My wife and I are opening up a Sustainability Museum, and we want to
feature a wood gas powered car in the transportation exhibit.
I’m looking to buy or borrow (loan) a wood gas powered car, preferable something relatively compact and funky, like this :
Let me know if you have some small / mid-size wood gas powered car you would like to sell.
Alternatively, I have a classic VW Beetle, and I’d love to find somebody to help me retrofit it with a wood gasifier. While I have decent understanding of the wood gasification process,
modifying this car on my own is not an option due to the time limitation -
we’re looking to open the doors in early 2017.
Hello Alex,
Welcome to the dark side.
You will not likely be able to buy a compact car on woodgas. there are only a couple on the site, and they are highly prized. You can occasionally find a woodgas truck for sale in the for sale section over here, http://forum.driveonwood.com/c/for-sale
If you want to go the build route, buy the book,Here http://www.driveonwood.com/store/ study it, watch the video tutorials, and we will be more than happy to help you with any questions or difficulties here on the forum.
Be advised that it will take you a few hundred hours to build, and then learn to operate well, If that doesn’t scare you off, then proceed!! and happy building.
What I have not written in my original post (that is what happens when working late at night) is that buying is not an only option i’m open to.
My wife and I are opening up a Sustainability Museum, and we want to feature a wood gas powered car in the transportation exhibit. So getting someone’s woodgas car on the loan would work for too.
While I have decent understanding of the wood gasification process, modifying my car on my own is not an option due to the time limitation - we’re looking to open the doors in early 2017.
Take your VW and mount a Gary Gilmore Simplifier on the back. That would be a 20 gal grease barrel with a intake in the bottom and an out port in the top. You load the barrel with charcoal and your are good to go. You can make it more sophisticated by running the exhaust to the intake port for a controlled burn and a simple filter for longevity of life on the engine. Done deal. TomC
It isn’t that i can’t build it - just getting a museum started in one year doesn’t give me the luxury of time to build things like this. Hence my interest in buying/loaning.
It should be noted that one needs REALLY high quality charcoal for engine applications. Stuff out of a bag, even the “cowboy”/lump stuff might have some residual tars/unburned wood in it that can gum up an engine.
Gordon Ooghe ran a VW engine with his wood gasifier. Yes, it’s a big unit for a VW car, especially when the engine is in the rear. The possibility of powering machinery with this engine setup is there, however and would be a good demonstration to spark the enthusiasm for gasification. Check out his run here:
This was my initial thought too when I first read about the “simplified” method. I’m sure it has its appropriate place, but I wouldn’t dare use it especially as a first build.
Building both a “SimpleFire” and a quality charcoal kiln are both far easier and less complicated than building a single raw-wood gasifier that makes appropriate clean gas.
For this reason, charcoal gasifiers ARE generally the first step one takes.
The main catch is that one loses a fair amount of BTUs of energy converting wood to charcoal. One either makes a way to make use of that “lost” heat (hot water, pizza ovens, etc.), or counts the loss.
Do you do you know where you found that picture?
Looks like an Opel from the 70s.
An early version of the Chevette " world car ".
I am going to rule out a Chevette/Acadian, Vauxhall or Holden because of the bumper/trim kit, and the steering wheel.
But there are a lot of versions of this car and I would like to know who owned it, where and when.
That is a very small and under powered car on gasoline to be running a gasifier.
My gut tells me this was from Germany or other Eu country where a Opel badge body of this type was sold…
Alex. The car in question is an Opel. The owner is from Germany and he is some kind of farm equipment sales person. That is a WWII gasifier that he refurbished and then built a rack on the Opel to hold it. Some where many years ago I saw the whole story with pictures of the construction. I’m not sure if I could find the information again. TomC
Thank you Chris. I don’t know how you find all that stuff so fast. I have a hard time remembering something and BANG you bring up the post. Amazing.TomC
Sorry I missed the “Hnangout” tonight. from 5;00 to 7.30 I was trying to get my tablet to work. It says I have to change toe “desk top mode” but it sure as hell doesn’t tell me how. Maybe I just come in with my mic. and no picture next time on my big computer. You don’t need to look at my face anyway. "
