I am in the process of building a gasjifier for a ford 240 six cylinder which has a 10000 watt generator hooked to it…the wood I have is dried poplar. Even dried there’s water. It’s cold up here in northern British Columbia Canada. Anyone ran into the water problem? Any suggestions.?
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I’m no expert, but I’d say that EVERYONE on this list has run into a “water problem” with a gasifier at one time or another.
My question is: How wet is it?
I’d take some samples, weigh them and then bake them in a kitchen oven at about 250 degrees F to dry them completely so there’s Zero percent moisture. Calculate the percent moisture in the “before” and the “after” wood from that.
When I do that, I let the samples sit in the oven for a half hour or so, weigh them, put them back, and continue that process until there is no change from the last test weighing.
My system uses wood chips and has no nozzles (yet). I want the moisture content of my wood to be 15% or less, but some gasifiers can handle somewhat more than that.
Pete Stanaitis
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your bound to get water no matter what you do the secret is having it propely delt with…the water can come from the enviroment and you dont really want wood that is too dry b/c some of the water in the wood is converted to hydrogen. its really humid were i live and i put a second cyclone after my cooler and that hepled alot my bed filter dosent get so wet and try to have the cooler going up hill b/c as the wate drain back down the cooler it acctually catches more water and cools the cooler =)
my imbert can handdel really wet wood aperently the last run i put some block that was old in and aperently it got water like dumped on it sum time over the 3 years it was sitting in the basment and i didnt knowtice untill after the run the botom of the container was acctualy wet and it still ran the gasifier and the engine ran with no tar but lots of water in the sys after words =/
EBAY has wood moisture meters for under $20, probably not as accurate as an oven dry method, but gives instant readings.
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Hi, most of us build to handle water by condensing it in the hopper, and directing it to an outside container with a drain.
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nice truck in your picture my dad had a 48 f-1 =)
In preparation of your wood, I much prefer some kind of “chunker” as apposed to sawing the chunks. The chunker fractures the ends which allows moisture to wick out of the chund when laid out in the sun. And yes to dry it, I lay out a large piece of plastic and cover it with wood chunks at a thickness of 1 or two chunks. It is a good idea to dry wood ahead in the summer. Poplar is not the most energetic wood but it works. You will definitely know when it has dried by the heft of the dry and not dried chunks. TomC
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Get some bags mesh bags, or a laundry basket. You need airflow. put the chunks in, and bring thm inside. I will -assume- you heat with wood or propane, and since those usually remove moisture from the air, it will remove it from the wood fairly quickly as well.
I wouldn’t consider it a permanent solution, but it will give you some dry wood to start with.
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Who was the Canadian fellow who did a slide in WK system? He has vids and pics of it running in true Canadian winter conditions. I think he had a condensate collecting jug that was removable.
Then there’s Calvin Rader in Saskatchewan, his system seems to run so well we don’t hear from him any more, but he posted vids and pics.
And then there’s Mr Olsson in Sweden, lots of frigid winter operating hours.
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Garry, Might you be thinking of Dustin Moore?
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Terry Lavictoire for the WK slide in. He’s a member here and still posts up occasionally.
Woodsman Paul (Paul Holverson) for the MENS system first central BC coastal them moved to interior Alberta. His revised system topic is here on a Premium member thread. And he posted for years on the Forestry Forum on his Ford pick up DOings.
S.U.
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Huntress, with a 240 cid watercooled Ford I-6 you will have oddles of DRY blown radiator heat and engine exhaust surface heat to input wood dry down.
Just have to build the engine heating wooddrying bins.
Expanded metal mesh works great for this.
And careful of hot engine exhaust once that wood is dry. Fahrenheit 451 happens then.
You CAN do this.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Poplar (trembling aspen) is a good drying wood, it should reach normal dry wood conditions if split and sheltered.
The condensation issue will be forever present, both from the 15% or so residual moisture, and the hydrocarbons the wood is composed of. The condensation is a design consideration, dew point, reheating, collecting at the right places, no low, water traps where not wanted in the plumbing.
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first I pass chips through 1 inch screen and hold them with 1/2 inch screen . then I dry chips on black painted concrete pad .
I use mostly fresh cut popular tree and after two days drying in summer sun get zero moisture on meter .
I have 30 gallon drum to trap condensate . I could trap more condensate and tar .
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My slide in unit has a removable condensate tank that can be positioned next to gasifier in winter.
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Thanks, I am doing a 46 ford pick-up now(rat rod)
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Oh tell me that "isn’t " a rat rod!! Don’t you already have a 46 - 48 Ford truck restored? Am I thinking of the correct one-- it is painted “lip stick red”. TomC
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fords have this problem of reproducing them selfs lol =)
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I agree with what’s been mentioned above.
This is my third winter of every day driving and this is what comes to my mind so far.
Hopper juice: Removable tank is a must in extreme cold conditions unless it’s kept very close to hot parts and emptied within a couple hours after a drive. However the juice seems to keep liquid down to -6 or -7C.
Cooler condensate: With high enough in- and outlets you can usually wait for the next thaw or until you make a trip long enough to let the woodgas melt a block of ice. Mounting the tank prior to the cooler helps but a downstream filter container will still collect water/ice.
Plumbing: For some reason low spots in the pvc plumbing up to the motor haven’t caused me any trouble so far, but avoiding them won’t hurt.
Torching: See to that critical parts like hopper drain, hopper lid seal, drain valves, woodgas valves or any other moving parts can be easily reached with a torch.
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