So, where was I? Posting here, and engine running fell by the wayside- I had my hands full with just too many other things- but fortunately not the charcoal production, and things got a massive shot in the arm at a gathering a couple of weeks ago- I thought it would be a low key end to the season, but I managed to get in about 8 20-30 minute runs on the Landy at a fast idle, and sold a stack burner setup. The insights that I’m taking away are:
The scaff pipe that I’m using to pipe the gas is just too small an inside diameter- it’s throttling the gas flow.
Filtration, filtration, filtration- still too many fines ending up in the oil bath filter. I wonder, now, could I repurpose a Hoover…
The non-issue is the tuyere. Again, no disrespect to anyone’s creative efforts, but I just let a length of timber feed down, which seemed to moderate the temperature enough for a plain mild steel tuyere to survive the weekend.
So, gasification is alive and well. At the moment I’m working 9 hours a day and commuting 3 for my day job, and there’s stuff I’m neglecting… but the passion’s still there.
Hi Brian , good to hear your still having fun with the black stuff .
The scaff pipe your using for your nozzle what’s the ID ? also I know you love using the scaffold pipe and letting it melt away in your mobile forge , but think of all those roofers/ builders up on the roof waiting for you to bring back that bit of pipe you borrowed , your a swine leaving them up there knowing full well it wont last the weekend out .
Or you could just try moulding a little refractory around the last couple of inches and see if you can make it last you a few weeks .
On my first engine running set up I made a cyclone from a fire extinguisher , no fancy tapers on the bottom just turned the thing upside down connected a glass jar where the trigger used to go and normal in and out pipes and I was amazed at how nothing went passed it when connected to a powerful vacuum cleaner and started sucking up charcoal dust , the bin on the vac was clean as when I started , guess that would work well with your fines .
Dave
Quick word, I just use scaff pipe for the plumbing- it’s about 40mm ID, which is just too small for the distance that I’m piping it- shame, because it’s everywhere. For the tuyere itself, I use a bit of 75mm thick wall gaspipe, big enough to feed a piece of 2" x 2" down- I’ll try the refractory in the fullness of time, but it’s just not the priority at the moment… but have a look at this:
…can anyone see wooden tuyeres?
I like the sound of your fire extinguisher cyclone- do you have any pipe diameters to hand? I’m assuming the tangential inlet pipe was at the bottom, and the axial outlet pipe at the top.
Hi Brian , Yes they certainly would make very good 5 minute lasting Tuyeres or if you could have them self feeding down your pipe as a sort of self replenishing nozzle , might work , give it a play on the weekend and see .
I will try and get some pics of cyclone or even a small video uploaded of it collecting very fine carbon dust and show you how much will pass through on strong suck , the inlet/outlet pipe dia is only 25mm id but should scale up .
All the best Dave
