I wonder if it was not Mt Saint Helens, the TV show I was from, do you live near the mountain?
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Yes. THE Mount Saint Helens of 1980.
We all current Washington State on the DOW live close to one of these:
Mt Saint Helens; Mt Adams; Mt Rainer; Mt Hood; Mt Baker.
Close enough for potential ash falls. River valleys mud flows. Easy enough to endure the one. Sidestep the other.
Much, much, better than the coastal edge Tsunami zones!!
Hey. Kindda’ like Joni only 60km from the Ukraine/Russian border.
Every place has something.
I’d 'druther my something be Natures, and predictable. Expected.
Not random constant Urban crimes. " I see it. I want it. You must give it to me. You owe it to me."
S.U.
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Steve, you were very close but a bit up wind in 1980.
Did you get much ash?
I live about 100 miles NW of the mountain and only got a dusting.
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Keeping track of things like Earthquakes and volcanoes is an interest of mine. Here’s one for you NW guys I never heard of before.
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Let talk about the hopper where everything starts in the pyrolysis of wood. Now I am a big fan of the external cooling tubes on the hopper with upper and lower gutters to help get the extra moisture and tars away from the wood and put it in a separate tank that can be drained off. This takes place as the wood breaks down in the pyrolysis process. Now heat is very important part of this process. In my hopper I like to see temperatures of 130°f to 160°f
This is a good range I think for the tars to not be as sticky, more runny like syrup. My temperature prob is located in the upper third of my hopper. When I hit 200°f and open my hopper and the smoke clears I see the wood in the hopper is at the bottom and I see hot charcoal on top of the firetube.
Note everyone’s hopper build is a little different so this temperature reading can be different in yours. My hopper diameter is a standard 55 gallon barrel with the removal
lid. I have a common drainage tube from the gutters. The gutters drainage is the lowest point when the truck is parked on level ground. So at shut down it should keep draining the water/tar to the condensation tank. On the Wilbur Smith design the gutters are level so you can tip the whole gasifier to the drainage side or park the truck so it drains. The gutters are 3" deep. When driving the vehicle, it is never level all the time anyway. Even the roads they have what is call a crown surface to drain water off the paved roads.
I like the cone shape that is made below the lower gutter it helps slides the partly pyrolysis wood to the firetube opening. There is a air gap spacing underneath the cone that helps keep the gutter warm and the tar flowing to the drain. Very important that the lower and upper gutters have ventilation so the smoke, air,gases can be circulating in the hopper. This helps with the drying and pyrolysis of the wood process.
At the top of the hopper there is a lid and it should not be locked down you need some way the release pressure the large lid is held in place by springs and on top of that is a smaller fill lid for putting wood into the hopper. This is a very basic Wilbur Smith hopper a good set up. Go to the Wilbur Smith Gasifier build for more information in the WK part of DOW site and how to build it.
Bob
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Here I am attaching sketches of a hot zone with a double size and a double upright grate made of tubes that would act as a heat exchanger, preheating fresh air with hot gases as soon as they leave the process. I have to work harder to draw sketches,…
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So your grate to hold the Charcoal is solid with vertical tubing with air moving through them? Not really simple to build but talk about some super preheated air coming out the nozzles. There is a lot of distortion in metals in the grate area. But in this design I can see a very light weight gasifier concept at work here.
Bob
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Now THAT is a good 3D skizz. TomC
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Bob, it’s going to take some work to put it together, … I will drill small holes of 6-8mm in the bottom plate so that the air is evenly distributed in each tube, the tubes will be 1/2", I will try to get thick-walled, maybe seamless tubes. It is true that the materials are exposed to high temperatures at this point , but as I have noticed with my gasifier, cooling with fresh air prevents overheating and deformation.
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Yes the cold air is great for transfers of heat through medals.
Bob
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Hi Ton
why not consider the same system that Joni Kolyvan uses in its gasifier version .09? I’m talking about the vacuum line that connects the hopper to a venturi in the exhaust pipe. This pipe makes it possible to extract the excess water vapor which can excessively cool the oxidation-reduction reaction. But this suction in the hopper, also makes it possible to maintain a minimum burning hearth .maybe this system would no longer justify a double crown of nozzles?
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I went and tried the vaccum hopper line on my Dakota, I couldn’t get it to work properly the vaccum in the gasifer was higher then the venturi vacuum in the exhaust pipe. But I could drain my tar juices down the line and out on to the ground at idling.
Bob
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After looking at Joni’s gasifier, he has his gutter in the upper section of the hopper.
He also has a fairly short run to the muffler tip. Maybe that plays a factor. Did you have your vacuum line on your upper gutter or lower gutter?
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Upper. And that short line could be a factor. But let’s think about it straight engine sucking vaccum vs. Ventrui vaccum in the end of a tail pipe. Straight sucking engine is greater even with some air mixed in.
Bob
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Bob, maybe it would be possible to still eject with venturi, but use the gasifiers incoming air.
Like those valve cover breather catch cans.
A venturi line from the gutter to a tank, with the intake line being either baffled away or simply high up in the tank. This way heavier water will settle in the tank and any siphoned producer gas goes through the nozzles.
This also would settle my worries during shutdown, no woodgas seeping out of the tailpipe and letting oxygen into the hopper. When the intake is shut down the system is closed from outside air.
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I decided to just stick with the standard WK style hopper with condensation tar / water tank. It work good.
Bob
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Hello Trigaux, if you review this topic, you will notice a small pipe installed on my gasifier from the top of the condensate tank and also on the water-cooled exhaust pipe as well, … I tried suction of steam and gases from the top of the gasifier tar gases, which, however, give a rich and powerful gas, so I abandoned this process. Condensation of water vapor should not be too intense, as superheated steam in the hot zone also forms a good gas. The gasifier is well insulated and heated to the top with the resulting gas, so the real hell is inside, pyrolysis already stretches high above the hot zone, which creates a lot of gases, which I do not want to lose because I need them in the hot zone. 
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Raw wood gasifier, additional cooling pipes for condensation above, added labyrinth for better interior heat preservation and at the same time a trap for ash and soot,…
comments are welcome
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I definitely think cooling pipes for the hopper top will aid in removing water. It may help control the chaotic pyrolysis that classic Imberts apparently suffered from.
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