I made a huge score this week I found a honda 13 hp engine and gen that someone was selling for salvage. About 10 hours later I was able to get the gen to work!!! So now my next steps will be to get the parts I need to make Gary’s charcoal gasifier. I think this is the right next step for me as I am not afraid to blow up this generator, the engine has only been run about 5 times, so next on my project list is to collect 55 gal barrels that will be right for this job.
Powermate PM0496500 Black Max 8125 Watt portable generator
FOR SALE; Black Max 8125 Watt portable generator. GX 390 Honda 13.0 Motor in >>excellent condition and runs great. Generator will just not generate. May be >>something simple for someone to fix with the knowledge. Just want it out of the way.
Questions →
Has anyone converted this motor for Gary’s setup?
I have seen Gary’s videos, I think the 55 gal barrel size might work. My target is to charge a battery bank of golf cart batteries with this setup. I figure I should get 3,000 watts of power out of this 6,000 W gen.
Hi Mart ,
I do what your wanting to do , I use old engines mainly Honda’s and B&S to run alternators to charge up Trojan deep cycle 12 and 24 volt battery banks , I also use a 8kva inverter generator to run a power jack inverter charger that has a 120 amp battery charger that I use to charge up the larger 24v system while using the 240v outlet to run my saw and hand tools ect .
Using the basics of Gary’s designs with a few tweak’s on the nozzle I think you will have no problems at all running your 13hp Honda engine .
I think the 55 gallon barrel system might be a little on the large side , but it would keep that 13hp running for at least 10 hours under load I would have thought .
All the best cant wait too see how you get on ,keep us all informed .
Dave
Awesome, good to know my dream is not crazy ( well maybe it is, but I am not alone ) I have a battery set that I have been using for years with solar, my target with this is to fill in the gaps of the cloudy days. I like the idea of the alternator instead of the generator, Perhaps using a solar controller I could feed the power of the gen to the controller so that my batteries don’t get overcharged, but then again I understand that alternators already have that built into them.
I am glad to see several others are duplicating Gary’s design, I think I will be pouring over this forum to get the latest in innovations.
I would be interested in knowing your method of making charcoal. I have the 55 gal barrels ready as Gary shows in his PDF, but I am always looking for a better way.
Hi Mart ,
With a 55gal gasifier you will need a lot of charcoal to keep the height way above the nozzle , so for your large system I think Garys double drum would be the way to go , or if you have time on your hands and you love standing around fires then try the cone method of open burning , there should be some pictures on here or on the yahoo charcoal group site .
I make most of my charcoal from my slow combustion fire in the living room ( wife thinks I’m a good man for keeping the fire nice and clean , every time I load it with wood ) I use mainly hard wood pallets , with some softwood mixed in , so I tend to load the fire once an hour , no big deal for me as its a 2 min job to bring in wood and take out the charcoal , I just open the door move the charcoal to the side and put a large saucepan inside the fire and shovel in the coals stick the lid on pan and carry outside and wait till the next loading of wood and then dump cooler coals into air tight drum .
Works for me and I can make enough to run most days , if I need more I have a very large cone at my friends yard and we light that up if we need bulk .
Dave
I have made biochar for growing my plants so I already have a cone, and I have other barrels to get the job done. I normally wet down the char so it does not burn up.
I guess what I will want to do is sort out the fines and get the right sized charcoal for the job.
A sieve of 3/4 inch approx. For too big material and one with 1/8th inch mesh for removing fines and dust. I ran a 13hp on a 50 gallon barrel 6500 watt generator. It will do the job fine. The limiting factor in your dream might be the inverter charger end of the equation. The size of your battery bank, the charger in your inverter, and how well the Gen head meshes with the inverter. Hopefully that made sense. Using the inverter charger you can only charge at a certain rate then if the bank is too small you can only charge at a certain rate then if the load on the genny changes your inverter might drop out of charge mode due to the slow response speed when on charcoal; Minor problems. It’s probably why so many have gone the DC charging route. Good luck, the dream is good and nobody here would call it crazy☺… we might not be an fair sampling of the population though…
Yes it makes sense. I have been running 6 Trojan 875 batteries now for about 4 years. I have two solar charge controllers and two sets of solar panels on this bank with a 2K inverter, and I also have a 400 W inverter that I use most of the time for small loads. The biggest problem has been 5 cloudy days in a row. Since I run this system not attached to the grid, woodgas looks to be the best route for me. The more I look at this gen, the more I am thinking about pulling that gen off and putting a 24 V DC alternator on. Replacing the brushes every 200 hours on this gen does not sound like a good option to me. I know car alternators would do the job with less headache
So mart the 6 trojan 875 will give you a c10 charge rate of about what… 900watts. That is your happy battery charge rate. Some people argue a faster rate at first and taper off still your 3000 watt charge rate would just be wasted as they cannot absorb at that rate for long. Still play with the genny you have not pine for the one you someday might. Build a unit, get your charcoal making down pat, charge some batteries take all the lessons you can from it and build a better one down the road.
