Could this be the one?
http://gengas.nu/bilder/gengaskalle.shtml
You probably already saw Vesa Mikkonen uses compressed air to clean his socks too. At 2:40. Slightly bigger setup though 
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Yes thats the one! Butyfull. If l remember right he converted a diesel right?
Yeah l imagine a slight problem fiting Vesas rig in my trunk
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Yes, originally a diesel. Slightly lowered compression and ignition added.
Kalle is gone but rumour says the MB is still running.
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Hi guys,
Here is a walkaround on my new gasifier. Well, a model
Plese, coment on what you think. Calculation says this gasifier is big enough to run whats it intended to do. But let me tell you it looks so small in real life
Allso, l performed a experiment today. I weighted 1l of charcoal, submerged in water for 5 min thend drain and weigh again. 150g dry, 250g wet. But this is not driping wet, its just soggy wet. This means 60% carbon, 40% water. Preety good ratio right there.
I left it over night to see the change.
Anyway, it seems this weting of the char has real potential! Thanks to Til? for sugesting it. Shuld make char production easyer too, l can dump a few buckets of water in my Kursk kiln and the char will cool much faster.
Allso l was thinking, if this works out, char culd even be infused with old engine oil or stuff like that.
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I like the way you think!
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Kristijan, on my cross flow charcoal gasifier I really didnât care if my charcoal was that dry, the last run I made with it, it ran my get set just as good as the first run and the last of my charcoal had got damp from rain and moisture in the air. My cooling tubes compensate and the spin filter bucket with sock filter seemed to take the moisture out enough that the genset ran fine. The only thing that was a problem was ash and slag plugging things up so fire had to go around the ash/slag ball.
Keeping your fire tube and reduction zone down to the ash area clear so gas can keep flow with out high vacuum is the only thing I see that might be a problem. Just will have to clean more often.
Bob
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Yes slag is what l fear most too. There will be no easy way to clean the gasifier exept crush out some char with the moveable grate. But it can not handle big lumps of slag so the gasifier will need to run under the slag formation temp. And thats the buty of burning wet char, its self metering. Both char and water come in the burn zone in one package. In theory.
I agree on that care will have to be taken to clean the dropbox regulary. I dont mind raking out the solids dayly, just need to come up with a quick to open cleaning door mechanism⌠allso, the floor and the gasifier bottom will need to be smooth and bumples for the gas to be able to push the dust away.
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My drop box hatch cover I built for clean out and inspection comes off in seconds. It was easy to build. You could make it the same dimension you have for your clean out. It has a narrow seal around the hatch lid , used stove rope with red silicone casket seal. It never leaks. 1 bolt cross bar holds the hatch in place.
It has a heat shield made of ceramic insulation and a welding blanket, it keep things cooler on the hatch cover.
The very bottom of your gasifier floor can be the lower part of the hatch lip so everything will be smooth to rack out ash and slag and charcoal.
Bob
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Kristijan!
If it doesnât work, Iâm sure you will make it work.
A few comments though:
The distance below the lower restriction looks really narrow. Not much space for ash to settle. Are you sure about this? How about the grate? Where will it fit? You didnât mention.
I have no experiance of charcoal gasifiers but you mentioned positive pressure at idle and shutdowns on your previous builds. Wouldnât moist char create a lot of steam?
What about moisture and lightup?
Haha, lotâs of questions. I feel like @TomC
This will be interesting.
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Hi Kistijan , in the post from Carl on his run of a 2000 watt charcoal generator project , he is struggling to make good gas , and apart from the usual check for air leaks Gary Gilmore said this âHas your charcoal gotten wet since you made it? Too much water in the charcoal will conspire to make poor gas tooâ
I live in the wettest dampest cloud covered suburb of Melbourne Victoria and when my charcoal has got a good covering of cloud rolling in i sometimes hear popping as i light my gasifier and don"t notice much more till i come to check the filters afterwards and they are soaking wet , i think your idea of maybe coating some charcoal in old engine oil may have some benefits that need to be checked out and cant wait to try that myself .
By the way , the name of your kiln the Kursk did you name it after the ill fated sub ?
