Hi, Kristijan!
3.3.2020
If there is horizontal room around the gasoline carburettor, on the intake manifold, when you rize the carburettor, you can do the following:
Make a circular (low) “cake”, and blow in air and gas tangentially from opposite sides.
You have to “gang” together the throttle flaps in the air and gas throats, so the blending ratio keeps constant 1:1 .
In the air throat, before the “throttle” flap you can apply the air/gas pressure balancing flap for equal arriving pressures if you will apply automatic mix regulation with a membrane…
Now, the membrane and preasure balancing flap can be placed “far” (>1m) away from the intake manifold area, where room is scarse.
Only a “delivery” airhose needs to approache the intake manifold, where the tangential entrance-tubes meet…gas and air in spiral.
(I assume, that the sampletubes are wellknown by Kristijan, as he has done it before)
Max
I have built 3 automixers so far and all worked as they shuld but for my needs a manual adjustment is much more practical. The reason is a automixer only works when the sistem is at full operation performance. Most of my driving is in the 20km range and the sistem and geting to optimal performance demands 10 km of driving. In this time l had to either manualy enrich the mix or hybrid. In neither situation the automixer makes sence for me.
For now l will go with the simplest way, empty the carb and pipe the gas trugh it. All woodgas or all dino. Then, something interasting is in the horisont, but lets keep that a secret for now…
Hi, Kristijan!
5.3.2020
Yes, time is time! To come to full gasifier performance is a key property, when driving short distances.
I don’t use any gasoline at all. After lighting, which takes about 3 minutes from cold, I get full performance.
The gasifier is dimensioned to always go without any preheating and instead depend on a big flat sideblowing reductionzone, which comes to working temperature fast. Only 4 cold-air nozzles. Ceramic space-quality hearth-bottom.
Max
I use a WK lmbert hybrid now with lots of mass. Good for maintaining strong performance at a red light but takes time to warm up. Just the restriction weighs 2 kilos probably.
I know Kristijan is real busy building a home and with the new place and all, but this is something he discover and shared with me, and I have proven it for myself at the 2019 Argos Woodgas Meet Up Event.
I have been using it ever since. I am sure it will work in most gasifer units no need for water injection on charcoal gasifer units.
And just use the charcoal dry on wood gasifers, you do not need to even grind to a smaller popcorn size. This is The Kristijan Rocket Fuel Mix. You get more horse power out of your engine period. The hybrid fuel.
Very quick start ups on a wood gasifer. Try to K.I.S.S.
I felt this topic need to be bump up again to the top, because of some of the other topics being discussed right now.
Bob
Kristijan and Bob,
The advantages of the down draft are impressive and appealing. Do you think you could design a downdraft charcoal gasifier as simple as the Simple Fire??
I also look forward to a discussion of a simple downdraft or crossdraft charcoal gasifier. I bet Gary G. is mulling over this too. I’m afraid adding a grate and extra cooling are going to make even the simplest one more complex.
Bruce and Steve, l personaly think a Simple Fire shuld not be compared, upgraded, advanced or extended beond what it is. Mr Gilmore designed it with a purpose. Take a bucket, a few fitings and a hose and make your self a gasifier in 5 minutes. It will run a flare and a generator for a good amount of time, a few hours, just to get you warmed up on woodgas but wuld l install it on a vehicle or a long run time generator? Probably not what Garry intended it for.
But l totaly understand what you ment, and agree with you! Thod l just make it clear, a Simple fire is doing its job perfectly as it is.
Now, to design a super simple downdraft charcoal gasifier for anyone to be able to build is a challange for sure! I mean, the advantiges over s updraft are obvious. But how?
I have made a few sucsessfull downdrafts, had a few fails, the learning curve. But the fact is they were all way too complicated for most to build. Tha last one was kinda WK on steroids, l am preety sure it can survive years of use and abuse, but way to much work for most builders.
