As I mentioned before, Dr Larry came back to AL with us to work on some projects here. He and Jakob have been working on this gasifier for three days.
I mostly just threw in a couple ideas and did a litttle welding for them here and there. We had 3 big trainings here this week so I have been busy with other things.
They made good gas on Sat and were converting wood very nicely. Needs some condensors yet to get some more water out, and probably a cyclone before we try it on an engine.
They seem to be getting the tar out pretty well.
We’ve been using Jakobs tractor cyclone and blowers and flare to test it.
Some may have seen the nozzle at Argos 2017. Larry had it there and we put it in a little make-shift charcoal gasifier. We are using the same nozzle for this one. It seems to keep the heat in the center of the barrel and charcoal insulates and protects the inner barrel from heat, so the idea is to not have to use a big heavy fire tube. We’ll see what happens as we go. We may have to line it with a sheet of stainless or something. …We’ll see. Stay tuned.
Jesse is a better public speaker than he is a photographer, we’ll try to get some better pics as things progress.
Yay, …Made a condenser plate today and added some holes to the inner barrel for more transfer to the outter barrel. Also found that Jakob’s non-drained blower pipe had filled with condensate and made it drain. Also, getting water in the hay filter. Made beautiful burning gas. Could find no tar.
Does anyone have a test for tar.? I mean other than stuck valves.?
We ran it through a micro fibr cloth. Then we ran the gas onto a cold pie tin for a long time to see if we could condense anything out. Found nothing except aq little water vapor, but I still want to put in some kind of cooling rail and maybe another cyclone before I risk an engine.
But it flares very well. Can’t see it well in the pics in the daylight I guess. But you can measure the big goofy grins.
SWEM NOTHING like building your own unit and getting your welding skills fine tuned, I know the cooling rack will help keep the water out of the motor, and a good size media filter helps more yet, hence why they are used, though they keep the gooie soot too a minimum too. Wayne allso has a youtube vidio that he checks his gas pedle for sticking plates after cooling down some…Back when i was about 16 years old driveing around town i seen a truck smokeing heavy and it smelt like wood burning, so i followed him tell he pulled in a parking lot at a resterant, as he went in too order some food he left his truck running, he told me what he had for fuel, and that his wood was a little too wet and wood need too stay running till he gets home, he probbly switched over too dino after got home too dry out the tarry gas before he shut down for the night. PS Allso you might have a broken spring the sise of a valve spring or smaller if its like chevys that have been known too brake that stop things from working, just under or arou d the valve body, check a dodge tranny book under trouble shooring or look around the valve body in the book. Thats why its best too have a core tranny, parts swaping that dont coom in the standard seals gaskets and clutch kits.
Hey Pete, thanks for the info. I hadn’t had a chance to glance at the link until now. ANd I still haven’t had a chance to really dig into it. But it looks like it may be what I was looking for. Thanks.
I bought me a transmission. I’m still working on getting the old one out. I plan to take the old one apart and see if i can fix it; i will have a spare transmission around then if its fixable. I have been considering mounting the gasifier on the front of the truck. Do you guys with dakotas think that the front shocks will handle 600 lbs? Jakob
Hi all Dr Larry and I have been working on our gasifire again. We used a bouncy house blower, the cooling rails off Dad’s old truck and we built a burner. We got a really good flare and it ran my tractor OK. We have found a few more improvements that we need to add but think it is going to work.
Hi Jakob, how about a up date on the gasifier that you all built. Did it go into a vehicle, tractor, lawnmower, or used to run another piece of machinery on the farm?
Bob
that one was a prototype all it did was flare there were quite a few things that needed changed to run an engine so I have almost completed the next phase of it. For testing I am thinking of strapping in the back of one of the dakotas and running two pipes to the front of the rail and using the rail and the hay filter of one of the trucks to test the gasifier. This gasifier we still don’t know what size engine it will run, I have doubts it will run a v8 but I am going to test it and find out. I believe this will be a good gasifier to small suvs and large cars, that is my guess from preliminary testing but we have yet to find out. I have been so busy that gasifier has gotten put on the back burner I have to many projects I can’t get them all done.
Seems like I recall looking at photos of a TLUD gasifier on the back of an old Ford that Larry built. I recall one of Tom Reed’s relatives tried to sell a generator fueled with a TLUD.
Just be thankful you do not have to deal with the the cold freezing weather. If you pick up a tool and try to use it in your bare hand your hand will get really cold fast. Frost bite, it hurts. I have gotten my hands to cold to many times in my life, now I’m paying for it.
Great to hear there is a new and better design that will be making it day view in the future. I love the simplicity of the design and the light weight of it.
Do you have any pictures of the new design might you want to share?, feel free. A sneek preview teaser of what is coming up in the world of gasification.
