Wayne, I think he would scream “langsam langsam” to …
A little more time for the prep of the bike and i might have done it …
More update, and not even wednesday…
The project will be competing nation wide into the contest from the ministry of energy.
Project presentation (paper form) end of januari,
februari and march evaluation if the project is wordy, they will pick 6 projects only for the final competition.
april -mai; the on site evaluation by the comite from the ministry,
election of the winner june,
price awarding july.
fingers crossed…
Best Christmas wishes for everybody…
Drawings of the latest modification i am implementing…
The blue lines at the bottom of the reactor is the stainless coil surrounding the reactor wall.
Have not find the fitting plumbing yet to connect the easy way…
This is my idea to start with a “feedstock agitator”
Basically a set of vertical steel rods, bended at strategic places and form, which are vertically moved by either a magnetic coil or a small eccentric moving device
This is a idea i want to implement…
i did notice the effect of different engines on 1 nozzle size only,
i want to work on this set up to do more testing.
also thinking of modulating the mixture valve, adjusted by the intake manifold vacuum.
Hi Koen, Congradulations on moving up the ladder in the renewable energy competition. It is really great that you can show them something other than solar panels and wind turbines! You have really immersed yourself in charcoal gasification and are working to make it practical which I admire. Your design of a water drip prompts me to make a few comments. I tried this early on and abandoned it soon after as I found water condensing out of the charcoal gas. For example, I fired up my charcoal generator the other day using charcoal that was processed this past fall. It was stored in large paper bags in the loft of my shop. After running the gasifier for over an hour, I found water in my cyclone dust collector and in the final filter. This moisture had to come from the charcoal that never got wet, but must have adsorbed it from the air. In otherwords, adding more water such as a water drip would have just added more liquid water in the cyclone and filter.
In another example, I was running the Simple-Fire on a cool, humid day in February (winter in this part of the hemisphere). There was a lot of water condensing out that came from the moisture in the air. This moisture in the air goes into the air inlet and is reduced to H2 in the gasifier. This H2 is then burned in the engine which adds power. The engine pulls in moisture from the air along with O2 and when a portion of the engine exhaust is directed back into the gasifier, this water is part of the mix. A gasifier can only handle so much water and there may be just enough in the air or fuel to provide this.
Your proposed design has water dripping into spiral tubing where it is mixed with engine exhaust and preheated before taken up the air inlet nozzle. This will work so long as the water is converted to a vapor. There is a possibility of water condensing in the coil and somewhat plugging it. This is one reason I prefer the horizontal air inlet as any added liquids cannot cut off the air flow. A suggestion is to add resivour that fully incircles your gasifier at the hottest zone and then bubble the exhaust gas through it. This will add water vapor to the exhaust gas that is then directed into the air inlet.
I also see you are thinking about a vertical shaker. In my experience there has never been a problem with fuel bridging. I know your generator has a much smaller diameter than any I’ve used, but I use a three inch diameter fill pipe and the flow of charcoal through this restriction has never bridged, A long winded way of saying are you sure the shaker is necessary? Not sure what size charcoal you are using so maybe bridging is a problem and shaking is the answer. My experience has been with charcoal no larger than 3/4" in size.
Just want to end with a big note of encouragement. You have really taken this charcoal gasification and run with it. Keep up the good work and I’m hoping you win the competition.
Gary in wintery PA.
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the reply.
About the moister you are mentioning…
Since i work with this really tiny gasifier and experience a lot of happenings, i can look deeper into the occurrences then joe average with less time on his hands.
I believe the moister comes , besides of to much water ofcourse,from the forming of CO2 in the watergas-shift-reaction , particularly when working with bigger nozzles and lower temperatures.
I have the same problems whilst i am using different sizes of small engines, but every time i reduce the nozzle, the moister fades away and the gas gets more rich/powerful.
Thats why i am going to try the multiple nozzles, making them depending the vacuum in the reactor.
Any excess of air will produce more CO2, therefore i try to maintain a minimum of vacuum on the reactor side of the nozzle.
Keeping the bed of glowing charcoal “thick enough” and at temperatures higher then 700°C should prevent the happening.
Also: The amount of water to air ratio, that can be added constantly should be not more the 6% by weight.If you superheat the steam +1200°C then you can eliminate the air and run on steam and charcoal only 
The 6% should be decreased with the amounts of humidity in the air and in the exhaust gasses.
Another trick could be to alternate wet with dry, depending a temperature probe, but the output gas would alternate to …
Water vapor from the charcoal above the hot-zone will also convert the CO into CO2 and H2, changing the mixture into unstability
I did find the book, mentioned by Steve Unruh, “treatise gas producer” very helpful, if you like i will post you the relevant passages.
Using , as per your prescription, small sized charcoal, also helps a lot and with the reduced nozzles its almost perfect. ( my charcoal is 1/4"-1/2", cut by my wife )
The shaker , or any agitating device, is recording to the same book, mandatory to ensure constant gas quality.
The bridging occurs in the combustion area and with this small reactor very noticeable. The shaker should work at regular base to prevent “chunneling” from the gasses in the glowing charcoal bed. I aim to keep the charcoal at the same density during the run’s to obtain an equal quality all the time.
The stainless coil has multiple reason; preheating the air with radiant heat, vaporizing the water into steam, overheating the exhaust gasses if used.
the bottom T-piece, the cap can be changed into a siphon for the excess water/condensate
We also have to remind ourselves ( the charcoal fanatics ) that we are working only with a partial reduction zone in an updraft system and our reduction zone should be large and hot enough to convert as much CO2 as possible into CO.
