Gary Gilmore, My start to building a charcoal gasifier

General Discussion
#123

Hi Mart ,
Good to see your still working at your system , but what I don’t understand is why the need for all those tig nozzles into the one pipe , unless I have missed something along the way .
I have managed to run a 13hp engine with a single nozzle that looks to be about the hole size that your tig nozzles are and trust me its easier to seal up 1 nozzle rather than 4 bunched together , but I have to admit it does look cool almost like a rocket waiting to fire , I wish you luck with the trial mixture of sodium silicate and vermiculite its only by trial and error we move forward to that eureka moment .
And who knows what we might come up with when we start mixing household materials together we could stumble across something like the Uk barber that invented Starlite this is just 1 of many google results on starlite

Dave ,

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#124

Thanks for the direction Dave, I am having trouble understanding why the system is doing what it is, but hey that is the adventure.

I am not sure if the filter is the problem or the length of hose or something else.

I think the next test is for me to run the engine on gasoline and see if it can run with just the filter. Think I will take this a step at a time till I get it figured out. At present I am unable to start the engine on gasoline with the gasifier attached and the valve open with a T Fitting. So It does seem to be a restriction somewhere to me.

Thanks for your input.

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#125

Mart maybe try hooking up your air filter line to your suction device and see if you get a pitch change in the blower indicating an obstruction. The fun is chasing down all the little quirks.
Best regards David Baillie

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#126

What is the diameter of the pipe?

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#127

Hi Mart ,
If I can start with the problem of not being able to start the engine while connected to the gasifier .
If you start the engine on gasoline and put the pipe from the gasifer close to the carb you will notice that it will start to splutter and run rich and then stop , your engine will not run both fuel’s at the same time unless you have a way of adjusting the amount of gasoline or char gas at the same time , so don’t worry about that problem.
If you start the engine with just the carb full of petrol it should run for about 1 minute before it starts running out , at the time its starting to run out start placing the pipe from your gasifier closer to the carb and pull away if it starts spluttering just a little bit at a time till eventually all the gasoline has gone you should be able to attach the char gas pipe fully on as long as you have your mixer valve roughly at the right opening .
see if that helps .
Ps , if your ever stuck on a problem and you have a cell phone with Viber on it your more than welcome to have my number to talk over problems or design issue’s you may need answers for straight away
Anyway your getting closer for sure .
Dave

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#128

1 inch is the diameter

#129

And those tig nozzles fit inside? That could be your restriction

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#130

Yep. My thought is to take this a step at a time. I will first hook up the system with only the air filter and see if it runs with gasoline. This should tell me if the filter is not allowing enough air.

I am seeing a small amount of smoke come out from the lid so I need to do more work on getting air tight seal.

The next step will be to replace the pipe with an open one to see if the restriction is the problem.

I am in no hurry, but good to have coaching.

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#131

Mart, I don’t hear you talk about flaring much. Are you making good gas that you can light with a sparker? If so then it should run the engine.

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#132

Don, I watched Gary’s Gilmores video and he used the engine to start the process of kick starting the gasifier. This is what I have tried so far, I did used the engine to get the process of the gas flowing even using the exhaust of the gasoline engine to force air into the gasifier to get the operation going.

The next order of business is for me to fix the leaks at the top of the 5 gal bucket my application of RTV has left leaks :frowning:

But I could use my air matress air blower and force the reaction till I get a flame.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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#133

If there is any way to get suction on the gasifier rather than blowing it would be much much better. Also even though pushing exhaust gasses into the reactor while running on gasoline would possibly add some heat it will also be detrimental in making gas I believe. Try using that mattress blower to suck on the gasifier.

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#134

Ditto what Don says. If you have any leaks at all you want suction not blowing action or you will be leaking out carbon monoxide through the gaps. You also will not be able to get good gas pushing in exhaust until your charcoal is hot…
Good luck David Baillie

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#135

So I have made several changes and I believe I am getting much closer to getting this system running.

Air Filter:

I have found that the foam in filter is getting wet. This leads me to believe that the charcoal is picking up the moisture from the air and storing it. The pipe that comes from the gasifier drips with water after I have been using it for some time.

Could this be because the the high humidity here in Florida?

I am thinking I may need to use a retort to fully dry out the char for another run.

Anyhow the water greatly impaired the air flow thru the air filter.

That said when i went to just a window screen in the filter I found that engine was very close to running with the gas produced.

I have replaced the pipe inside the char with an open 1 inch pipe. This greatly increased the amount of gas that was getting to the engine. In inspecting the nossle that came out I found one of the 3 nozzles was plugged.

I have resealed the top of the 5 gal lid, I think I need to increase the tension on the springs to futher reduce the leaking, but it is better than before.

With the gasoline shut off the engine wants to start, progress.

