Properties of a good wood gasifier

I don’t doubt that 1/2 is enough but how did you manage to conclude that it was enough?

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Thanks Cody. Finally I understand or think I understand, what DJ is talking about. Just needed this info. Sorry for being a slow student. :smiley:

Good thinking Kent, didnt dare to say some.

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Thanks Tone, very clear talking. I thought you just want to burn the charcoal with your extra nozzle but this goes far beyond that.

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Hi Kent, you are absolutely correct. 273 k is 0°c.
0°c to 273°c is correct (546k).
Boyles law if i remember correctly?
And the volume doubles.

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pv = nRT

Good brain exercise for an old guy :slightly_smiling_face:

The older I get, the more I feel like I have dynamic ram instead of static ram :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

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Goran, if we consider the main factors that affect the mass flow of air or gas through a pipe of a certain diameter, we see that the cross-section of the pipe, the length of the pipe, the viscosity of the gas and the pressure difference between the beginning and the end of the pipe appear in the equation. In our case, we want the pressure difference to be as small as possible and we compare the mass flow of hot and cold gas, interestingly, in the equation, the viscosity of the gas also changes due to the temperature, which enables higher gas speeds in the pipe, so I assume that there will not be a big difference in mass flow between cold and hot gas. I don’t dare to post the result here until my brother Primož (doctor of mechanical engineering) checks it.:woozy_face::thinking:

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I am sorry but here I must disagree.
What I say is based on a lifetime of at times fighting wood stove and fireplace chimneys.

Cold gas flow is slow and sluggish.
Hot gas flow in the same diameter is fast and active.

Interesting you brought up the viscosity of the fluid/gas to pipe flowing Tone. This certainly is a part of the differences.
Something else (or more than one factor) is affecting too.
Gas mass Inertia maybe??
Developed code guidelines for near atmosphere pressures duct and piping guidelines says you can be too big. Making the gas movement speed then too slow and lazy. It impedes itself then. Slowing movement speed. Stalling. Getting in the way for the best beginning to finishing comparison volume flows.

Of course it can always be forced to flow with outside energy inducers. These will add costs and complexity. Allow a person to think they are achieving, by forcing results.
S.U.

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Well, by my report about piping size, i don’t mean this as a statement, more that i like the theory behind it, bigger pipes for hotter gas makes sense. But if it gives some benefits? I don’t know? I like the idea of a somewhat slower gas speed (probably not noticeable) that will give the gas some better cooling in the pipes?
So, nothing scientific behind my ideas, and no proof of theory (only some interesting temperature drops where pipe gets smaller, but that could be due to some “turbulence” )

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Steve, with chimneys there is also a aditional factor involved, draft. Since hot gas has lower density it wants to “flow up”.

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Yes. Yes.
The factor of chimney draft up-force helps a fellow understand the induced forced flow energy that will be needed in a Downdraft gasifier systems; raw wood or charcoal, to get the whole process working.

I have sought out and stood below an old tall, tall brick chimney stack. Felt the updraft just from solar heated air.
Stood at the base of an inactive nuclear cooling tower stack. Same. Same.

Or reverse the understanding.
I’ve hands-on felt the helium recover and re-separation (from air contamination) pumping and piping systems at WWII coastal Blimp hangers.
Been to the city of Seattle gasworks park and stood next to the systems flow inducer impellers.
Both Massive. Dealing in low pressures relatively. Massive volumes needed moving. No stupid 45 degree cut; and welded 90 degree flow turns in any of these!!
Asking gas flow to turn direction takes energy. Minimize that. Minimize turbulence wasted energy.
Liquid flows, and sometimes turbulence helpful to keep mixed blended and in suspensions.
Produced fuel gas I strongly feel flow turbulence make for bad gas changes.
Costs of systems to set up and operate always the overriding factor in Investor financed systems.

DIY we can cheat oversize easily, usually.
When you are having to deal with Investors moneys systems must be justified as effective and economical. Durable.
S.U.

