Yeah if we could control this so we dont make a bunch of smoke it would work and great way to reclaim engine heat. But Ive been here before and was unsuccessful at controlling that. I would always take them too far. However now that Im playing with a kiln might try venting this into the kiln process and use it to burn off that smoke.
However I think just making a fuel dryer using exhaust heat would be better. Then just building the kiln in a double stack system I think will show big results. I know that when we ran bone dry fuel it was quite efficient, nearly all of it converted to char coal. The difference in that scenario is when Id shake the grate a lot of fuel inside would come crashing down and it would sound like a chandelier falling to the ground.
No there is plenty of room for that hose. I plan to insulate this shroud later as well.
Thanks for indulging my questions!
Fuel drying, definitely simpler than torrifying, that makes sense.
Over and over it seems we can save complication by splitting up some steps.
Like making charcoal and using it in a gasifier, rather than using a wood gasifier, which itself has to produce charcoal as it goes.
Refine your gasifier fuel into charcoal and refine your charcoal feedstock with the heat produced by the process.
About the wood chips added to the fuel hopper, would/could torrify by virtue of their size?
The bigger fuel has to become charcoal before it will pas through the grate, while the woodchips steam, dry out, torrify and fall through without necessarily charring or burning up?
Any that does burn up simply fuels the process.
What do you think of a second grate and loading port to go with the top fuel hopper barrel?
Wood chips on top, sitting on a 1" square grate, drying and cooking until they fall through, past the chunky fuel and the bigger grate into the charcoal catch bin below.
Needless complication?
What kind of insulation where you thinking of for the shroud?
Ceramic wool might be good on the inside, rock wool would be cheaper and heat resistant enough if its not in contact with flames.
I just tried out my boiler last night, it definitely needs some insulation, among other things.
Yeah I think just keeping it simple will be king. But you never know as we learn new ideas tend to crop up and then we evolve.
I was just thinking home residential insulation. It works. Wrap the barrel and then wrap some tape around it. I was then planning cutting a 55 gallon drum top and bottom off and then cutting the seam. Then use a couple ratchet straps to compress it all and secure with zip screws.
Ok so I have started work on the Dooms Day Chevy project. LOL. I yanked the cab off and built a cradle so I can fully replace the entire floor pan. i am going to CAD model a complete custom floor pan for it. I have all new rockers, cab corners and doors. Ill front fenders coming here in a week or so.
Fall production machines are now starting final assembly process and one of them is my own M-4 Alpha. The plan for that is to set up in the S-10 for the time being and later we will probably build a second one for a teamed system to run the 283 V8 in the K-20.
Take extra care on the exterior Matt. I wouldn’t want to see you lose that fine, one of a kind, paint job. Not many places better than Michigan for making religious sheet metal.
LoL Yeah Ive decided to paint it an off white. Believe me It was a hard decision to make. Hmm do it keep that beautiful baby blue Michigan Camo patina look or do I repaint it?? Hmmmmmmm lol
Well it is that time again to take our old generator out of commission and get ready for rebuild. Im going to get a straight crank and eliminate the integrated head and use a divorced head on this after rebuild.
So for the replacement our local HF had two 8750 inverter generator units there that were returned and discounted 500 bucks. I have 5 days to return it so figured why not its either going to work or it wont.
It is having an issue with it tripping its overload protection when Im running our CNC and the air compressor at the same time. I dont know if that is an actual fault or if they all do this. I know a new 9000 watt unit can run both the CNC and the air compressor. If this did not have this stupid overload protection Im sure it would run it no problem. I may look at and see if there is a way to disable it. I bet there is a shunt in there somewhere. I also want to see if this has some sort DC voltage regulator and if this is outputting DC and at what voltage. That changes the game a bit if it is DC and in a usable range for on market inverters and battery systems.