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#136

Hi Mart ,
I’m not sure about high humidity affects on charcoal in Florida , but what I can tell you is that I live 2 thirds of the way up a mountain , we have the most rain fall than anywhere else in our state , and when it rains the clouds come rolling in over the garden , so I am more or less standing in the clouds when I fire up my gasifier and yet after all this time I have only twice had an issue with water and that was totally my fault for allowing too much water to drip into the nozzle , now luckily I have a cyclone with a glass jar on the bottom and I could see straight away what I did wrong .
I think you shouldn’t have too many issues with the humidity , unless you have been storing your charcoal in a metal container for a long time outside in the elements and allowing it to soak up with water .
Dave

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#137
#138
#139

Hi Mart , yes your now at that frustrating stage where it just nearly wants to go , but well done so far .

Now i know a lot has been mentioned the past week on someone else’s post about flaring but if i may just mention a few things that may help with what you have there so far .

If you can find a small mattress inflater type fan ,you can connect that up to the pipe just before your T valve to check for a flare , and that way if there are any leaks along your system it will show up as the flare will not sustain without a constant ignition source

Another thing i would quickly try changing is your gas inlet on the T , have the gas coming in where your air is now and have the air where the gas in is on the side along with your valve .

Here are a couple of pictures to show you what i use , all i do is take the pipe off the right side of the T and connect to the inlet of the fan and then place a tin can with some holes in the bottom for air on the fan outlet .

20160526_091320.jpg765×1360 82.5 KB

20160526_091602.jpg1360×765 228 KB

Dave

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#140

I know nothing about charcoal gasifing, but that won’t stop me from my two cent donation. I am a big believer in the Kirby---- but, I have a ceiling light dimmer switch in the electrical line to control the speed of the Kirby. For woodgas start ups I never pull over 5 to 10 inches of water vacuum. My thought is with high vacuum you are kind of like pulling a big char cavity and then when you switch to the engine, you are not pulling the same. That’s one penny.
The second is put a soup can around your nozzle where you are trying to flare.This will feed air into the gas and get a better chance of a flare. Kind of like the velocity of the gas blows the fire out before it gets mixed with air. Look at what others have on the end of the pipe they are flaring from.TomC ( if this wan’t worth two cents to you, heck I’ll just cancel the debt )

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#141

Reading the posts of Dave and Tom above , in answer to the video’s of Mart.

To support their remarks and adding some of my own observations:

Having a correct airflow for startup is imperative to obtain a good quality gas. This would “make or break” your design.

To little flow and your gasifier will not heat up sufficiently to do a proper job (converting all into useable gas, hence no fun )
To much flow and the gas will burn down downstream , generating moister and Co2 but less CO
(due to the amount of oxygen pulled thru the “zone” )

2 important leads already pointed out by Dave and Tom, either use a inflating fan (air matrasses) or a speedcontroller for your kirby.
Where my favorite is the little inflating fan in combination with a pwm and a flare pipe or cooking stove.

Any gasifier build has a 100% capacity (as a maximum before over burning) and a minimum capacity, before the “zone” breaks down ( i consider that at 25% from maximum)

So, running the generator at full load with wide open throttle at max RPM will be tuned in for the 100%
where as no load, at idlle rpm would be the minimum …

Sounds easy ? :grin: far from…

Starting with the minimum load, with small airflow will do the trick… looking carefull at your flare color, once your gasifier settles for a momentary balance (airflow with working conditions) the flame tip color , reddish, should disappear ( meaning, all moister from air and residu’s in the charcoal are getting converted into a certain amount of Hydrogen )
Some charcoal , with more volatiles, will produce some orange and yellow flame tips, which is mostly harmles but works as quality indication. Total yellow or orange flames is indicating to low grade charcoal. My rule of thumb: only blue is good enough :wink:

My shortest startup , from ignition to flame, is around 40 seconds.
Able to start the engine about 1 minute after flare, but preferable as the flame is stable…
First little smoke, then ignition with reddish tips,
once the gasifier is at operating temps, and as long i keep it up temperature, the gas is colorless, smokeless and only has a tiny distinct smell.
It will ignite instantly and burn pale - blue.

Once you play with this balance act of your gasifier, generating a constant good quality of gas, you will be able to start your engine from the first spark…

Playing without seeing and understanding your gas quality, is merely a waste of your breath, cranking your engine :grin: ( talking with experience here )

My observation about your charcoal quality: looking good as far i could notice your flame color …

Next step to do: follow the advice from Dave or Tom, ad some of your experience , read mine with some sceptisme and enjoy the spinning sound of your engine running…

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#142

I use a small shop vac (not a charcoal gasser) at start up… I don’t worry about how hard it’s pulling on the system… it just heats it up faster. :wink: but I’m just talking about mine, not anyone elses systems.

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