Hi Bob
Hope you and yours are doing well!
I keep racking my brain trying to come up with a light, compact, and efficient refueling system. I can’t come up with anything more than what has already been said.
I keep trying to think of a chain/ conveyor system that will work but I can’t come up with anything that seems very efficient or compact. I also cant seem to get around the tar factor. In WK’s we use hoppers that are made to collect tar and condensate I think it will always plug stuff up if we try to change the shape too much, we already have the problems of bridging because of tar with strait hoppers.
I know this is a slightly different subject and I any of y’all think I should start a new thread for it I will.
How can we make hoppers for generators/ stationary units that won’t bridge?
Hi Jakob, yes we are all doing well. And thank you all for the prayers. Dana’s dad Frank who was down with the worst symptoms is now back at work. Charlotte’s husband David is back doing construction, hanging sheetrock. Everyone is back to feeling normal again. I have a little morning cough and that is it.
On bridging in the hopper even with straight walls I feel at times when the condition are right we will have a bridging once in a while. This is because of our wood shapes and wood type being used, the temperature, moisture, tar vapor in the hopper.
Also road surfaces we drive on. I have never had any bridging problems on a bumpy rough road lots of vibrations.
Because of all these changing factors something has to be done on the inside of the hopper if the right conditions causes a bridge.
You notice the temperature going up in the hopper and you have only driven 10 miles since your last hopper filling of wood.
Look for big bump in the road. I have done this and it works. On the freeway driving at highway speeds forget it. Slow down find a spot, It works.
Make a devise that will move in the hopper causing the bridging to collapse.
Mechanical Vibration devise on the hopper to cause the bridging to collapse.
Add some wood to cause the bridging to collapse.
The one I like was to add wood this causes movements inside the hopper to cause the bridging to collapse. I know bridging can happen at any time.
A while back I chunked up some 30 year old really dry orchard poles, they were used in propping up limbs. I had bridging problems, they were all the same shape and size. I had to mix that wood up with other chunked up cherry wood to stop it from bridging. I might have a bag or two of that wood left.
If it is a stationary unit. A simple small opening on the top of the hopper that can be opened and where a rod can be insured to knock the bridge down. Pull the rod out and close the opening, Keep It simple and keep it going.
Bob
Hi Jakob, I’m also thinking about automatic refueling, I have some ideas maybe one, … a rotating cylinder that fits snugly on the opening, inside a shallow helical spiral welded to the cylinder that moves the fuel. Filling is done by pouring fuel through the opening and turning the cylinder to the left, the spiral moves it forward, filling it again and turning it, …
Discharge while driving, turn the cylinder to the right, the fuel is poured into the reactor and then forward to close the opening in the reactor
Before they declared bankruptcy some one experienced a blockage of wood chips larger then a small car , it took weeks to clear . just a knot . actually a ball .
1 Like
Marat_Lysenko
(Marat (East of Ukraine, 70 km from Donetsk))
#45
Interesting topic. It looks like a battle with windmills.
When we are driving on gasoline or propane, there is no need for refueling on the fly. We just have a fuel level sensor, and we know when to refuel.
Could it be easier to make a firewood level sensor in the bunker? Weld the bushing into the wall of the hopper. Insert the shaft into it. Outwardly lever and scale so that they can be seen in the rear-view mirror. If the sleeve and shaft have a seal, a spring may be required to pull the lever down. Or attach a petrol fuel level sensor to the lever and connect it to the dashboard. Inside the hopper, the lever is on the shaft in the same direction, and so that it does not fall through between the pieces of fuel, fix a plate at the end of the lever. Before refueling, you just need to lift the lever up so that the plate is on top of the fuel.
Although during meetings in Argos, when there are enough people wanting to drive in the back, the idea of "one honk - one bag of firewood" is much more fun than a boring fuel indicator.
Haha, always another path you choose. Interesting, it will work. I build a few different screwing systems for sawdust. Not to complicated for my brain. The only problem that occurs, is at the point where the material has to go in the pipe. As long as there is enough space for blocks to move between the screw and pipe there is no problem. And that is the same in your case. At some point the blocks have to go in the pipe not against it.
I am thinking charcoal, there wont be any problems with that material (theoretical speaking). At the end of the srew a 3" ballvalve will do. For me the road to get there is more than enough to have my head exploded before the point of building a conveyor system.
Hi Marat, we already have refueling indicators on a gasifer, the hopper temperature tells you it is time to refuel. When my hopper temperature is 135 °f or 57.2 °c on my hopper I have plenty of wood. When it reaches 200°f or 93.3 °c it is time to reload the hopper with wood. It may vary a little on other gasifers. When the temperature raises quickly it can mean also you are having bridging problems with the wood in the hopper.
Bob
Bob I think I’ll be fueling my new in progress raw wood reactor with rocket fuel, not just to absorb moisture but to fill every cubed inch of hopper space. I hope when I get it built I can get decent mileage out of each hopper. I won’t know until I finish it.
@KristijanL when you use your rocket fuel do you use the ground down engine grade or do you use bigger pieces? I have thought of using engine grade but I’m also afraid it would make too tight of a char bed.
Marat_Lysenko
(Marat (East of Ukraine, 70 km from Donetsk))
#50
But then there is no time left to find a suitable place to refuel the bunker.
The same untimely indication begins when a gasoline-powered car starts to twitch or stall.
This is exactly what does not suit for topicstarter.
How much more can you drive after the temperature rises to 200F?
I cant believe i havent seen this topic before now.
Do you all remember the fisher price toy where you had to get marbles from one comptment to the next? Each had a different mechanism to pass one marble at a time. Take your pick which would work best for your space and fuel stock.
What Wayne said, part of the other 75 % of learning to drive on wood is watching the gages. If I can see my temperature raising from the normal full hopper temperatures I know something is causing this to happen.
This knowledge only comes from DOW experience. The reason for the topic was so I could drive farther and not stop for refueling my hopper every 35 to 40 miles or 48.3 or 64.4 km . I like to drive much longer than that at a time when traveling some where. 75 miles or 120.7 km at a time then stop. So doubling the distance would be nice. This is just me in my driving habits.
I drove for 35 years a distance of 70 mile average each way daily to work with a 12 hour shift in the middle of the drives. Those days are done. But I still like to travel longer distances at a time.
So puting a large hopper on my gasifer is the only way to do this. Also being able to add a little wood when driving would be handy. I can always just switch back to Gasoline and drive but thats no fun, everyone drives on Gasoline, diesel, PL, Electricity, but only 1 in a Millon knows how to DOW. We are a very Special Group of people that do this and more are joining up to do it.
To me it is knowledge that wins out. If you know how. Then when the time comes, the better off you are, and the more valuable you are to helping others in need.
Bob
Yes Cody, with all the extra charcoal that I make in the fire pit it works great for the Rocket Fuel mix. I have mix the larger pieces of charcoal up to a 1:1 ratio but not the smaller 1/4" to 3/4" or (0.635 cm to 1.905 cm) . I think I would constipated at the grate area. About 75% wood to 25 % charcoal mixed. My charcoal is mixed in the center of the hopper so it falls straight down into the fire tube.
I have thought of filling T shirt plactic bags with charcoal and dropping them into the center of the hopper when refueling with wood. I still have not tried it but it should work if you run the hopper to low of wood before refueling the bag would melt and you would have charcoal really to produce gases.
Charcoal in a bag is no dust, no mess and measured out for use.
Bob
