I am new to this forum, so thank you for allowing me to participate. I am from the Netherlands and plan to build a wood gasifier to power a generator. This generator has a 4-cylinder petrol engine from a tractor from the 1940s or 50s. Energy is very expensive here, and my problem is that I can get all kinds of large pieces of packaging wood from the industry. However, these do not fit in a standard wood gasifier. I can saw these large pieces into smaller pieces that do fit in a wood gasifier, but this takes a lot of time and a lot of electrical energy. Or I can put the large pieces of wood in a charcoalmaker and make charcoal from them. This charcoal can be broken into smaller pieces with little energy, and that does fit in a wood gasifier. However, I lose a lot of energy from the wood in the charcoal-making-process. Are there combinations of these two? Which is, making charcoal and still using the gas that is released? What are your thoughts on this? I have already looked on this forum but cannot find anything about it. My English is not excellent, but I hope you still understand.
Welcome to the site and bewildering world of wood gas Jan. I would be good to know what the design of your proposed gasifier is going to be. No real way to know what your best fuel source could be otherwise. That said, I’m not aware of any design that would use large pieces of boards or lengths of slats. Much of the energy that you feel you are losing in the charcoal making process is mainly volatiles which are burned off in the wood fueled gasifier without entering into the actual fuel/gas production. Just waste heat. On a stationary engine you could find ways to use that heat for something like water heating. Tone has done extensive research and has build several excellent gasifiers to fuel an engine like yours.
Jan, welcome. Where are you in the Netherlands. We are from around Waalwijk.
Lets hope you do better then me. I use scrap wood for heating. A lot of work but it saves a lot to get rid of. It is cut in pieces 50 cm for a woodboiler. Some rest with a lot of nails I throw in a grinder but that one takes a lot of energy, motor is 18,5 kW. The idea was to use surplus pv for that one, but I rather sell then burn it in the breaker.
And another thing is how you want to run your generator. In a car you are present, a generator you walk away from. I think charcoal is a good choice and dont mind the loss. Maybe find a way to heat your house with it.
My friend Tom gives me too much credit in the field of gasifiers, which I don’t deserve, but thanks anyway Tom.
Hello Jan!
I will list just a few features that apply if you want to turn wood into gas,…
First the wood is dried, then the pyrolysis process begins, where moist pyrolysis gases emerge and only charcoal remains from the solid form of wood. Drying and pyrolysis thus create a very humid atmosphere, so part of this moisture needs to be removed, which we do with the condensation process, and the remaining gases travel through the glowing charcoal, where the conversion into pure quality wood gas takes place.
The entire conversion process takes time and a suitably high temperature, if the wood is in small pieces, it is converted faster, but if the pieces are larger, it takes longer.
What would be the answer to your question? If you want to use larger pieces, it is necessary to build a high storage tank in which the wood will have enough time to be converted into gas and charcoal. It is also necessary to ensure that the wood does not get stuck during its journey - the same diameter of the storage tank and appropriate vibrations,…
Welcome to the DOW. I read where you want to stop buying out so much electrical power and then make your electricity with industry packing woods, yes?
Rather than mulling over to use broken down packing woods in a raw wood gasifier; versus going the pre-make charcoal route these are not the most important decision factors. By the way. Industrial packing woods are full of metal staples, nails and screws which will give you fits in either process.
Mr Tone recently posted up some excellent in metric measures, real-world conversion comparisons of fuel oils, versus propane, versus woods volume and weight needed to make his electricity.
So in my real doing-it experiences; the two most important factors of your own additional time needed to do the many steps to use woods. And you living in a very dense populated country - the acceptance of your neighbor to complaining to authorities and have you get many cease-and-desist legal orders.
So do you have at least 800-1000 hours a year you can devote to the ongoing wood acquisition; and hauling home; then many step processing before it even goes into a gasifier-engine-electrical-generator??
In any way you will have accumulated visible stacks of acquired woods. Even electrical saws make noise, and dusts. Even very narrow kerf band, or reciprocating saws will make accumulated piles of fine sawdusts. The gasifier operating engine and gasifier itself will make new many hours duration noises. Have sometimes some visible emissions. Will have accumulated liquids, residue ash: and from the assemble packing crates accumulated fastener metals. Neighbors will complain with their fears . . . and their jealousies. And these happen even within families. My wife is much concerned with me now at 73 year out operating gasoline chainsaws. Engine driven wood splitters. Sweat breaking down logs with steel wedges and hitting mauls. (Keeps me young)
J.O. Olsen says his wife accuses him of having a basement mistress in his whole house heating wood furnace. Ha! Ha! Maybe now with him out frolicking with forest nymphs; him “spare-time” hours and hours out salvaging storm event brought down trees.
And that brings up . . . how do you currently home and maybe shop heat? With wood? This will give you by far the best return on wood handling labors. I have seen several time whole house hydronic heaters that take full sized wooden shipping pallets. Batch fed vertical stacked 3-4 pallets at a time.
I live in Maashorst, which isn’t that far from you.
I’ve been burning wood in a VIGAS wood boiler for 20 years, so I know how much work it is to saw the wood into smaller pieces. Officially, VIGAS says I shouldn’t throw metal into the stove, but it’s too much work to remove it, so it just goes in with the wood. I do notice that nails “stick/weld together” at high temperatures, so I end up with a ball of nails just before the spot where the temperature is highest. And those nails are difficult to remove. Hence my idea to make charcoal first. Charcoal breaks easily in a simple shredder, the temperature is much lower so nails “don’t stick together,” and I can remove them with a magnet. I don’t know the type of gasifier yet. I’m still exploring my options. But it will probably be a downdraft. I saw a nice downdraft-installation in Germany that operated fully automatically and produced about 200kW. @Tom, do you mean Tone Šuštarič?
My intention is to generate electricity for the machines I work with for several hours during the day, totaling 7.5 kW. At the same time, a 24V 1000Ah forklift battery is being charged = 2.7 kW. That battery can supply 24VDC-230VAC voltage via an inverter for household appliances and lighting. I have many pieces of wood lying around that are 1 meter long. My idea is to convert a wood boiler. Remove the heat exchanger and build a horizontal boiler in its place where those long pieces are placed in by hand. With this wood boiler, I can turn those long pieces into charcoal that breaks easily into smaller pieces. Moreover, I can then remove the nails with a magnet instead of a claw hammer. That saves a lot of time. The charcoal could then be converted into gas for a petrol engine in a wood gasifier. I need to coordinate everything and see what to do with the gas released during charcoal production. I saw somewhere that you pay $6 for a gallon. I couldn’t see if it’s gasoline or diesel. We are already at almost $11 for a gallon of diesel here, and it is claimed that it could well reach $18. So it is time for us to do something ourselves.
Good statements of your current usages; and intents. Very practical. And very direct.
The topic you want to study is Kristijan Leitinger’s “Charcoal kiln, Kurst 2.0” from April 2021. He has had 3-4 separate topics on his large piece woods charcoal making.
I could just give you the direct link. Instead I prefer to show how to find these bread crumbs trails. In the top of page toolbar is a magnifying glass shaped search tool. Open it up and just type in Charcoal kiln, Kurst 2.0
To be diplomatic, I’ll say that based on what Tom has told us, Tone, you don’t have to be concerned about any competition from him. I also like his sense of humor.