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This is all very good and great descriptions and discussions of how gases work cold and hot, with drafts and vaccums. Changing the directions in pipes that have drag on surfaces, with vortices at every change of direction causing frequent changes in frequency. Even from small to a larger size chambers all causes this. Also with the soots and ashes, and moisture being carried with the gases and finally dropping out. All this things needs to be calculated in to the mathematics of the equation. All this makes for a very complicated equations to figure out.
The bottom line is this , we want rich gases to the engine from the gasifier system, and as little drag of gases as possible going through the whole entire system to the intake when the gasification system is hot and active. Because every gasifier is custom built and is built different we will have a different out come on each gasifier we build. Only in mass production and testing can we achieve the same results of our mathematical formulas.
Just one change in a gasifier design will change everything.
Even the type of wood you use changes things
I have proven this one all ready with the same WK Gasifer. and I know many here on this site have done this too.
So find a good gasifier design, build it. Then run it in the parameters of its design. This is what we call the other 75% , the big key to success.

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Now that you mentioned your examples, l remembered we once visited a coal powerplant that had the tallest chimney in Europe for quite some time. At 365m its a sight to see… the top swings by 4m at this lengh and gas achives so much velocity you cant fall in to the chimney when it operates. Fascinating. But when we went inside (it has a double wall) just the draft of the outher protective lair almost sucks you trugh the door.
Ha, even found a picture.

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In Detroit there is a 70 story hotel with an express elevator to the revolving restaurant at the top. When I was doing Ironwork we were working in that shaft. At the base it took two guys to pull sliding doors sideways to enter and any debris in the area was sucked in like a giant vacuum cleaner, but once in the shaft with the doors closed there was no sense of pressure at all. Still it’s not hard to understand how the air velocity in the smoke stack would float a human being.

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The Rennaissance Center (now actually called the GM RenCen since everyone called it the ren cen anyway) restaurant hasn’t revolved in 20 years. I was a bit scared in the elevator, but it was a great view. I was a bit disappointed because it didn’t move very fast. :slight_smile:

The real question is whether the smoke stack works better then Willy Wonka’s fizzy lifting drink. :slight_smile:

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I have been reading on how Ammonia is made by man’s way in the different processes. And new discoveries have been found in recent years, but are still in the laboratory production not on larger scale.
Nature does it at atmospheric pressure and very low temperatures. Man’s way high pressure and higher temperatures. So my mind started thinking. Now I know everything is made up of frequency and living in it, the seen and unseen.
So is it possible we are taking the nitrogen and the oxygen into our gasifers, with the mixer of organic matter, with a negative atmosphic vaccum, with the metals of the firetube under heat. Passing through now a carbon base and making some Ammonia, with the Methane, Carbon Monoxide , Hydrogen under curtain conditions going down the road. But not at idling conditions because of the plasma lobe in the firetube being cooler, and the vaccum is mush less. We do know that the fire tube metals oxidize because of the heat and this is one way to make Ammonia using moisture and nitrogen.
Another thing is the hopper area is where bio-matter is breaking down by heat in a very moisture atmosphic and pyrolysis vaccum, with water, oxygen and nitrogen all pressent. Especially if there is some very small leaks into the hopper area mixed with tary smoke.
I reread the 2010 Alabama Power Laboratory tests. All reading were after the truck was stopped and then taken, but not under high vaccum conditions and high heat of the fire tube.
The Certificate of Analysis was done I think in a oven of some kind by the temperatures reading.

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I can no longer “trash” other people’s threads with my posts, but I will continue my thinking here. The desire that the production of the gasifier is fairly simple, that it contains effective preheating of the air with the exit gas, that it has an effective condensation zone, that the pyrolysis gases are heated before entering the hot zone, that ash and clinker can be removed without emptying the contents, that it is possible to use wood from the size of sawdust to the size of a cigarette pack, that the hearth (hot zone) is removable and can be changed later, and that it does not cause metal tears when it heats up and expands, that the entire gasifier is lighter than 50 kg,… but an optimist, ha :grin:, here is a rough sketch

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You should do your next build out of titanium! ducks and runs

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Do you think a gasifier like this could power a 5.9 L V-8 if it was only expected to go under 50 MPH and mostly used for work around the homestead?

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Sean , the gasifier on the Fergie weighs a few kg empty over 50kg , the inner barrel with cover and clamp is 16kg , the outer barrel with cover and clamp is 20.5kg , the heart of the gasifier is approx 17kg ( post 440 ) , the inner barrel is installed without cover and clamp and the bottom is also cut out, the outer barrel also has no cover, so this weight can be equated with the upper oval part that forms the condensation zone, the thickness is 1.5 mm. With the new gasifier, I plan to use a thin 1mm stainless steel sheet for the housing… the weight of the entire unit will not exceed 50 kg. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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V-8, 6L, 30kg :wink:

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