Bob
There are pictures of the new one in the first part of my 93 dakota build. but I will post them again here. The main improvement was a stainless heat shield around the nozzle Because the barrels were getting cooked. The ammo can we used on the prototype for the ash cleanout always leaked because we only could silicone it in if we welded it the inner barrel is not removable. I also shrunk a 55 gal drum to fit inside of another 55 gal drum instead of using the 40 gal drum for the inner barrel. that gave us more room for wood and a larger Diameter for around the nozzle theoretically so the barrels won’t get as hot as quickly. orange outer barrel 55gal. black, inner barrel 55gal shrunk to fit inside outer barrel with 1/2 inch clearance all the way around. maroon, 2 inch pipe. green, fire brick. purple, grate. yellow circles valves. light blue in stainless heat shield. brown, ash cleanout. We are using the two barrels for condensing hopper juice the inner barrel has slits in it down till almost the stainless heat shield so It will condense water and tar on the inside of the outer barrel and they collect in a sump at the bottom. and are drained off the same as a wk. also our air inlet at the top has the ability to pull some of the condensate and tar down into the nozzle with the incoming air to be burnt so instead of putting exhaust or water drip into the nozzle It pulls tar and condensate into the nozzle out of the hopper.
Hi guys
I have been thinking on this design again these days. My neighbor gave me a 96 Toyota Rav-4 with a 2.0 4 cyl. It is not in the bet shape and it is a Yankee car so the lower part of the body is rusted out pretty bad But it is mostly functional. I retimed it and rebuild some other things on it already.
I think this will make a good test vehicle for this gasifier. I am quite certain this gasifier won’t run a v8 or other high volume engines. That seems to be our issue a gasifier that will run a small vehicle and be light enough to be carried by the cars.
I wil post some more sketches later once i have more time to draw them.
On the subject of nozzles if anyone knows what this one looks like you will understand this better. The nozzle i have been using is made out of fire brick and pipe flanges the fire brick is supposed to handle the heat and protect the steel. it works pretty well but after a few runs the firebrick gets brittle and breaks apart.
Do y’all think stainless steel would handle the heat. If i were to build an octagon out of square tubing that was 4-6 inches in diameter and on every side of the octagon drill the right size nozzle (to be figured out depending on engine size) and put a stainless heat sink around it, would it work like a Letinger nozzle or just burn out?
I will post pics and some sketches later to help explain my ideas better.
Hi Jakob, this design originally had brake rotor in the middle for nozzles and now you are using fire brick.
I see a heat problem here. You have your nozzles in the middle of the hot, hot lobe of heat, it is like a forge and the nozzles are in it. Is there any way to make the nozzles blast downward like a Kalley Gasifier. Some of the members have been using tungsten carbide nozzles.
On my cross flow I put my fire brick nozzle inside of steel pipe. And it still cracked, but it is hold up well. Check out " The Gasifier That Wanted To Be" thread. My nozzle is not exposed to that kind of heat though.
Bob
Hi Jakob, as I see you are building a gasifier with a center nozzle, I have a similar design in mind, except that the holes in the nozzle would be directed slightly downwards, so the nozzle itself would be slightly higher and less exposed to high temperatures. I will make the nozzle out of steel for improvement, I have already tested this on a charcoal gasifier and it works. This construction system makes it possible to compensate for lifting and lowering the nozzle, as well as easily demolishing the bridge by moving it.
You are a cute family, you work hard and diligently.
I have been busy with other stuff that Woodgas these last couple weeks but on the trip i had lots of time to think. I finally got enough time and energy to make a drawing of my idea for the LBJ Gasifier. Larry was convinced of using fire brick for the nozzle. i have run tests with several different types of brick I can’t get more that a few hours of run time before the firebrick gets really brittle and just crumbles. I am thinking of using a stainless manifold nozzle with the air blowing down so that the nozzle isn’t sitting in hot char. @Bobmac had the idea for the heat skirt for the fire tube area i like the idea. Two things I’m not sure of are the restriction and the grate. Do I need one or either. Also the heat exchanger can be larger. On the two prototypes i have they don’t have one at all just two big cyclones. Some people I know don’t like cyclones but they seen to cool the gas a lot. Most of this piping is probably oversized seeing as how this gasifier I think is about the size for a four cylinder. Pink = Regular mild steel barrel. Cut a section out of it and add in a piece of stainless sheet metal (blue). The hopper area is the same design hopper we all use (WK). Orange is air inlet. Yellow is gas out. I am looking for feedback and ideas. The goal is to make a light weight WOOD gasifier if possible. I am not trying to replace what works I just like more tools in the tool box. Every Square is 2 Inches. (about 5 cm)
!DSCN9407|400x300](/uploads/default/original/3X/5/d/5dbc937e0309ddd78a5835353b6c7d2ecb4c9682.JPG)
!