When i first glanced at the name i thought wow he has named it after my local charcoal kiln its only when i really looked i noticed it was Kirsk kiln and not Kurth kiln , some of you might find this interesting to look and at https://www.friendsofkurthkiln.org.au/pdf/7083%20Kurth%20Kiln%20report.pdf
Dave
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Hi Kristijan, I was just thinking about your Gasifier clearance, if you can not go down any more, then why Canât you go up a little after the reduction ring and grate.
1 1/2" to 2" clearance should be fine for all practical purposes. Just a thought.
Bob
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This looks fine Bob! Althugh l did have problems with glassfiber rope/silicone seal before. I must of done something wrong.
JO oh, the grate comes under the restriction.
Well the idea is for this narrow gap to just be a port for gas/dust, while the actual setling area is under the heat exchanger/filter. Isnt a narrow space desired in this case? (High velocity)
Positive pressure, yes, with wood. And moist char will do the same in a clasical gasifier but l am hoping to avoid it having the hopper separated with the restriction. It shuld let wery litle heat trugh, most being caught with counterflowing fuem. Allso, a wery small amount of fresh fuel can get in the firetube at a time.
Lightup, no idea. But l wuld guess not, its all insulated realy well so the gasifier shuld stay hot for a long time. In this time the moisture from the char in the firetube shuld evaporate and condense in the hopper.
Wich is actualy a concern by it self. I am sure in this system hoppers will be concidered expendable. Being cool, any moisture will condense there causing rust. Will see, if this works out the next one culd be made in SS.
Dave, in a updraft gasifier most of us use, yes, moisture is a huge problem. If you take to acount old char has up to 10% moisture it picked from the air, in a updraft gasifier, all of this ends up diluting the gas.
But this gasifier is a downdraft. Its actualy wery similar in principle to a WK, air cooled firetube, restriction at the bottom⌠so all the steam must go trugh the glowing heart, cracking it.
You run a updraft gasifier right? You think that wuld work with oil? My fear is oiljust boiling out of char at the top of the burn zone, making smoky gunky gasâŚ
Ha, the Kursk. Yes it got the name after the sub. It is burryed half way in the ground and all the chimneys and stuff look like a submarine surfacing
Bob, yep, what you draw is preety much exactly what l have in mind. I realised the video is deseaving. There is a 2" gap between the restriction and the bottom. But the gasifier is not completely rectangular (height on the front 29cm, back 27cm) so l need to get that inch somehow.
Althugh l plan to make the shaking rod on the other side, towords the driver. Maybee tied with a cable or something to be able to operate it on the go.
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Dave, the link doesent work here?
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It seemed to work OK here ?
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What I did with the stove rope is I put in a plastic bag and squeeze the red silicone into the bag seal the bag and started working the silicone into the rope real good. Removed the rope and hung it up to get tacky dry. Then I placed the silicone treated rope into the metal slot put plastic over it and clap the lid down in place to form a tight seal. 24 hours later removed the lid and plastic and let it dry 24 hours more.
Bob
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Same as Wayne here Kristijan link works fine ,
See Kristijan thats why i leave the clever stuff to you fellows i never even gave that a thought about forcing steam and vapors through a restriction and burning it up all , so i guess seeings as i cant really run and use my gasifier right now due to fire restrictions as i only have a small amount of charcoal left .
I may have to think about building a downdraft and see how that works out for me if i want to play, and maybe leave my hands free updraft gasifiers doing what they do best making sunshine to charge my batteries .
Dave
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Thanks for the Kurth Kiln report. It filled in a few more gaps in my WWII gasifier knowledge.
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Hi Dave & Brian,
You folks in Australia had a lot of wood and chargas vehicles back in World War Two, and regulations for them. Would you know where I could find any regulations?
Rindert
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Rindert, I have a document from the Standards Association of Australia from 1942 called âCharcoal Gas Producers for Motor Vehicles together with Australian Standard Rules for the Testing of Charcoal Gas Producers for Motor Vehicles.â It is stamped âSAI Global.â and is about 30 pages long. Maybe somebody knows if this is available in one of the DOW links or elsewhere? I did a quick Google search, but didnât find it.
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Bruce,
I think the second link below is what you are referring to. The first one, The Pederick Manual, includes operating procedures for charcoal gasifiers and some safety practices as well.
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