So, l presented an idea l had a long time ago, on Bobs thread l think? Anyway, we know the flute nozzle works. My idea has 2 of them facing each other with a gap between and a “grate” or a perforated pipe gas outlet underneeth. I havent got to it (for reasons Bob stated) but l think it shild work. I wuldnt feed it any raw wood but if you can say good bye to water injection and fear of any undercooked char while still get the performance and ease of building, l call it a win.
Wuld love to have someone build and test it instead of me!
How about Two horizontal 1-1/2 inch pipes 12 inches apart. One pipe is a tuyere with 4 flute holes along the side. The other is the gas exit pipe with many 1/4 inch holes along the bottom.
Hi Bruce, now this might be something new. All you would need is a sealed container. There is no grate. You would need a clean out in the bottom of the container. One of those big ammo boxes at the army surplus stores could be the container. It is like a simple fire but it would be a down draft. I think it would work better the way Kristijan explained it, but with the added pipe at the bottom it would make it even better. You could even use a small ammo box for the clean on the bottom.
The grate pipe should be a few inches off the bottom and put coarser charcoal in the very bottom below the pipe so the fine ash can filter down through it.
I can picture this being done with out any welding.
Great idea Bruce. The new Double Flute With Grate Pipe Gasifier.
Bob
I was envisioning the pipes at the same height, one to each side of the reactor vessel, so it would be a side-daft. I was hoping that would allow some of the ash to settle to the bottom without being carried to the outlet. Perhaps the outlet pipe could even be a few inches above the nozzle and still get most of the downdraft benefits?
With my cross or side draft I had a lot of heat problems going upwards. That’s why I changed it to a Diagonal flow to help with that I also put in a restriction hole below it to speed up the air/gas moving through it.
The drawing below show how I picture it working.
I am sure this box will need to be insulated.
The charcoal pass by the nozzle flute pipes.
Then drops down the the grate pipe with the guild pieces above it. This causes your restriction zone. It will be hard not to suck up some ashes.
Bob
Thanks for playing with the pipe grate idea. Hopefully Kristijan will also weigh in on the idea and give Tom some build specs. I don’t see the need for the angled restrictions in your sketch. Can you explain?
This is not worth a separate topic so I guess this is as good a place as any to stick it. This is a video of a truck with a propane conversion.
There are many others on-line of course. I am thinking that for a dual fuel set-up this may be a good fit with wood gas. One regulator on the propane set up is fed hot water from the heater core piping because propane needs to be warmed to work well. Wood gas needs to be cooled but the carb adapter should dispense either gas the same once it reaches there. Then its just two simple switched solenoids to go back and forth from fuel supplies.
Funny, just yesterday i asked if Kristijan would mind giving me some idea of dimensions for a downdraft and here we are now working on it !
This a terrible sketch of what i had in mind , i think it just needs to have the distance from air in to gas outlet sized correctly or maybe as Bob has done and do away with a grate and use another flute type nozzle for the gas out .
This sized drum is what i use at the moment for my updraft system with a vertical nozzle at the bottom attached to bottom of the drum and then the drum sits on a platform to allow lighting from below .
Dave
Hi Bruce, in any good down draft gasifer needs a restriction zone where the gases and air speeds up. This is where the real transformation takes place the oxygen is stripped away from the CO2 and H2O, making them CO and H2, it continues down into the reduction to the grate. It needs to be completed before it leaves the charcoal. If not then the good gas starts to burn up. This what we call over pulling on the gasifer or going into a heater mode. Not good, you are now burning up the good gas you have just made.
After looking at my drawing I think there needs to be more space and distance to the grate pipe. I will make a revision to my drawing.
Above the nozzles flutes have 2 plates above them. This closes up the area to help keep the heat from moving upwards into the hopper and also helps the charcoal to move down to the nozzles more smoothly the pieces should be made out of stainless steel.
Here is the new drawing
With the grate pipe it needed protection on top and the out sides of the restriction zone too.
I also made the reduction zone longer so the ash could settle and move to the ash drop area below.
Now the finish product of gas will move upwards and into the grate pipe and out to the cooling rails and filter.
Bob
