Hi everyone I’m curious as to know if i can modify the Wayne Keith gasifier to work on a smaller generator. I’m not sure if the book talks about it as it hasn’t arrived yet. Would i need to insert a firetube restriction? or make a smaller gasifier.
Thanks!
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Hello Josh-man
Welcome to the DOW.
Here are a couple of older posted up video’s showing WayneK talking about his systems.
He traveled ~400+ miles of highways to get from his farm in northern Alabama to this Kansas location.
He used an earlier version of his system to go east coast to west coast and then participate in a use NO Gasoline long rally race.
He did from his larger V-8 engine system once it was V-8 engine warmed up and stabilized; woodgas fuel a smaller portable generator he carried along. The power from that running an electric table saw to cut up road-sides brush woods. And behind stores broken shipping pallet woods.
Ha! I can no longer find the video showing that.
So instead:
This time focus on the easier to make large wood chunk sizing he shows. (And the many questions asked, he answered on the fly.)
The sad, sad truth found by many of us is the smaller the engine system then making a smaller woodgasifier you must make much smaller wood chunks. Labor intensive unless you make a shearing chunker using sap-down, winter woods; with twigs stripped off branches, and sucker growths.
So we divide on experiences learned; thoughts and approaches.
Make a system to with wood fuel using existing owned small electrical generators . . . and that leads to charcoal gasification.
Or acquire/buying a larger electrical generator that can use reasonably sized chunked up woods.
The lower “easy” limit has been proven to be ~1000cc + sized engines. You will now have Premium access side to WayneK making up a down sized unit for his IHC four cylinder gasoline farm tractor. That will show the much smaller fuel he had to then use.
This can be taken even down to ~500cc LOADED sized engines. With much more drying care and size crafting of the wood chunks. Not a WK. Different systems.
Then you hard engine load (pulling, loading the gasifer Hot) in 2-4 hours a day; twice a day batch cycles.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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And a bonus video with numbers; and his personal views:
And WaynK’s open public side viewable downsized tractor system built up:
https://forum.driveonwood.com/t/waynes-international-444-farm-tractor-project
S.U.
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Hello again Josh-man.
In answer to your question of using a drop in internal sizing reduction insert . . .
Or building a smaller gasifier . . .
Your answer in is the Premium side topic WayneK. linked to on post #220 in the topic I put up above.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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Thanks Steve sorry i didn’t see your replies this was very helpful
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So just to clarify if i want to build the Wayne Keith gassifier for a generator i should try building the down size unit?
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I also ave been working on a gasifier for a generator so I am very interested in your project. Matt Ryder has done a lot of work with generators.
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Also is there anybody who has built a Wayne Keith gasifier for a generator?
Thanks!
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Jože, greetings from Slovenia. The WK gasifier is very well designed and has all the predispositions to operate as a stationary unit. If you install it on the same base as the engine, this would allow vibrations to collapse the fuel, but you would also need to add a fan to cool the condensation zone. The engine should produce at least 10 kW so that the gas flow is large enough.
When designing and manufacturing my gasifiers, I use certain WK solutions, but I always like to try out “new” insights into wood gasification.
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Thanks for the reply did you design a smaller gassifier for the 10 kw engine or did you use a full size one?
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Jože, as I wrote above, when building I only copy certain parts of the WK unit, I wrote 10 kW because I assume, based on Wayne’s posts, that this is somehow the lower power limit for this size of gasifier.
What is one of the main “problems” for the non-functioning of the gasifier? Fuel - wood jamming in the storage tank, especially above the narrowed hot zone, so we are left without charcoal below. The original WK is designed so that the fuel fills the hot zone nicely, if I were to reduce the diameter of the hot zone, problems with fuel jamming may occur.
I am testing a new gasifier with a low and wide reduction zone, where the nozzle installation system allows me to expand the reduction area and thus adapt the gasifier to the needs of the engine, my opinion is that there is nothing wrong with the original size of the WK for a lower power drive, well, it is necessary to add additional nozzles or a nozzle for operation at low load.
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Ah ok thank you very much!
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@Tone could you send me some pictures of your build?
Also does anybody know if Wayne in his build series uses flux core mig?
Thanks!
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This is where the “journey” of construction begins…
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Stick, MIG, flux core or TIG. All good. Pin holes and leaks all bad.
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Thanks guys this is helpful!
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