They always seem to get such wonderful results in the training videos… on nice clean, new test pieces. On this side of the looking glass, half the work is cleaning off rust, paint, and the nasty one, zinc coating. And then getting the wire feed unstuck. And it’s getting dark, and that’s a good time for the wire or the gas to run out.
BrianHUK: If you are trying to test the properties of your system running on water (and the H2 production from it), then the CO2 canisters linked above won’t work. They WILL help temper your heat zone and make more CO fuel gas, but they won’t have any Hydrogen.
I think performance wise, your hard water probably isn’t making much of a difference but it definitely might be messing with your flare colors. I don’t know about on your side of the pond, but over here most stores (or almost any “petrol” stations) will sell 1 gallon (3.7L) plastic jugs of “Distilled Water”, next to their similar jugs of “Drinking Water”. The stuff tastes horrible in a “If you (drink) the void, the void (drinks) you” sort of way. In general, I think about the only use most people have for it is mixing radiator coolant or glass cleaners (for those who don’t buy pre-mixed). That said, it it will be pure water with no minerals/electrolytes in it to mess with your testing.
Once you have your flares testing right, go back to your hard tap water for actual engine shaft powering use.
I did, funnily enough, get a bottle of de-ionized water from the car spares shop, or more accurately, I paid for it and left it on the counter- it’s sold for steam irons and battery top-ups, but I have raced ahead a bit, and I’ve actually had the Landy moving on producer gas. An entire ten yards backwards and ten yards forwards!!! Hey, it’s a start. Attached is a photo of the core gasifier, and the setup on the front bumper- it is of course, too smal to drive on- I’m only thinking in terms of driving the vehicle alternator at the moment.l One thing that struck me is that there’s 2-3 metres of pipework between the combustion zone and the manifold, so there will be a bit of a lag between doing anything to the gasifier, and the effect, as measured by the lambda sensor. There is, however, an LPG stepper valve right there in place- I’m wondering, could it be used to tweak the air mixture?
I believe “de-ionized” water is 1 step past “distilled”. In the same way our “hopper” (before reaction) and “cooler” (after reaction) condensates have opposite “charges” (acid or alkaline, in general terms), any distilled or filtered water will gain a slight ionic imbalance.
Gasifier condensates are actually chemically different, but filtered water is just a few electrons getting torn away by the process.
For de-ionized water, they take distilled water and run the appropriate electrical charge into the water to balance the ionizing.
Long story, short, that would work fine. 
Also, congratulations on your 20 gross (though 0 net) meters of non-dino powered travel!
A high spot, a low spot, and a couple of spots in between. I live in a shared house, and while processing charcoal on Saturday, one housemate, who had said absolutely nothing previously, erupted and complained to the landlord about the tiny amount of dust. The usefulness of the back yard is now seriously curtailed for char production, and I’m now scouting out new territory. To be continued… On a brighter note, I’ve made a biochar convert- she’s had a bumper crop of courgettes, runner beans and strawberries, with carrots on the way, and the other allotment holders are paying attention- hopefully the chain is one link bigger.
I got in a couple of hours running on the Landy- Gilmore-inspired gasifier with a 3" diameter tuyere, followed by a cyclone and the existing oil bath air cleaner. No startup fan- I start on propane and wean it onto woodgas. What’s good about the setup is everything’s right there in place- electric start, lambda probe, stepper valve and propane, the niggling doubt is whether I’m on the road to nowhere with a large engine under light load, and a small gasifier. I want to get a backup engine going, but the lack of success with pull starts is a bit off-putting. I want something like this:
but with some sort of safety disengagement mechanism.
Like many others, I have used this process from time to time, but only during diagnosis of engine problems since, at least on the 2 videos above, the flywheel shroud is off of the engine once it’s running. Do we think user is good at positioning the shroud while the engine is running? Do they then bolt in back in place?
There are engines where one can remove the recoil mechanism while leaving the shroud in place so it can provide proper engine cooling and proper air governor function. And for those engines, I see this as a real solution. If I had to do it to an engine where the shroud has to come off, and if I thought I might fix the recoil starter some day, I’d go to a small engine shop and get an extra shroud. Then I’d cut off the recoil supports for access to the shaft nut.
