In an updraft configuration it wouldn’t work. Same if it was absolutely soaked for a down draft. Gary Gilmore has done a lot of experimentation with adding materials to charcoal, I can’t quote the exact thread but it’s on here somewhere.
Look up his posts regarding the Simple Fire and it should get you close to it. Forum has its own search function and it works a lot better than most that other forums have.
I ran a search on oil drippers before, but now I’ll focus on Gary even more.
Does he still have the yahoo forums mentioned on so many posts?
I think that would be the result.
I think Yahoo forums is defunct now.
I thought so, couldn’t find it with Google.
I spent a lot of time trying to hash out what could be added to fuel to increase it’s output. It always came back to water.
William,
I am careful to make sure people near me, including the police, know what I am doing. For one thing, I want to know if I’m breaking any laws… This has kept me out of trouble very well so far. Like, get them on your side. One detractor…? Yeah well you KNEW there would have to be one. Actually, my neighbors seem to like that I want to save the world. 
Rindert
All about putting yourself in the right light, most people are open minded if they don’t have a first negative experience with something. And a friend is much easier to dealer with and placate then an enemy
I have a neighbor. Lives a quarter mile away. If I were younger I’d move somewhere and maybe have a neighbor if they were at least two miles away. I like my contact with humans to be cyber.
It is always good to find reasonable people in your neighborhood, that know you and they know you know them. In the old days, it was to borrow a cup of flour or something. With familiarity graduates to “could you keep an eye on my place while I am gone? Thanks!” In a worst case scenario, you need to stick together for survival. It is true no man is an island, no matter how well prepped you are. Tribes happen because humans are social creatures and need to stick together for security and social interaction. I am fairly well prepared for a short disaster. I plan to open my doors and share. Have you ever read a version of the “Stone Soup” story? 
I Highly recommend watching the original Japanese version of the movie “Seven Samurai”. Just about my favorite story of all time. You will get used to the subtitles. 
Luckily most of my neighbors are also kin to me. Some more extended than others but we have a long memory over here.
I say try it, and find out. I would think the smoky smell might be the most obnoxious component, and maybe messy storage. I would do a small batch in an open space, like you said. I know there are oil quench hardening techniques for metal working. If you are making biochar (garden soil supplement char), the water +nutrients quench makes sense. As fuel for a gasifier, I would prefer the “clean” dusty char in a sealed (covered / vented) container myself. you can always add water (H2 Hydrogen!) later. Excess oil oozing out of your gasifier sounds a little like a fire hazard, too. 
That’s all perfectly true Mike.
I’ve been on both sides of this issue. I grew up in a small town in northern Vermont. You may have heard of Ethan Allen, and his brother Ira? The Allen family is still there, and controls a significant fraction of whatever happens or doesn’t around there. There isn’t a single small detail people don’t know about you if you live in Grand Isle, Vermont for very long. People you’ve never even met ‘know of’ you.
So, now I live in suburbia. Most neighbors hardly ever even talk to each other. Why? I think it’s because they don’t ever work together. They do a 9 to 5 job. If they ever throw a party they only invite people they know from work… Only their children ever really mix. There are other factors involved I’m sure.
What ever, people fear the unknown, and will try to destroy it. Do NOT make yourself unknown.
Rindert
I have owned this property since 1977. It was mostly orchards and small farms in this area. No zoning. Then the libtards started migrating in. Those folks that " Know better what’s good for you than you know for yourself." I disagree. Hard to separate the wheat from the chaff now. We have lived back in here full time since 1995 now. When my shop burned down a few years back the volunteer fire department couldn’t find us at first and non of the fire fighters had any idea anyone lived here. May have some disadvantages, I just haven’t found them yet.
I’ve had terrible relations with neighbors in the past.
In particular one neighbor kept reporting me for my chickens.
Cost me a lot of time and money, even though I was on the right side of the law and politeness.
Apparently their right wing love of personal freedom and property rights did not extend to me.
My current neighbors are just great, they like me having chooks, growing food , building weird crap.
They also happen to be liberals.
For the sake of all my neighbors, friendly or not, I’m trying to avoid noxious smoke, just like I avoid power tools after 9 at night.
It is just polite.
The oil quench will produce crappy biochar or gasifier fuel, so its a no go.
I have crafted a close fitting, but not air tight lid for my trough style retort and I plan on covering the char and dousing the lid and sides, bringing down the tempature quickly without soaking the char.
I will be upgrading to a system that needs less care to burn cleanly, something with a stack.
Probably several somethings, because burning things is fun
William,
To seal off a loose fitting lid I have used a wet blanket and sprayed it with water for a while until things cooled down:
http://forum.driveonwood.com/uploads/default/original/3X/a/9/a9479808bdd48ea91c922a602b86a9c0bdf80d2b.jpeg
I like that a lot, it will definitely be part of my routine!
The end of last nights burn:
Worked great, I’ll be checking the results this evening.
The fire itself was too smoky, the smothering was not too bad.
I want to talk about some thoughts I’ve had recently about burning used motor oil. I remember long ago when I was a little guy, visiting a shop that had a used oil drip stove, and I noticed they had two lines running into the stove so I asked about it. One line was used motor oil, and the other line was water. The man would set a pool of oil burning in a pan, then when it was hot he would start the water drip. When the water hit the hot pan it exploded into steam and added a lot of turbulence to the flame. I left it at that then when I saw it. Since then I have always thought that the purpose of the water drip was to add turbulence and get the oil to burn completely. But now I’m not so sure.
I use the old 30s vintage fuel oil pot stoves. They use a vaporizing pot to turn fuel oil into something that’ll burn. They don’t have a wick, they don’t have any fuel pumps or use any electricity. They just use a pool of fuel oil in a combustion chamber that operates in a reducing mode. They are always sort of starved for air. Well the reason those stoves are still around even though they are made out of sheet metal, is they never have an oxidizing Flame. Going back to the waste oil burner, I would say that adding Steam would cool off a reaction that’s getting too hot because it’s running rich and provide oxygen for all that extra carbon that’s available with the used motor oil.
So I can imagine if you had a bed of charcoal and were dripping oil on to it, you would be creating the perfect environment for the water gas shift reaction and be producing lots of hydrogen lots of oxygen and still have a reducing Flame.
