Hello Kristijan; Many people burn corn to heat there small house. The byproduct is just ash. So should work.
A large portion of our corn is used to make ethanol to add to gasoline. So I see no ethical question there. TomC
4 Likes
In our rich countries where almost everyone is eating enough ā¦ that does not pose too many problems. The poor populations of certain countries suffer from the increase in the price of maize (an increase often caused by agrofuels)
Another very good reason for DOW
Thierry
8 Likes
Shelled corn yes, done that. Under strong protest.
Batch hopper fed gasifier it wants to starches glue it self together at the heating/pyrolisis transition zone.
Solution is to auger dribble feed in just as is best for small US sized wood-pellets.
The problem is KristijanL is the same as the original nuclear bomb physicists/ engineers faced. Of course nuclear could be used for peaceful energy and medical isotopes. But . . . far too easy to divert to destructive purposes.
Showing/making/useing any FOOD stocks as shaft energy making is planet destroying. Period.
Half the US 1940ās nuke designers made the choice of expedient/nationalism to be the first to make the better booms for their country. their culture.
Half refused. Name signed on to petitions refusing. And were vilified for this at the time.
Read the biography of Soviet designer of the biggest hydrogen bomb ever. Man later dedicated his life work to humanism.
Read the origins of the construction family Noble. WHY later horrified the one son is still giving away for peace.
Yeah. Yeah. I was told . . . but itās just corn Steve. Cow food. Farmers need to make money too. Not our place to decide. WRONG!!! Me. I choose. Not anyone elseās responsibility for your own actions.
Ethics and moral decisions start at the lowest level. Make the right choices there and a fellow will never have to Noble/Solzenitzn pay pence for the rest of their lives.
J-I-C Steve Unruh
6 Likes
Steve, l agree. Sometimes eaven the educational purposed experiments do lots of damage. This one l will pass.
I did a litle video today, was planing to do a bit of town driveing and trafficlights with idleing but a nasty road accident forced me to take a nother road home. Or shuld l say 3 other roads.
the gasifier runs with a new restriction now. The old one cracked and twisted so much it had to be replaced.
The new restriction is just a mild steel disc with a 4" hole in the center. Wirks well. I might start to experiment with more āmasiveā aditions to it now to achive that flyweel effect. Will see.
9 Likes
Thank you, Kristijan! This was educational.
Like you said: Felt like Iām sitting right next to you or even in the drivers seat. I could almost feel that power hesitation. Same as I feel when killing the gasoline seconds to early when leaving the driveway. I usually wait until Iām in second gear to be able to take advantage of some momentum.
Good to see youāre up and running again 
And you always have nice weather 
I envy you.
2 Likes
Thank you Kristijan, and what Jan-Ola said. It always a pleasure to ride along with you and the others on DOW. Good to know the new restriction plate and reduction zone is working good. Yes, when you get some metal mass installed in that area, you will notice the flywheel effects when idling at longer periods of time.
Bob
2 Likes
I second what bob mac said.Thanks for posting your build Kristijan and the vidios. Good too see it working out good enough for the design and weight limits available in the light vehichle.
3 Likes
Thanks for the video 
Hope no one was hurt bad in the traffic accident .
3 Likes
I had some spare time today, so l did a litle research and testing on the system.
I added a new lighting port-this way l can fill the hopper in the evening and light it fast and easy in the morning, plus its a bit easyer for my wife to light it. Less soot on the fingers.
I tryed to bypass a portion of woodgas to the air side of the automixer, so this way l compensate with small airleaks in the system and weak gas after longer idles.
The new restriction is holding up well.
I allso put off the gasifier air intake non return flap. I suspected it not working well for me at long idles when wacuum is wery small.
So l warmed up the gasifier and set the engine rpm to 3500rpm in neutral. Disconnected the injector fuel line to be sure and started to play with the new gas bypass valve. I found the automixer does set it self a bit lean, the bypass did a great job of correcting that! My refference was O2 sensor.
Then l let it idle. At first a puff of steam was rolling out the gasifier intake for a few seconds, all this steem wuld suffocate my engine at idle before when it hadnt had a chance to vent out. Then it idled well for a loong time. So this is good too.
Thain l drove to work. It was a pleasant ride, perhaps best so far. I allso stoped to buy some petrol, the car idled for about 5 minutes on wood and guess what?? I drove away on woodgas without much hasitation!
Slowly working on. Next step is hideing the hopper steam at cooldownsā¦
4 Likes
I like that. What was the reason? Richer mix?
