Literally thousands of very smart people have been where you are right now. If it could be done it would already be done.
Koen so far has offered the closest feasible solution.
The other best option is to design and optimize for a heating and look at mass produced charcoal as a free byproduct of that system. You can then run an engine no that fuel.
Maybe if u devide the combustion zone in 2 and one side it will draw the heat through the retort and redirect the gas into the other half in a closed loop that then leads to a engine…how does that sound in theory…u guys are teaching me tons and also what and where to look…I really appreciate it
Well here’s what the US government forest service had to say about charcoal making back in 1961:
I think it can be done without much problems. Tar CAN be filtered out as was demonstrated by one of my countrysman with electro filtration. I am planing to test his principle on a vehicle some day but for a stationary thing its the way to go.
Tone even mentioned they used to have electro filters in bars when smoking indors was still alowed! He reports of cleaning them often, the plates wuld be all smeared with tar from cigaretes!
Ha, it was only a matter of time when this guy (Colin Furze) gives woodgas a try. This was hard to wach. But he got real close with his latest design! Only did one mistake not prefilling the reaction zone with char
Thanks K
Let us know what you find.
I agree that tar won’t filter by regular means, but high voltage electro separating for stationary should be a good way to go. Also as mentioned, in order to crack or reform any nasties (and improve the energy content of the gas), the temperature has to be at the glowing stage, and much more efficient if a catalyst is used.
If there was a large enough vessel tar might condense out, but that would be a batch system unless it was complex.
This article was originally published with the title “Collecting Vinegar from Wood” in Scientific American 8, 19, 145 (January 1853)
Acetic acid is met with among the products from the distillation of wood, and is combined with steam, tar, and gases, such as the oxyde of carbon, hydrogen, and carbonic acid. If, in collecting the acetic acid, the smoke that contains it is conducted into refrigerators, the steam and the greater part of the tar are condensed at the same time, the consequence is, that the vinegar thus obtained is diluted with a large quantity of water and mixed with impurities. For most purposes this acid requires to be purified and concentrated .
Rather bad working conditions . All cool metal surfaces would be covered with acetic acid . Smoke , flame , vats of bubbling tar .
You seem to be looking for ways to make money. Nothing wrong with that. But I doubt you will make much money selling charcoal. Just look at what you would pay for charcoal at your local supermarket.
But maybe you could sell tar? Look into the price of pine tar. Very expensive stuff!!! Like $100 /gallon. And a very confused market, prices are all over the place… Read opportunity. Then perhaps you could use the charcoal, now a byproduct, to make electricity.
This kind of thing is where the chemical industry started. You could go to college and get a degree in chemical engineering. Not sure whether I would recommend that. However, I would recommend you look into other products that can be produced from wood. Vinegar is a possibility.
Personally I hope you succeed. We NEED to use a lot more wood. The American West and Australia have just come through their worst wild fire seasons on record…
Rindert
Charcoal is big business, it sells for $2500 a ton it is black gold and very much in demand as biochar.
The Australian eucalyptus oil industry peaked in the 1940s, the main area of production being the central goldfields region of Victoria, particularly Inglewood; then the global establishment of eucalyptus plantations for timber resulted in increased volumes of eucalyptus oil as a plantation by-product. By the 1950s the cost of producing eucalyptus oil in Australia had increased so much that it could not compete against cheaper Spanish and Portuguese oils (closer to European Market therefore less costs). Non-Australian sources now dominate commercial eucalyptus oil supply, although Australia continues to produce high grade oils, mainly from blue mallee (E. polybractea) stands.
The Eucalyptus Distillery Museum is open on weekends on the site of the historic Jones Eucy Distillery at the northern entrance to the town, providing an insight into the history of the eucalyptus oil industry. Features include the old distillery and an interpretive centre with historic displays, artefacts and a working distillery model.
Rascally Rabbits
Actual reason tree was brought to California was for rail road ties . The tree failed as a rail road tie
but the foreign tree quickly spread like Rabbits .
Fires in California burned more than 4 million acres this year.
Okay, so why is the price so high? Perhaps we could come up with more cost effective ways of making it. I went to my local supermarket and saw they are selling it (Royal Oak) for about $2 /lb. What with the cost of the fancy paper sack, and the store getting it’s cut, I wouldn’t want to be in that business.
Rindert
Im working on that lol. Yeah make it while you heat, we already have a unit in the shop that makes 10 gallons an hour of charcoal. Just needs grinding and screening. I am now working on a more refined smaller version for the RV. I cant sell it as a heater only has a charcoal producer. But if the user installs it as a heater, well he installed it as a heater lol.
Surprised! I like to handle charcoal as little as possible, because of dust and mess. So I cut my wood chunks to size before they go in the tlud. And then the charcoal goes straight into plastic sacks. But you do it the other way. I’m curious.
Rindert
I dont know what size you use, ideally I want to see 1/2 inch pieces > higher energy density pr volume > higher water cracking ability.
Yeah I dont like the dust or the mess either so rest assured I will figure out a way to make a dust free grinder. But also I dont want to crumble it too much. I have plans made up for a proto Ill probably build this upcoming weekend.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
I have a wood chipper , I have a wood gas generator . The size of most of my wood chips were too small for the wood gas generator but the right size for bamboo charcoal or biochar . I made charcoal . Next year I will try harder to dry right sized wood chips . In order to produce power I need longer unattended runs . I have thought of using charcoal to power roots blower to start wood gasifier .
Pony motor
No I think I will just buy a cheap corded drill and relocate the flare outside
https://www.cs.odu.edu/~salam/wsdl/inforet/wikihtml/Pony_motor.html
You are a crafty dude so I guess if anyone can make a dust free grinder it’s you. It’s certainly not me. I grind the stuff out of the barrel in my crappy little grinder. That breaks it down to half inch or smaller. Then I sift it through a quarter inch screen so all the fuel is half to quarter. Normally I use the rest for bio-char but I’m now trying to shift most of my food production indoors and use a lot of Dutch Buckets. Normally these use perlite as a grow medium but I’ve done some experiments with the quarter and smaller char for a dutch bucket medium and it is better and free. I sift out the powder and save it for water purification down the line. I’m going to try and find a easier way to activate it. Anyway, for me it’s all messy but I need material from each process so it’s worth the effort.
that makes the whole charcoal gasifier hardly worth it. If you produce 1 ton of charcoal to burn in a gasifier for electric power, you can produce ~ 6000KW of electricity. If you just go buy it from the electric company that works out to $780 @ .13 kw/h. Now if you use your charcoal that you made to run your generator, then why not just sell it instead @ $2k/ton. you would be way ahead.
Because I dont want to be on the grid nor do I want to sell my charcoal.
If you are here to save a buck you are here for the wrong reasons.