Pete Stanaitis
So… looking up a bit- I’ve found a couple of friendly landowners who are interested in the charcoal process, and to my eternal gratitude, are happy to allow a pop-up/ disappear without trace burning and processing operation in a secluded area, where the dust- which still needs to be reduced- won’t cause such massive problems. I’ve got five cans of engine char and a couple of cans of biochar- the processing, rather than the burning is the labour intensive bit, and as the photo shows, the messiest bit- I was buying shower gel, and asked the clerk to take the photo. I’ve got a few ideas for improvement.
To do…Load up some firewood for the trip to the Green Gathering on Wednesday, build and program an Arduino mixture controller, and build a second Gasifier for the Off Grid. The Gilmore-inspired setup is very much a batch process- I get a can of engine char, push the 3" tuyere in, use a poking stick to loosen the compacted char, connect and light- a top loading port will make an awful lot of sense. It’s an evolutionary design, but it does incorporate elements of the Simple Fire and the Drizzler. It’s basically a charcoal fuelled/ charcoal reduction updraft gasifier on startup, wood fuelled/charcoal reduction when it’s running, and eventually runs out when the charcoal level drops and the exit gas gets too hot to be stable. I’ve got a few ideas, including reconfiguring as a downdraft- the only real bottleneck is the shortcomings in my welding. Practice makes perfect.
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Good morning Brian. Thanks for posting and especially the pic.
I have trouble remembering names sometime but if you will use the picture for your profile I will never forget .
I love it!
BBB
holly cow brian I thought I crawl out from the shop looking rough .I just say this is what work looks like and you look like a lot of workin
Wow Brian, Next time try standing with the wind to your back. I tell people one of the drawbacks of charcoal gasification is the black dust issue. If I show them your picture, they may never give it a try. In all seriousness, I admire your desire to keep making and using charcoal. There are ways to stay cleaner and you will figure them out. I’ve never gotten as black as your picture shows, but then too I have a larger area to work in. Looks like moving your operation to a bigger area will help you too. Glad to hear you are experimenting with different designs. Let us know how they work out and keep advancing the ability to run on wood. Love that picture!
Gary in PA
So, a while since I posted- I’ve been along to a couple of UK festivals, one where I got Health and Safetied to a standstill, and the other, I had to cut short due to illness in the family. All I really learned at the first was that the organisers were paranoid about H&S, demanding wider and wider roped off areas, but I had more of a success at the Off-Grid. I splashed out on some stomp-in electric fence posts to rope off an area, and got some hardwood char made for the blacksmith next door. I managed to get in a couple of extended runs on the Landy- 45 minutes fast tickover using about 16 litres of char, but what really looked promising was for want of a better term, fuel rods- lengths of 2"x2" sawn pallet scrap dropped into the 3" diameter tuyere, and feeding themselves by gravity. The oil bath cleaner seems to be working well- I’m practically dredging out solid black gunge, but one alarming episode was plug fouling with black carbon deposits- cleaned up eventually, but something to monitor.
Still here, just not gasifying that much at the moment- too many other things to keep my hands full, mainly finding helpful neighbours prepared to let me do a bit of pop-up guerilla welding on my Fiesta. Sadly, my father passed away aged 85 amazing years last month- have a look at the sort of thing he got up to…
Does that inspire you?
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Very cool Brian…did he build the steam engine. Glad you have the memories of what must of been a great man.
Gary
That was impressive. I had to go watch the other two U-Tubes that showed the car. That is what everyone thinks I am doing when I say I’m running my truck on wood. Looks like you have to good genes from him.TomC
Dads teach us so much.
@Gary L - My father built the engine for a replica of an 1899 Stanley Locomobile- putting it into the Reliant was a bit of fun. It’s a twin cylinder with Hackworth valve gear- if I remember, about 5-6 Hp.The boiler is a Derr/Winslow water tube type and the burner is an off the shelf oil fired central heating unit.
How cool, I’ve definitely seen that video before! So that’s your dad.
I hope he was very careful with steam in the passenger cabin… just like woodgas, steam in the cab is usually a no-no.
What became of the Robin?
The Rialto- not, in fact, a Robin, is safely in the shed back home, hopefully to roll again one day. The steam exhausted out the back, with no attempt to condense it.
Brian,
Just got to this, loved it. How fortunate to have this video. I’d do anything to hear my dad’s laugh again.
Pepe
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