Soooooo… what have I been up to? As an aside I went along to a local Family Fun Day which featured free chlamydia testing. Families obviously know how to have fun round here. Gasification wise, I did a bit of tweaking at the SOR stove, converted two mini retorts into one not so mini retort, and attempted to run the Landy on char gas, only to conclude that the pipes were just too puny. The next experiment was an attempt to gasify paper pellet cat litter, and add another potential feedstock to the list. The results were similar to wood pellets- lots of white vapour that once I slowed it down, burned quite nicely, ending with the flame lifting off. Where things deviated from the plan was when I chose the wrong moment to look down the tuyere, after the forced air was shut off… and to cut a long story short, I’m writing this with one eye bandaged and an appointment at the eye clinic tomorrow. I’m not one to dwell on what could have happened, but the moral of this, boys and girls, is pretty obvious. Don’t look down tuyeres with your naked eye. It won’t put me off…
Ouch!!
Brian,
Real sorry .
Please keep us posted.
Hope you get lucky at your appointment today.
Many thanks for the kind wishes- they washed the debris out at Accident & Emergency last night, and checked it over today at the Eye Clinic- I’ve got some antibiotic cream to put in, and what damage there was, was to the skin round my eye. I’m missing half an eyebrow and a set of eyelashes, and I’m trying hard not to think about how much worse it might have been.
So… the obvious lesson is… assume that gasifiers can spit back at any time, but the risk is highest at the end of a run, when there’s plenty of volume for gas mixtures to build up, and plenty of hot stuff to ignite it. Use any combination of a mirror, a pyrex window, and goggles, but don’t look directly down the tuyere.
Apart from the obvious- what can I learn from the episode? The Simple-Fire can gasify a lot more than charcoal- basically anything that will support a gas flow, and contains only carbon,hydrogen and oxygen is fair game for a try- one difference I’d be wary of is that with wood and paper pellets, gas production carries on with the internal heat after the feed air is shut off, and it has to go somewhere. By “gasify”, I do of course mean “dirty, tarry gasify”, but the obvious development is to feed the dirty gas into a charcoal gasifier to clean it up. On paper pellets, the gas production seemed much faster than with wood pellets- to be confirmed- and boiled the bucket of water that it was sitting in quite nicely. There seemed to be much less tuyere erosion with wood and paper pellets, the biggest difference was the residue- with wood pellets, it was mostly charcoal with pockets of unburnt wood; with paper pellets, it was mostly white ash- which I got an eyeful of- with pockets of charcoal. So, what’s the difference? To be continued…
Brian, It seems like you suggest using two simple fires, one with the charcoal forming the backbone of power, and a second, smaller unit up stream using any old junk just to feed gas into the main charcoal unit. I like where your going with this.
Also, no reply from the BBC and the new wave of insurance companies that I’ve emailed.
Sorry to hear of your accident. I believe there is a phrase about blood, sweat and tears. Perhaps this forum needs a counter of gasifier related injuries…
Almost, but not quite. What’s working perfectly in my imagination is a charcoal gasifier working as a thermal cracker with reduced consumption of charcoal, being fed by dirty gases from a wood gasifier, separating the pyrolysis and combustion/reduction processes into two units with the possibility of optimizing the processes independently. But first… get the Landy ticking over on char gas.
Counter of injuries… more positively, a discussion of safety issues- we need to be able to show that risks are being assessed and addressed, and that there’s a healthy learning process for gasification safety if we want to engage with insurers. The “What not to Do” thread seems like a good place.
This post was also put under the heading of “what not to do” but in case some of you do not look at it, I have put it here too. This is something that happened to me too but did not think much of it. However, with Brian getting injured, I feel now is the time to state that the Simple Fire design has this inherent danger that operators must be aware of. DON’T LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE AIR INLET OF A SIMPLE FIRE. There is a danger of blow back of charcoal embers!!!
Hi Brian, Your experience with a belching gasifier is something I also experienced. Fortunately for me, I was not looking in the air inlet when it happened. But I saw the event happen and it shot a shower of sparks ten feet out of the air inlet. After seeing that, I built a screen over a pipe nipple that screw into the air inlet. At the least, it will slow down the velocity of any charcoal embers that may get expelled from the generator.
Here is what I think happened. It was at the end of the run. There was a small air leak in the lid of the charcoal gas generator that allowed a little oxygen to mix with the charcoal gas before leaving the generator. As the charcoal is consumed and drawn down, it allows the heat generated at the oxidation zone to move upward into the generator. At some point, there is insufficient charcoal to insulate this combustible gas from the heat and ignition occurs. The sudden increase in pressure pushes hot charcoal embers out the air inlet. This is not the time to be looking at the glowing coals!!!
Now when I demo my Simple-Fire, I use a mirror to allow others to observe. I have been wearing glasses since I was 6 years old. They have saved my eyes many times, but………. Still have to be careful, Thanks for sharing your near tragedy
Gary in PA
A little story, totally unrelated to gasifiers. I was driving behind this truck today, one of those trucks that empty septic tanks- do you still call them honeywagons in the States? So far, nothing unusual. But it gradually transpired that the proprietor was enthusiastic enough about his vocation to have the vehicle signwritten with “Caution- Stool Bus”, and as I read on- “No Stools Left on This Vehicle Overnight”, “Follow Us On Sh!tter”, and “Find Us On Faecebook”. Oh, and he’d invested in the registration plate V3 POO. I suppose… an example- although a mildly disturbing one- of how we can all be inspired by something. My question would be: what did he tell girls at parties that he did for a living, although on reflection, maybe he didn’t get invited to a lot of parties.
