about a disc.
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Hi Bruce, Sure missed you at Argos. Don and I could have used a little more “charcoal” support being surrounded by all those orange flaring wood gas pickups:grinning:
Thanks for pointing out the computer correction of chargas I did not know it was changing the spelling on me, As Don notes, I too have a funnel shaped depression,. The charcoal around the nozzle burns away and is replaced by more charcoal directly above it, This creates the depression, To get longer run time you will need to make the gasifier taller or use something to pull the charcoal from the sides into the center, As I envision your disc idea, will it hang from a chain and swing back and forth? I would not be worried about dissipating heat in the gasifier. When it gets that hot, your charcoal bed is too shallow and excess heat is escaping. This is also the time you will be getting CO2 escaping since the layer of reducing charcoal is compromised.
Gary in PA
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l thod of a plate on top of char bed too but after some thinking i abandoned that idea becouse of the cone depresion. ln my opinion a plate wuld prevent the char from the sides to fall in the depresion eaven more. But hey, just a thod. Might work great.
That shaker might be the anwser for the problem thugh…
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I wonder if Jeff’s design doesn’t solve this problem.
He has a hopper on top, connected to the reaction chamber by a section of pipe (maybe 8" in diameter?)
The pipe protrudes down into the reaction chamber a little bit (2 or 3 inches?)
So, the fresh charcoal would always be falling into the middle.
And he picks up his gas in the void between the sidewall and the pipe at the top of the reaction chamber.
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Thanks to all for discussing the weight idea. I have a round disc that just fits inside my reactor. I plan to cut the disc in half. When the reactor is full, the straight centerline edges of these two half-round weights will meet and rest on top of my transverse central outlet pipe. This forms a crude hinge allowing only the outer edge of each weight to descend like a clam shell closing. This will press the charcoal toward the center. As the charcoal lowers, eventually the straight edges will slip off of the pipe. Each of the straight edges have two chains bolted to the outlet pipe so that these centerline straight edges can only drop so far before the chains form a new hinge point and the outer round edges again descend pressing the outer charcoal toward the center filling in the depression. Like an iron butterfly flapping twice downward, then hanging safely at the upper limit of the reduction zone.
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Bruce, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to rig up something that gets pulled near the end of the second “flap” and alerts you that you’re almost out of fuel.
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Hi Gary
I have a 410 mm diameter by 980 mm tall gas bottle that i would like to use for a stationary charcoal gasifier. Is there a maximum on height or could I join two together to get a 1960 mm height ?
Regards
Werner
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I’d think that dragging the gas through that much charcoal might cause some issues of air resistance losses/drains to your power.
I think @k_vanlooken has run a few charcoal units that were nearly those dimensions, but I can’t remember how well they worked.
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The 960 size tank is what I use and there isn’t a problem with pulling from that height , even with the very small fan that I use , so joining 2 together shouldn’t really be a problem , but you could always have the gas outlet half way up if there was .
You will of course need a good set of steps to reach the top for refilling though 
Dave
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Hi Werner, After doing a little math, I see you are talking about a gasifier that is about as tall as me (6 foot) There is no problem pulling chargas through that amount of charcoal provided you have it sized from 2mm to 2cm, (I had to find a metric ruler to figure that one out) The carbon monoxide will make its way through the maze of charcoal to the outlet pipe. The down side it the amount of time it will take for start up since you must suck all the air out of your gasifier and replace it with CO. But you will have a long run time. The only time I’ve had an issue with a tall gasifier is when it was hauled down the road and the jarring caused the charcoal to settle.
Go for it,
Gary in PA
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Hi Gary
Thank you for the answer.
How far above the nozzle (tuyere) do you think the actual burning is happening?
Or is the nozzle in the burning zone?
Regards
Werner
Hi Gary and Don and every one else
I am stepping into the dark side (Join the dark side,we have charcoal)
I still need to machine the stainless water drip ring
I think my question is where would the fire ball sit in this configuration?
Regards
Werner
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Reference to the actual size of the concentric sch 40 12" x 4" reducer demonstrated my son who is stepping into the dark side. He is a great Char Wars fan.
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The first and most inportant information is what kind of gas consumption do you have in mind. The way your touyere looks like ((great machinework by the way) l wulld guess you culd hook anything from a 1kw engine to ~80kw engine since it looks like it can be adjustible. For a refference l can tell you my Seat gasifier has an reaction zone of about 20 cm x 4 nozzles at full power. The engine is 35kw 1.0l.
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Wow Werner and son! You are taking this to another level! Looks like you are making an adjustable nozzle? I see now why you want to know where the metal melting fire lives in relation to the nozzle. In my experience (which is less than Gary’s is that where oxygen meets the char is where the fire starts and then above that… In looking at your nozzle plug I see a lot of metal above the slit where air is introduced. Depending on how far down this is lowered during operation - that will absorb a lot of heat (overheat?) above the area where the rushing air will cool it. The only other concern I see is the steep slope of the concentric cone which might be too close to the intense heat at the bottom. That is where Gary’s first build with this concept failed. I think the flatter the better at the nozzle area and let the charcoal form its own concentric cone.
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My thods are with Don. One more thing to consider is slag formation. The slag will flow to the touyere due to conical shape and force air all over the place, heating the cone eaven further. l experianced that about a month ago and l almost burned the gasifier wall, not pretty.
But hey, might work great. If we never try nothing new we will never achive progress in tehnology so keep the charcial glowing! And wellcone to the dark side, may the force be with you 
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Hi Kristijan
You are right ,it is adjustable and wide open it will give a opening of about 65 mm diameter.
Hi Don
If i remove half of the reducer it will take the bottom diameter to 8", will that be okay or will it still be to steep.
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