I’ve read that cooling of the gas should make the gas more potent by condensing it and removing moisture. I was wondering, in your experience, how much does this help the quality of the gas and how low are you trying to get it?
I was planning on trying to get a good flare going before adding any cooling or filtration. Other than saving my blower from melting, is there any point in cooling at this point in the build process? Am I going to make getting a sustainable flame harder by not cooling the gas?
Saving your blower from melting is a worthy reason for cooling. Any other gas processing equipment beyond also can be melted, causing unhappiness.
You can get a sustainable flame without cooling or filtering. Are you going to run an engine with the gas, or run a forge? The gas needs to be cooled and filtered before sending to the engine intake.
There is lots of watching videos and reading forum posts in your future. I think you skipped over the “homework” assignments! Welcome to the other 75% of this woodgas thing, which is Training!
Thanks Mike. I plan on running a generator eventually.
Oh Ive been doing tons of homework Unfortunately I couldn’t find much on the effects on the quality of the gas if I’m only flaring it. I was hoping to avoid building a fancy gas cooler for a gasifier that doesn’t work
Cooling can start with a simple length of metal pipe, like exhaust tubing or something. The gas exits the gasifier at high temperature, enough to destroy even a tough blower quickly. It is worth adding some cooling, the filter can wait, if you are only flare testing. You can push air into the gasifier, but that is dangerous. you can fill up a space with deadly levels of CO quickly, especially if there are leaks, not burned in the flare.
Since you posted this in charcoal gasification it depends on whether your gasifier is updraft or downdraft, and if updraft, how big the hopper is. Charcoal above the reaction will absorb a lot of heat and will generally allow plastic fittings exiting the hopper. Downdraft would be a much hotter gas but Matt Ryder runs his units with no external cooling other than the supply tubing from the gasifier to the filter box and then the engine. Cooling the gas allows for denser gas, so more potent. The cooler by the time it reaches the engine the better. Of course the same can be said about any fuel.
Thank you all for your help! I’m seeing how important the cooling is in the end product. It also sounds like I should be good to go with just enough cooling not to burn up my blower for testing. I’m assuming if I’m having issues lighting the flare I’ve got other issues.
A simple steel barrell drum is actualy quite effective at cooling the gas. This can also be a great place to put your blower. Very simple and low cost no need for complex cooling tube or other types of coolers. Im done with all that. Just get a drum and put an intput inline with with the gasifiers exaust and then put an out port on the oposing end of the drum.
Interesting. So just the shear volume of exposed surface I guess? I like simple. Just gotta fight the urge to make things overly complicated some times.
I use the smaller drums. Yeah I would not use a 55 gallon. The 30 gallon ones are more typically what I use. Plus I put spring latches on the lid. So they cant build any presure its more like a puff back. But yeah Ive had close calls locking lids lids down. Never ever use a ring clamp, I almost lost my head once
Yeah I should have mentioned that I use the smaller ones with a rubber sealed lid.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find much on the effects on the quality of the gas if I’m only flaring it. I was hoping to avoid building a fancy gas cooler for a gasifier that doesn’t work