Sooooo… agenda for the weekend? If I can get some extinguishers, build the Mk3 SOR stove, sort the shock absorber bushes on the Landy, try to couple up the Landy to a Simple Fire, cook some Pasta alla Carbonara- which I was partial to long before I produced any charcoal:
and try this out:
http://www.tcdirect.co.uk/Default.aspx?level=2&department_id=190/1
I got a type N, 1 metre long, and rated to 1250C/2282F, which will hopefully yield a few answers.
Stool Bus, Follow us on SH!TTER ------- funny stuff!!!
I hope your fitting polyurethane bushes to that old Gal. There’s a reason they’re coined as ‘fit-n-forget’. Fitted a full set to a Baja Beetle, never looked back. You ever going to upload a picture of your Lightweight?
Well, the best laid plans… the Carbonara worked out all right, and I eventually got the bushes sorted- it was one of those jobs where it took about 5 minutes of contortions to get the spanner on, undo the nut 1/24th of a turn and repeat until it eventually comes apart. I’ve updated the Simple Fire- still a vertical tuyere, but with a separate gas outlet- photos to follow- and geared up for scaffolding pipe tuyeres. I fired it up on charcoal- with safety glasses and a bit of trepidation- and discovered that the combustion zone temperatures are quite capable of destroying a probe rated at 1250C. Fortunately, not outrageously expensive. The two forks in the road are: monitor and tame the combustion zone temperature, or build the tuyere to take anything. To be continued…
Neil… I did use Polybushes, but it’s not a lightweight- it’s an Ex Military Series 3- photo attached.
Hello Brian. Regarding your comment about destroying a probe:
I have purchased several sheathed probes and they work well at 1800 degrees F. Hopefully I will soon be able to reach temperatures over 2000 degrees F, so I will see if I have similar problems. I have wondered if these inexpensive “Asian” thermocouples have mild steel sheaths or if the they use a higher temp material. I haven’t gotten any good answers from the vendors yet. Do you know what sheath material your T/C’s have?
A what temperature did your T/C’s fail?
Pete Stanaitis
Pete S: I’m not sure if you noticed but Brian H. UK is using Celsius there. 1,250C=2,282F.
I haven’t held a T/C in my hand since high-school (12 years ago), but the ones I’ve been looking at online are almost all Stainless Steel, with a few ceramic tips. I’m not sure that mild-steel could really be formed to a thin tube like that.
Brian H UK: I think your T/C did it’s job “just fine” as it told you what you wanted to know: Your core is “too hot”. 
Pete… Have a look:
http://www.tcdirect.co.uk/Default.aspx?level=2&department_id=190/1
It was a Nicrobell D sheath rated at 1250 Celsius, and it’s fried. At a cost of about 30 pounds, I’m wary about pursuing this line- here’s what I’m more inclined to pursue:
The answers that I want sooner or later are: optimum temperature for gasifying charcoal on it’s own, and optimum temperature for cracking hydrocarbons.
One question on an unrelated topic: which direction? One big gasifier, or lots of little gasifiers in parallel?
Hi Brian, At 30 pounds, I’d also cringe at putting that probe into the oxidation zone of a charcoal gasifier. Were you using exhaust gas to cool down the oxidation zone when the TC burned up?
The light meter you are looking at will probably not work. You need to read temperature and not light brightness.
As to your question on many small or one large, go with the one large. Spreading the gas collection over many smaller units begs some to pull harder than others thereby putting more load on some.
Gary in PA
Gary… I haven’t got to the stage of exhaust moderation yet- I’m running flares with cheap mild steel tuyeres as a starting point, and running them to destruction, but I have got a couple of the kiln supports I mentioned- I’ll try them out this weekend.
A quick point… the Colour Temperature App doesn’t measure brightness, it analyses the colour and derives the temperature- the same way as a blacksmith can gauge temperature from blood red, cherry red, etc.
Useless factoid;
Lighting filters are measured in the same way. instead of saying you want a red, orange, yellow or white you quote the colour “temperature”, like "I need a 3K filter. The number then corresponds to the colour given out by that temperature.
P.S. Brian, nice Landy!
Hi Brian
You are in the Uk ?
You are wood gassing a old land rover ?
Which model ?
If I’m not mistaken the old series II had a petrol engine you could convert to diesel , by taking out the distributer and replacing it with an injector pump and the spark plugs with injectors ?
There was also a way of increasing the compression ratio?
The subassembly and head was the same. The bearings were designed to take the extra load of the diesel’s higher C/R.
I think it was a 2.25 lt ?
Is this the one you have ?
Thanks patrick
Hey Patrick. Its pointless to convert a good solid BL petrol lump to diesel. The compression ratios will be all wrong, the gearbox gearing will be wrong also. Considering the space under the bonnet its quicker, cheaper and easier to drop out the box and engine, put in a diesel gearbox and then opt for a better Isuzu diesel (if your up for power), or maybe a fine Peugeot burner (if economy’s your game).
Useless info; The series II petrol engine was more robust than the diesel variant. Also the series II gearbox with no syncro on 1st and 2nd was way more robust than the series III gearbox with full syncro. Something to do with how the case was machined to fit it all in, so I’m told.