Best regards, David Baillie
Interesting. I have not heard of a c charge rate, only on discharge. It makes perfect sense as the pipe is only so big into the battery so optimal charge might be with say a small lawn mower with an alternator. On our offgrid group we had a guy who made a product called “tune charge” it would take the incoming energy and set the charge to the battery just a volt above the battery current state. It was most efficient. I have made battery chargers, but I never took into consideration a charging rate as the books I read only gave different times for different amp rates. Thanks for the tip!
If you really want to get into that world you should Google the micro cogeneration group . A lot of the members there are serious alternator types with special Regulators for 3 stage charging. They are diesel lovers mostly but lots of lessons there.
Yikes Mart, Guess I better jump in here now that my name is plastered on this thread
A 13 hp engine is a nice size to run on charcoal. I find the hardest part is removing the air filter and attaching a “T” to mix your charcoal gas and air to make a flammable engine gas. A 55 gallon drum is big for your engine but will give you a long run time. One issue with the Simple-Fire design is you need to empty the contents from time to time to remove the ash that accumulates around the nozzle, Not a big deal but the bigger the gasifier, the more weight and bulk you have to deal with.
A one inch iron pipe nozzle and gas outlet will work well for this engine.
When using a cone kiln for making charcoal, shovel the hot coals into an air tight container and let them cool down if you are going to use that for engine fuel, Wet charcoal does not make good engine grade fuel. When you grind it, run it over a screen with 1/8" mesh inclinded at 45 degrees. The fines will fall through and use them for biochar, The courser material is your engine grade charcoal, As David mentions, it should be between 3/4" to 1/8". Welcome to the crazy, wacky and dark side of woodgasification, CHARCOAL!
Gary in PA
Trumpet fanfare, a warrior of woodgas has come among us The crowds cheer!
Thanks for that advice, I will consider a smaller container then. And I will look for an air tight container for my char.
What do you use to grind up your char to get to 3/4 inch? I have several logs that I need to process. I do hope I don’t look too much like a chimney sweep when this is done.
So I like what I see of koen’s design with the tall Pipe. I like how it keeps the heat below, and how the charcoal acts as a filter for the gas. Any down sides to his design?
Hi Mart , the size of the tank will really depend on how long you would like to run a 13hp engine on 1 filling , I have found that a tank the size of Koen’s one will run your engine for about 2 hours under load before it starts geting very hot .
The tank I use is a propane tank that stands 45 inches high and 14 inches dia ,
that will run a engine up to 9hp for nearly 10 hours on a car alternator , but on the much larger inverter generator when its making power and charging battery bank at the same time its about 4 hours till its too hot to touch the pipes .
The best designed tank would be tall with a dia of around 12 inches or slightly larger .
As for grinding your charcoal I use a garden shredder/mulcher with a 1 inch screen, I have taken the belt off the engine and fitted a wheel chair electric 12 volt motor that has enough grunt to slowly crush mine up with only a small amount of dust flying out the top and dropping onto a small mesh screen at 45 degs running down into a tub .
So mart it’s always a tradeoff between runtime and ease of clean out. If it’s stationary you can go bigger and the heat build up more slowly. Small unit runs out quickly but you just pick it up and dump to remove ash and check nozzle. Then think climate. Koen is running in Thailand so having a reservoir of water dripping down making steam and a narrow vessel that bleeds heat and cracks steam makes sense. I have frozen solid water four months of the year and regular frosts for 2 more, -20–30 temperatures for good parts of 2 months; I need to protect the heat in my core and cannot use it to Crack steam. Then I use mostly softwood charcoal which is not very dense so a larger container helps. The point of all this rambling post is your unit should match your conditions. Find one that closely resembles what you want to do and matches your conditions and go for it. Customise from there…
Best regards, David Baillie
I have a battery set that I have been using for years with solar, my target with this is to fill in the gaps of the cloudy days. I like the idea of the alternator instead of the generator, Perhaps using a solar controller I could feed the power of the gen to the controller so that my batteries don’t get overcharged, but then again I understand that alternators already have that built into them.
