Patrick… The Landy is an Ex-Military Series 3 with a 2.25 petrol engine, and an LPG conversion. AIUI, the diesel had some parts in common, but the head is different, and the crankshaft is forged rather than cast. I’ve looked at diesel conversions, and running on veg oil, but on balance, I’m sticking with spark ignition for now. It’s my main reason for getting into woodgas- nothing puts a big smile on my face like driving it, nothing wipes the smile off like paying for fuel, and since it’s a hobby vehicle, a lot of the economics are irrelevant. Insurance is going to be the biggest challenge.
Hi Brian and Niel
My dad is a Landy diehard, but I was thinking that you could use the diesel,s crank and high compression pistons to give you higher comp ration for the wood gas, you could still use the spark head and distributer . In one of the threads It mentions that the Scandinavians use gas engines with comp ratios of 13 - 15 /1 for wood gas. I’m not sure if it will still handle LPG or if it’s too high .
I know the Landy spares are fairly cheep in the Uk and the 2.25 is one of the few engines with changeable diesel and petrol parts.
Patrick
Patrick… It’s a nice idea, maybe for further down the line- do I understand what you’re saying to be that woodgas is an ultra high octane fuel, and a dedicated high compression engine could use that to advantage, for anyone prepared to sacrifice petrol capability? I’d obviously want to experiment with a small engine first.
It’s been an expensive weekend. The alternator on my Fiesta packed up, so I fitted an exchange unit (£40). I then attempted to jump it off the Landy, only to find that the battery wasn’t interested. So I fitted a new battery (£46), only to find that the jump starting attempts had finished off the teetering alternator in the Landy. So I got the alternator out after close of business on Saturday, and hopefully get an uprated replacement later in the week (£???) So I’ve now got a battery that might return to life with a trickle charge, or might not. I’m no fan of lead acid battery technology.
I managed to make a bit of progress with the Mk3 SOR stove- photo of work to date attached. It’s got an enlarged secondary combustion chamber, folded back on the feed tunnel to pre-heat fuel and air, and a flat top for cooking… but dontya just hate it when the MIG wire runs out at 5pm on a Sunday. To be continued…
Always the case with the consumables, just when you are on a roll !
The worst is you can only blame your self ! Arrrrr
Yes wood gas runs better with high compression, just look up syngas engines or they convert diesels to run wood gas . High compression engine. You will have to do some research in to what LPG likes !
The 2.25 Landy Diesel engine was what I was going to try with wood gas, then I was given a 4.1 I 6 chev , you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
Thanks
Patrick
To Brian Hughes: Thanks for the feedback about the probe. Did you ever get any actual readings before the T/C failed? How high were they? I noticed that the "Nicrobell D sheath was only available for type N T/C’s. Was your T/C amplifier (readout device) reading that scale?
OT:
At one time, long ago, I sold a few hundred t/c’s to a company that produced various alloys. They bought a cheap sheathed t/c that would read with some accuracy for about 5 seconds before melting, but they got the data----
Pete Stanaitis
Pete… I was just using a multimeter and some mental arithmetic- the type N reads 39 microvolts per degree Celsius, or about 25 degrees per millivolt, near enough. Unfortunately, things unfolded too quickly to recall readings with any certainty, but “In excess of 1000C” would be a good bet- certainly hot enough to melt mild steel.
Quick update… slow progress at the moment, since the festivals are coming thick and fast. The Mk3 SOR stove is finished and working well, but it’s now so far removed from Rocket Stove principles, that I call it the Tunnel Stove. I’m just about out of the neighbours bad books, having had a marathon session of welding and angle grinding, lighting up, which of course burned off the coating from the extinguishers, and then ringing the doorbell to apologise, which woke their baby up.
I’m just back from the Green Gathering- I had an enjoyable 4 days with Ed Revill from Swansea Biochar, and managed to make about 3 or 4 extinguishers full of char, which are going to enrich Ed’s fields. I managed to get the site crew tentatively interested in biochar for the compost toilets, and managed to make half an extinguisher full for them to try out, before the weather got too bad.
What did I learn? Damp wood can be dried out on the stove hotplate or the flue. Air drying wood for a year isn’t really an option- I want to be able to work with whatever I can get, so a drying chamber/oven is planned for the next evolution.
Like the best inspirational events, I kept seeing one potential spin-off after another. Biochar in the toilets. Hot water for the dishwashing in the crew canteen or a laundry, or heat for eco-sanitation. Carbon negative power, without tons of batteries. The trouble is… the Green Gathering have a blanket ban on generators- at present, they’re not thinking beyond solar/lead acid power. To be continued…
Managed to cobble together a new tuyere nozzle from a kiln shelf support, a bit of scaffolding pipe, and some kiln cement- photos are attached of the results after a half hour charcoal test run with no moderation- looks encouraging.
Managed to do a flare run today with the new kiln prop tuyere- the downside is the poor mechanical strength- it breaks very easily, but if you’re careful, it keeps it’s shape better than a straight mild steel scaffolding pipe. One tip… use a spray bottle to find the hot spots on the outside of the gasifier vessel. I was a bit surprised at how defined the line between the hot and cooler areas was.
Hi Brian, Patrick,
@ Patrick, yes your right about the compression ratio.
Tuning up/down to CR 17 is without problems for the wood gas and for ethanol fuels
An article in the resource section does explain it better and with more specific data then i can.
its called “Development of Producer Gas engines” record168.pdf by Indian researcher Mukunda.
Its worth the time to read it.
Hi Koen
Could you post a link to the article on the CR of engines.