Basically i want to run the engines on steam enriched gas, which was already invented in 1750 if wikipedia is correct with the benefits from al the old knowledge i can gather. ( before i can find something new, i have to learn the old )
I am still far away from your achievements, yet, but at least that gives me a goal to work towards…
I hope that my small contributions help more people to follow your steps into the dark side
Best wishes to you and yours…
Koen from cold Thailand
Hello Gary,
I am right in the middle of a WK wood gasifier and having a ball. My next project will likely be a charcoal gasifier like you build, the Gilmore Gasifier, not the Simple Gasifier, although I have a use for one of them also. Could you tell me the biggest engine that you know of running on a GGG. Do you see any problems in running an automobile on one?
Thanks
Garry
Hi Garry,
The limits of a charcoal gasifier in engine size? I think the budget is the only limit… They used to drive bigger trucks and busses on charcoal…
Hi Koen, Thanks for the reply.
I was specifically referring to the Gilmore Gasifier in Gary’s videos, Of particular interest to me is the ability of the device to swallow additional fuel bits and maybe motor oil, both of which are more dense than charcoal and will store in a smaller area. I did enjoy the tiny motor cycle under charcoal power, that had to be fun.
Garry
Garry W: I believe Gary Gilmore did attach his GGG to an old VW Bug successfully but it was SO under-powered considering they didn’t have much in the way of power-to-weight ratio before the charcoal gas power losses.
Hi Garry, The GGG can “eat” other solid fuels like wood chips, corn, oats, sunflower seeds, etc. It can also eat liquids, but so can the Simple-Fire design. As Koen noted, the size of the engine dictates the size of the gasifier. Got a RR locomotive to run? You can do it on charcoal or wood but it will be a BIG gasifier. Here is a picture of my Farmall Cub cross draft showing the oil drip. Adding solid fuels is more difficult but doable. On my poor old VW bug, there was a roof rack and hopper full of wood pellets. This was augered into the GGG. The rust out issue took this car off the road before I could make any meaningful test. Then I moved on to other projects such as the Simple-Fire.
Gary in PA
Hi Gary, Garry and…
Reading trough the old stuff again and noticing…
They ad the “extra” stuff into the outcomming gas stream, meaning they don’t burn or reduct it.
That might be heplfull if we drip “clean” liquids in the “hot” zone to gasify it, but what it does with the moister later on ?
Thinking of used cooking oil for example, it all depends the proporty’s of the material i guess.
The soul problem is as usual the amounts of oxidiser needed to maintain a needed combustion.
I am starting an experiment with the unused power from the engine, using as an efficiency booster, an pre-heating coil.
In theory it decreases the overall consumption with 40% compared with the used power. But that is for low efficient systems calculated.
The whole idea behind this is to keep the engine-generator, running under optimal load all the time.
Power not consumed, using as a preheating power for either ultra hot steam or browngas maybe ?
Many things to try… many things to learn…
Thank you guys for all the information and especially the picture, I have an old WD allis that needs a setup just like that one. I shouldn’t need a shaker to feed the fire while I plow. :>)
Garry
Hi Gary G,
Ihave been studying a bit about the water to air mixture.
I live here in a humid area i guess… 
Anyhow, rereading my above statements about the 6%…
I checked the relative humidity in my first videos and had about 22grs water per cubic meter air ( 27ºC at 81% humidity)
Thats about 2% from the total “allowed”
Bone dry charcoal…
At 100% relative humidity with 0ºC you’ll have only about 2 grs water per cubic meter.
So i am here much more on the “wet” side…
Its all about the relative humidity and the feedstock as you said earliar, yes but…
The dew point is playing some role i guess, but i recon for the ingoing air to neglect …
Did you tried a test already with 1 kg bonedry charcoal and checked the weight regulary ?
Here i don’t have to much fluctuation if i keep it out of the rain and just in open air, but that might be much different at your place.
For the raw wood gasification it gets more delicate… if not condenst out then i guess to much will be to much…
I think i stay at the “dry-dark” side for a while… untill i learned to swim…
Regards
Koen
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Hi Steve U,
Its indeed the real world values what counts, i agree with that 100%
The secret of good wood gasifying lies where ya can avoid the water excess passing trough the glowing bed, but still recuperate the heat from the condensation.
Otherwise it would be a huge loss of energy.
To compare Charcoal with Raw wood:
1 Kg raw wood with 20% humidity ads 200Gr of water on the scale to evaporate + 1 Kg air with its humidity… way passed the 6% limits if not building a good gasifier…
Update on the nozzle idea…
I did find ceramic fuses from the sizing i would like to use as nozzle tips
and using floating balls would ad some pulsating effect on the nozzles i hope ?
also easy to change them i think.
Based on what i learned so far…
This would be a mix between the dark and the light side
Purposed for stationary…
Making charcoal in the outer section, same time using charcoal as primary fuel.
Outer condensation shell can be balanced with the lower air intake…
Still based on GGG but i call it RET Thai gasifier from now…
Outer casing i want to use 2 55 Gallon drums stacked on top.
Inner hot core 5", depending the power demanded
All the gas from stage 1 ( indirect gasification ) passes trough the reduction zone from stage 2
All the heat is retained by the layer charcoal on top, no cooling needed after the gasifier.
