Watching your video, I wondered how pressure drop produced the carbon bed of a generator like yours?
Y is there a maximum carbon bed height is not exceeded to avoid excessive pressure drop in the engine intake?
Sorry, my question is addressed to Gary Gilmore.
Thank you Thierry
Thanks Gary for the video.
I bookmarked this video because when I’m done with my truck, I really want to explore some charcoal gas. You make it look so simple. There are so many things this would work good with.
Hi Thierry There is very little pressure drop through the charcoal bed. Maybe one inch of water column. The charcoal has been as high as 3.5 feet from the oxidation zone to the gas outlet. The secret is to use charcoal between 1/8" and 3/4". Just a note here, This size charcoal works well for smaller engines. I cannot comment on larger engines at this point due to lack of experimentation in that area.
Gary in PA
Hi Al, The bottom line is I got side tracked on making a simple charcoal gasifier and put the auger fed charcoal gasifier aside. That hopefully will soon change. The Simple-Fire design has been taken about as far as I care to go and am quite pleased with its simplicity and reliability. My plan is to pick up the Kahle style again (auger feed) and put it in a Ford Ranger pickup. Kind of need to move into over the road transportation and experience some “fun” there.
Gary in PA.
thanks Gary,look forward to seeing more of your videos. My plans are to run my small engine equipt. off of the char from my WK gasifier. AL
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hi Ray
You said “do not think a puffer lid is needed for charcoal”. Please consider this would not be necessary for a coal gasifier while for a wood gasifier that is necessary?
Thierry
In building a Gilmore Simple-Fire, the more air you pull through the tyrer the hotter it gets at the end of the tyrer. So you substitute some of the air with exhaust. This dilutes the gas going to the motor and cools the system down. What if instead of adding exhaust, you put in another tyere on the opposite side of the reservoir/charcoal tank. This would drop the velocity which should cool down the temperature at each one but still be producing a full amount of gas.TomC
Hmmm … Tom, sounds like an experiment waiting to happen
Hi Thierry, I have been using puffer lids on my Simple-Fire charcoal gasifiers, just to be safe. Check out Gary’s latest video where he uses a round steel plate over the lid of a small grease barrel. I think that is the way to do it. Here is a photo of my puffer lid built on top of a Bain Marie that I TIG welded into a 6 gallon propane tank. The actual lid is from a stainless steel coffee percolater. The steel for the arm is from a broken recliner. I have either a silicon mouse pad or a silicon baking sheet as a gasket between the stainless Bain Marie and the lid. All of the Pfoof’s I have ever had have been out of the inlet nozzle, so it is best to rig up a mirror to use to look in at the color and shape of the glowing charcoal.
Hi Tom, Actually the exhaust gas does not dilute the gas going to the motor under standard operating procedures. The CO2 in the engine exhaust reacts with the hot carbon to make more CO. If there is any moisture in the air, it too will be a component of the exhaust which the hot carbon will convert to CO and H2.
Now your statement is correct if you put too much exhaust gas back into the charcoal gas generator. This is easily seen as you add more and more exhaust while watching the colors of the oxidation zone. The yellow hot oxidation zone turns to dark red, resulting in too much cooling which will not convet the CO2 into CO. This is not a standard operating procedure because it will eventually shut your engine down.
Regarding multiple nozzles. I have not experimented with it but my feeling is each one will be just as hot. The lobe of hot charcoal may be smaller, but the temp will not change. I suppose there is a point you could get too many nozzles. In this case the fire is cooler but you run the danger of not getting the oxidation zone hot enough to convert CO2 to CO. It will probably be very dependent on the pull of the engine too. Just my 2 cents for what it is worth 
Gary in PA
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Thank you Gary. I was fixated with the affects of nitrogen. I see what you are saying. If you feed in air you get an “exothermic” reaction of C + O2. If you feed exhaust gas, you have a “endothermic” reaction of CO2 = CO + 02. The exothermic reaction creates more heat and the endothermic reaction takes some heat away. Thank you TomC
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Hey Gary and all, I wonder if one of these could be made into a starting fan?
Don,
I like your thinking there but I would worry about plastic gears. There some on Ebay with a ‘buy it now’ price at $100. Here’s one that looks more heavy duty maybe better?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Forge-Blower-Blacksmith-Metal-Working-New-Hand-Powered-/331520955248?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d30305370
Gentlemen. Check this video, about half way through. Gary shows using a forge blower.TomC
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Does anybody know or want to guess how far from the end of a horizontal nozzle the hot fire lobe stays under normal operation in a SimpleFire? I want to sort of center it in my container and I need to know what size nipples to use.
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@glgilmore will be able to answer this.
I like the fire brick idea. Do you plan to secure them in there somehow? What size engine do you want to run this with?
I am going to try that high temp latex that Tom Collins was talking about to secure the bricks. I have a 12hp Briggs I want to try with this.
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Hi Don, with that nozzle creating a higher velocity then a 1" pipe I think I would back up the tip so you have no more then 1/3 the barrel in length. That will give you 8" on either side of the lobe for insulating. Just a guess based on your 13hp sizing. I’m interested in knowing how the silicone holds up for the bricks. I tried maconry cement to hold them but it is inflexible. I ended up casting it.
Best regards, David Baillie
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Don; What are you using for a charcoal container? Yours seems to have flat sides which lend themselves to using the fire brick. Please let us know how the “Latex” works in this case. I feel it will be fine. There is a tremendous amount of heat in that area but there will be a couple inches of charcoal and then the fire brick to kind of insulate it. I’m working on a engine just like yours and hope that today was the last of the snow, so I can get out to the shopTomC.