Stop that nonsense! 
EDIT:
Could it be that you during idle (almost closed throtte = high manifold vacuum) have been syphoning gasoline enough to sustaine idle? Your gasifier non-return flap, seeing to little vacuum, has been shutting the gasifier down completely. This would explain your get going hesitations and your city driving high gasoline consumption.
2 Likes
I think richer mix yes. But haveing a free pass for the gasifier intake air might have helped tooā¦
JO, my Chevy is still a bit bigger drinker thain your Rabbit unfortunaly.
Well, to be honest, petrol was a side thing, primary cause l stoped at the store is we ran out of beer
2 Likes
Look at my editā¦
1 Like
JO, l dont know what to think anymore about petrol consumption.
I think fuel does syphone in at idle. My O2 sensors jump at idle and l can feel a slight spike in power when the throttle closes. But! When l disconnect the fuelline from the injectors at static tests, nothing happens. Idles well tooā¦ l allso dont feel vacuum on the injector suply.
I do some hybriding and lots of citydrive + startups with petrol, short drives, wife driveing on petrol (maybee 20km/week) but the fuel consumption is set to about 4l/100km. Better thain 9 on pure petrol but stillā¦ l cant find the causeā¦
Oh, and disconnecting the injector fuse leads to the engine goeing to safe modeā¦
Just wonderingā¦ is it possible for the fuel tank fumes suction systems to consume so much fuel? I do drive with allmost empty fueltank latelyā¦
1 Like
Maybe a silly question but, are you sure you are not only disconnecting the return line?
1 Like
What does āsafe modeā mean? Without current to the injectors the engine should not run at all unless you have woodgas going to it. As I recall, when something happens to the computer, there are base values that the engine goes to for timing, temp., rpm, etc but even the computer canāt take the injectors to a āsafe modeā if the electricity is shut off. ??? TomC
JO,
Ill make a video tomorow if l find the time.
No, lm prety sure l disconnected the suply line. Its the only one goeing to the injectors.
Tom,
I dont know if safe mode is the correct term, fault mode perhaps?
Well the engine doesent stop, but is limited to run only up to 2000 rpm, just so you can safely put it off the road in case of a engine fault.
This happend 2 or 3 times since l was playing with injectors. Not pleasant if it happebs on the road.
No problems since l left them alone.
3 Likes
Kristijan, Yes āsafe modeā works for me in our discussion. ( I believe the term they used in class was ālimp modeā meaning you to ālimpā to a safe location.) My point is; if you disconnect the āinjector fuseā, there is no way the engine will run-- on petro. Or are you saying you disconnected the āinjector fuseā and were running on āwoodgasā and the car suddenly went into this āsafe modeā and limited your RPMās to 2000? ( So assuming that you have the āinjector fuseā removed, and you are running on woodgas ) My thoughts are 1) you were syphoning petro up through the TBI and dribbling it in and hybridizing and for some reason , lack of vacuum, the syphon stopped and rpmās dropped to straight woodgas. 2) you got an air leak somewhere in the system that diluted the woodgass going to the TBI. Maybe vacuum readings would show this. 3) I am not sure what the baseline figures are for running in the āsafe modeā and it is possible that one is a tachometer reading of 2000 rpm. You would have to research that one. When the engine went into the āsafe modeā and you pulled off the road, what did you change to get it running again??? TomC
2 Likes
Tom,
The computor starts skipping ignition in safe mode, just like when max rpm is reached. So no wodgas driveing eitherā¦
My engine is a Mpfi so this shuldn cause problems by the book. This s what comfses me.
Now that l have a obd2 scaner l can erase the codes and thats it. Before, l had to wayt and the engine wuld get back to life after some 15min
3 Likes
Sorry I couldnāt solve your problem. I knew the safe mode limited the rpm, but didnāt realize it worked on spark adjustment. I hope the scanner is more helpful for you TomC
2 Likes
Hi guys,
My gasifier heart is on the big side according on imbert dimensiobs for bigger blocks of wood, yet l see better performance with small fuel. I mean realy small like pellets and walnut size blocks. The cooling rail is colder and power is better.
But! (why is there always a but?) The ash buildup in the charbed is greater thain with bigger fuel. With pellets or wallnuts l have to empty the reduction every about 500 km.
So my question is, do you guys think it wuld be better to stick with this small heart and fuel size and sift the char every once in a while or go back to biger fuel and set the grate an inch lower?
1 Like