Thanks patrick
Hi Patrick,
http://driveonwood.com/sites/default/files/pdf/record168.pdf
The link, the article is more interesting then just CR, look at the timing 
Regards
Koen
Hi Koen, Patrick
Yes this article clearly shows as you would raise the compression ratio then the ignition timing needs to be LESS advanced to create the optimal pressure rise curve.
Very good information, well and practical presented.
Later in-field work with users and engine manufacture’s had them settle in the 13/1 to 15/1 compression ratio areas for “bio-mass” fuel gases.
I actually bought an old design, two points variable compression engine based on this article. This same design engine was wrung out by DYI’ers at APL at ~13/1 and then 15/1 compression ratios with equivalencies posted up if you want to search. They formally abadoned this engine design and I sold mine as impractical to use in the US with new govenment Tier IV restictions on the continuing importation into the USofA.
Without breaking, just streching some disclosures, I can say go with a maximum of this 13/1 to 15/1 in naturally aspirated that the mainline engine manufactures have settled into. Use spark ignition for the more precise timing control. Duel fueling with compresion ignition has too many varibilities depending on speed, and load induced combustion chamber temperature changes. The load shedding engine overspeed problems duel fueling with compression ignition needs Much developement of BOTH the diesel and the fuelgas sides to manage. The India users finally abandonded this and converted set up spark ignition systems and then dumped out of the all of the imported refined fuel dependancies for the diesel fuel.
I do not know where you are getting your enthanol fuel useage information use at these high of compression ratios KoenVL.
Would you care to share this please? Tops out at ~11 to 1 for in real usage.
Regards
Steve Unrun
Thanks Koen and Steve
I was looking in to getting high compression pistons for my 4.1 I 6 Chevy if it runs short of power for my alternator, just plan B at the moment.
Hi Steve, Patrick,
Some links for you:
Search google for “best compression rate for ethanol”
http://news.thomasnet.com/green_clean/2013/05/10/high-compression-ratios-and-ethanol-blends-combine-to-make-a-super-efficient-car/
http://www.motorgeek.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=43138
http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=8809.0
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/ethanol-compression-ratios-18237.html
Internet
Regards
Koen
Had a great weekend at the Small World Summer Festival. I brought the Tunnel Stove with me, and ran it at the Stewards station to keep warm at night and make coffees, and to my delight, saw some of the stewards getting really drawn into the charcoal production process. Between us, we made a small mountain of char, most of it given away to the three blacksmiths on site. Three more weeks of the festival season to go, then the serious gasification starts.
Sooooooo… the festival season’s over, and it’s time to sort out priorities for the next few months. I’ve been focussing on char production, and at present, I’m running with pallet scrap in a tunnel stove. The immediate priority is processing it down to gasifier charcoal, which for the present is a self imposed standard of free-flowing particles between 3mm and 10mm. Dust suppression is a priority- remember, the neighbours are yards, rather than miles away, and I’m still looking around for local gardeners that have even heard of biochar. Does anyone know anything about activated carbon filtration? The potential spin-offs are multiplying faster than my 55 year old brain can process.
Totally off topic… I became a great uncle three weeks ago with the safe arrival of young Penny, into a developed nation in the 21st century- not such a bad place for a little girl to land in. What do great uncles do? Teach kids rude versions of nursery rhymes? Or maybe try to make a difference to the planet that they’ll inherit…
Brian,
What you want to know about Activated carbon filtration ?
I’m just looking for spin-offs- it looks as though this multinational are market leaders
http://www.chemvironcarbon.com/en/about
They make their carbon from coal, and AFAIK it’s valuable enough to reactivate it once it’s spent. I’m still looking around for reasonably local gardeners who have heard of biochar- the two parties that might be interested are about 100 miles away. What I’d like to be doing is putting carbon into the ground to match kilo for kilo my use of fossil fuels- I’ve seriously thought about just landfilling the fines- but I’m gradually realising that a kilo of dry charcoal fines is a hell of a lot, and has the potential to make a hell of a mess. The good news is: it seems to be capable of absorbing a hell of a lot of liquid, and I’m currently adding a widely available urea solution to a bucket of fines before adding it to the compost heap. I’ll have to do a timed and weighed run to get some clear answers- what sort of weight yields are others getting?
What else has been happening- I’ve had a run of luck in scoring interesting …stuff. The aircraft assembly factory next to my day job threw away a lot of 25 litre pails with ring latch lids- perfect for throwing hot char into, sealing the lid on, and letting it cool, and I’ve built a cyclone powered by a leaf blower for dust handling- it’s a bit too noisy, and I’m looking around for a bouncy castle fan. And just this morning, I was having a wander round the scrapyard in search of inspiration when two cylinders, one with a flange end jumped out at me - perfect for a retort.
All good fun, and no time wasted, but not an awful lot of charcoal gasified or engines run. I’ve got a 60 litre barrel full of char between 1 and 10mm, so hopefully I’ll get in some gasifier runs this weekend.
Hi Brian,
Activated carbon is a very high grade “charcoal” where as the carbon content reaches more then 90% purity.
Heat is applied for “activating” a bit the same as popping corn to open the pores between the molecular structures…
Or with acids_chemicals
The heat applied is >900°C to activate or re-activate
You can always grind down the fines into the smallest powder possible and sell it as carbon Black.
The highest purity is at this moment nearly 100% Carbon, (99,6%)
Most of the carbon Black is obtained from Dyno fuel incomplete combustion, better known as “soot”
However, pyrolysis is producing also carbon black from many bio-mass products as well…
The purer you get it, the better the pricing
but it all boils down to which quantity’s you can produce/deliver