Edit this has both electronic overload protection and actual breaker. its the electronics part that is shutting it down. But I imagine it also would use this input from a shunt for its throttle control. So not sure how Id get around that. if that is the case then I dont know why a brand new one would be any different.
Matt - any chance it’s the circuit breaker? The central breaker?
If it’s not the circuit breaker, overload protection typically senses low output voltage or high current draw. At least for DC, both types of protection would involve voltage sense, either directly (low voltage) or through a shunt (current generating a voltage drop).
But this isn’t DC, it’s AC… There is likely a simple+clever+cheap way to do the same for AC I just don’t know the trick off hand. Maybe the kill circuit senses output of a rectified, capacitor smoothed voltage to avoid the AC complication?
Somewhere a wire goes either high or low to kill the engine, probably blocking spark ignition. I’d start with the spark ignition wires and work backwards. Along that chain from plug to the coil you’ll see “extra” wires coming in from elsewhere - that’s what I’d look for.
No this is the electronic overload. There is a breaker as well. Thats fine and no issues with that. its the brain this thing has, its seeing too high of a load (however it is determining that) and cutting off the inverter power out. The engine stays running, I just have to hit the reset button and it comes back on.
Are you sure this is not DC? This is an inverter generator I thought they were DC to an AC inverter. This has a very thin generator head on the back side of the engine. About the size of a ceiling fan motor.
Hi Matt if your inverter generator is tripping out when underload then that is a fault , ALL of my inverter generators when overloaded just unload power and once back to speed auto connect again normally happens to me when first starting up gasifier before its up to full running temps , Or if the fuel to air ratio in set wrong
Dave
No its fine under normal loads. Its when the Air compressor kicks and the CNC plasma torch is already on drawing its power load. The spike of the Air compressor motor is too much I think. But then again the AC units with this same engine could do it but marginally. So since because this has a brain its probably fine and working the way it is supposed too. It just does not have the tolerance of the less sophisticated AC units is my guess.
Once it trips though i have to go out push the reset button to get it to turn the inverter back on.
i did a little digging and one source says the alternator outputs AC to a bridge rectifier and then DC to a built in inverter. i wonder if there is some sort of voltage regulator after the rectifier though.
Also in that source ‘’’ Inverter generators are generally more compact than traditional generators, and are much quieter, but have lower maximum power outputs and are more expensive.""
Matt, Instead of a shunt measuring current, the circuit may be looking for a (short time) low voltage condition, which it might get when the CNC plasma torch is on, then the compressor starts. I was thinking an extra motor start capacitor somewhere would help, but then my mind is going blank (natural state) where to connect it to. How about making the power cords from the generator as short as practical, and maybe making them out of heavier wire?? (permanent wiring in conduit, 10 gauge or more??). Maybe you already tried that…
Its wired direct in the box of the shop. It is quite a run as the generator is at the back of the shop and box for the shop is up by the front entrance door. I used 220 cable that was a heavy gauged but dont remember what gauge it was. However the air compressor is outside in a shed by the generator and plugged directly into it. This is so we dont have to listen to it constantly inside the shop. But yeah im sure this long run to the box is an issue.
The bigger plan is to get LifePo4 batteries and inverter system for the shop and just use the generator to charge the batteries.
I was thinking along those lines as well but instead of a cap if the voltage is stable after the rectifier or if it has a voltage regulator could just put a battery in the circuit.
I just went out and fired it back after letting it sit for a few hours. With the air compressor plugged in and now thats its lost some air its was trying to fire up and the generator didnt like it. Whats interesting it is was re engaging on its own and kept trying and then it must have faulted and it stop. After that i had to manually press the reset button. i shut it down and fired it back and it does this same thing and would not automatically re set on its own. Going to let it sit for a few and try again and see if it will return to resetting on its own.,
where to connect it to. How about making the power cords from the generator as short as practical, and maybe making them out of heavier wire?? (permanent wiring in conduit, 10 gauge or more??). Maybe you already tried that…