I’m from rural Quebec, Canada. My challenges include converting my 2009 Silverado. Anyone has done this locally? Are these gasifier systems available Canada?
Doing organic gardening and a lot of volunteer driving - taking folks to their medical appointments. Using wood heat all winter, I recently discovered wood gas burners or furnaces that produce much more heat than a simple wood stove. So my time is limited even though I am retired. Always looking for a simple and fast solution (don’t ask me to tell what I just discovered about artesian wells and manual pumps!) for rural living.
Cheers!
Welcome to the forum! I don’t think there are any people that sell gasifiers for an engine in Quebec, but then again I am not Canadian so I wouldn’t know.
What engine does your Silverado have? The 4.3L V6, the 5.3L V8?
Welcome to the site George. There are some no-weld gasifiers that can run a small engine, such as a generator, but no simple or fast solutions to powering a truck like that. Anyone can learn to do basic welding especially with all the information about it on youtube, and it is a valuable skill set to have. simple gasifiers can be fabricated without welding but none that I’m aware of that would power a vehicle.
Hi George, welcome to this forum. There is a lot of great information on this site I’m sure you will find it very useful. I know I have.
I’m from Manitoba and have just started into gasification. Like the others said I don’t think you will find a system for a vehicle that doesn’t require any weld. If you aren’t afraid to learn you can pick up a nice little welder and learn the skills of welding as you are building the gasifier.
When I began the gasifier for my truck I had only used a welder a couple times learning as I went. By the time I was done I had a work gasifier. It may have more problems than an experienced builder would have, but that is all part of the learning.
I can honestly say I didn’t really know how to weld until I started working on gasifiers. I had played around with them and stuff barely held together. Now I can do mostly airtight welds.
Although many types of vehicles have been successfully gasified, for a long time, the Dodge Magnum 5.2/5.7/V10 was the go-to engine of choice. As those vehicles are becoming more difficult to locate, we’re hoping to pivot to a newer platform, and Chevy’s LS looks promising.
I don’t know if anyone has even tried with an '09.
First welcome! Everyone wants you to be successful on your journey. Since you are new to woodgas. You may want to look at Wayne Keith’s book. It will explain a lot of what is needed to get it working and quite a bit of detail on the operation so you know what you are getting into. It will be a time saver even if you don’t choose to build it.
Second, what you are going to use to fuel it is important in the design consideration. No matter what fuel you use, it almost has to be fairly consistent in size to get it to flow through the system.
Third, since you mentioned you may not be a good welder, and you are an organic gardener. You may want to look at a charcoal gasifier. There are a couple of no-weld builds.
@Matt builds and sells charcoal gasifiers for small engines/generators. What you might really like about them, is the process of making charcoal, which is literally the black char in the firepit, is exothermic so you can heat, and you can still have fuel for later. He has a whole thread on his processes, and heats his shop while making char.
The other part that is more interesting to you, is that Biochar and charcoal depending on who is defining biochar are really the same thing (they vary by who is making the definition). You can’t get enough biochar for growing plants, the only caveat is it needs to be loaded with bacteria and nutrients or else it sucks them up from it’s surroundings the first year or so.
Like all other gasifiers the sizing of the material matters so you crush up the charcoal you get small bits and pieces that are too small for a gasifier, and you have a use for them.
Charcoal was used as a filler material in potting soil similar to perlite up until the 1970s when the Tree-huggers thought they were saving planet earth by saving all the tree’s that are essentially being farmed, and really that maybe why the hair splitting for the definition of biochar vs charcoal. ("oh it isn’t charcoal! it is biochar!) You may find that it has more value as a soil amendment then a fuel except in backup power situations. Thus everything you do isn’t really wasted effort. The temperature it is cooked at also determines the quality and characteristics. I posted a video on it somewhere here.
Last, I will put this out here to think about, because the technology and prices are changing. if you get an EV truck, to do your deliveries with, then you will most likely save money, and it will be the easiest. You can add a char gasifier, and a generator as a range extender. You folks pay less then we do in the US for electric, so a gasifier may only be worth it for backup power, and both chevy and ford have vehicle to home technology for extra of course. Chevy’s RST with the extended range is 440 miles (unloaded). Whether it is worth it or workable for your situation is not something I can or will determine. It is something to just to keep in mind, and look at every once in a while. It is relatively new technology, not only does the tech change but the prices change relatively quickly.