I understand that the outout of an updraft wood gasifier is hydrogen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen compounds and methane, plus some other trace gases. When combusted in an open flame what emissions are produced? Most importantly, what happens to the carbon monoxide during combustion?
Tim
Hello Timothy and wellcome!
Updraft WOOD gasifiers are rarely, if ever used. Updraft is reserved for charcoal gasifiers. Main reason being that the tar produced by the pyrolisis of wood is like poison to the engine and the whole sistem so we get rid of it by passing it trugh a lair of hot caarbon, where the tars get destroyed. Thats the purpose of a downdraft.
Charcoal has no tar in it so this step is not nessesery.
Carbon monoxide is actualy the main burnable gas in woodgas, along with hydrogen. If the gas is rich, air mixture correct, so that the gas burns clean and hot, the only byproducts are H2O, CO2 and nitrogen. CO gets oxidised in to CO2.
Thank you for the explanation of the CO. Wood gasification isn’t intuitive to me.
I have opportunites for free wood chips because outdoors burning of woody rubbish is not permittted in open containers due to local fire risk. The arborist crews must haul woodchips to disposal sites. Currently, mulched Christmas trees are available for free.
I thought an updraft gasifier would be okay for continuous loading of wood chips via an archimedes screw.
Texas A&M claims that a local juniper has the BTU equivalent of brown coal. This drought tolerant tree grows like a weed and is commonly shredded.
Tim
Hi Timothy,
Welcome.
Here we mostly want to run various kinds of engines. Emissions from burning woodgas or charcoalgas in an engine are very low because the flame temperature is relatively low. It makes almost zero NOx, so if you’re not running rich you will have almost zero emissions.
I think the easiest way to get started is with a charcoal gasifier. So you have to learn to make charcoal. Here is a link to some of my experiences.