I need to purchase some land that will allow it. I may end up having to fully stick build it.
Well been busy moving once again, This last place didnt work out for us, so we moved to a better place. There is business behind us that manufactures wood chips. There are mountains of them!!
So now that things are back up and running, I started on the development project I was working on a while back. This version I am building for now may serve a two purposes. One to give me test bed for development and possibly a kit version for a low buck gasifier. For now I have to finish the build, get some engine run hours on it and then I may offer it in kit form. This version will allow a stacked two stage reactor set up, but first Im just building it in a single stage and ill optimized the jet ring spacing for pellets. I have larger hearth bowls to experiment with chips as well.
12 Likes
So the gasifier is now pretty much complete. The Hearth jacket I do need to redesign a bit. It needs to be made out of steel so we can welds the ports on better, Ill form an SS band to make it all pretty. But that whole thing worked out well with the seal arrangement I have. Hopper lid is done so it will have a puff back lid so its safe to be around lol. The filter will have the same deal.
Its very light weight, I can only guess but I think it weighs somewhere around 25 lbs. Not heavy at all.
Whats kinda cool is the ash bin (bucket) when it gets full you simply remove the band clamp and remove the unit from it and its simply a bucket full of char. You could then easily take it some where and dump it. Or if you had other buckets you could put a lid on it and use another bucket. Save the char for a charcoal unit. 
13 Likes
I am getting a pavlovian reaction⌠i am droolingâŚ
most certainly the most ingenious real time builder so far in my book
4 Likes
I struggled for about 6 months with tar gluing the puff lid gasket. Then when it was opened it would damage the gasket.
The solution was to make 2 - 1/4â concentric rings and tack weld them to the hopper with about 1/2â gap filled with silicone. The puffer lid then seals to the silicone which is held securely by the 1/4â rings.
1 year and 8000 lbs of chunks and no issues
5 Likes
can you explain that a little more. Iâm not getting it.
2 Likes
That is really impressive Matt, and the weight of it. This could be used in a boat with with a four stroke engine. This has me thinking, couple it with a aluminum boat, with a shallow running mud runner outdrive, outboard engine setup. Like they use down south in the U.S.A. and in other countries. Boating On Wood. What size engine would the gasifier unit run?
Bob
1 Like
This one has to be the lightweight champion for a wood gasifier
Just think if a nozzle added to the bottom can and it would also be a charcoal system!
1 Like
Matt, The gasketing is very impressive.
1 Like
Yup build a simple fire in the bucket, when it gets full run it in charcoal mode!! 
Just kidding haha!!
7 Likes
Yeah its crazy light weight. I carried it out of the truck assemble like you see it by the bucket handles very easily and Im a wimp. lol
So I am running it, I still need to install the grate shaker yet. but couldnât wait to run it. No temp gun, so accurate temp readings. However, I do believe I have a very good reaction going on in the reduction. The gas temp at the lower bucket of the filter this where the gas exits is all the way down 120* f my best estimate from feel. I started at 6 pm and could not hardly see the flare and its very overcast typical Michigan. I think this is more from the char bed that was installed. It now getting slightly darker and I can see it better but Its more orange, but I have some blue in there. Looks to me like pretty typical wood gas flare. Im going to do a quick walk around video a little later once its darker out so the flare shows up better.
Not going to say much more until I get some hours on it. Every time I say âyeah its great and going to be a good machine!!â they prove me wrong later. Once I get the grate shaker on I might be able to get engine run time on it tomorrow.
Design intent for this machine is to perform and exceed the current wood chip version. I am hoping it will run the same engine range (12 to 30 HP). If it can then we will be able to build new versions of current machines in pellet fuel form at nearly a third the size. That alone will cut some cost along with this machines build architecture we should be able to shave a lot of cost while building a more advanced machine. The cost savings will then allow for pellet fuel processing units. that will do full works of crumbling fuels down and making the pellets yourself. 1 cord of firewood = $150.00 = 2 ton of wood pellets. Just an example of the cast savings even if you were to buy a cord of wood.
So far I think the plate ring design is working after more testing I may consider redesigning the chip machine with this design.
11 Likes
Here are some shots taken later tonight, the char at the grate is restricting here hence the blue flare. That just means the engine would not pull hard. I dont care what color the flare is really as long as I dont see tar in the engine its all good 
Video here on our FB page
10 Likes
Well done Matt. Great design on the inner parts. 
2 Likes
Well I think it did OK today. fired it up around 1:30 this afternoon and ran until around 5:30. No valve issues but I did foul a plug once over did the grate a bit. Its very sensitive when you shake the grate.
Condensate under engine operation is a bit dark for my liking though. But I think its very close to where it needs to be. Air intake valve position likes to be in a range of just under 50% to 30% open when the grate is mid term of agitation intervals. After a grate shake it will smoke a bit pulsing out the intake valve and then after a bit it will quit. So I think it needs more air so Im going to add one more ring and try that. That should get the intake valve to 50% or greater. If the condensate is still black then Ill start choking up on the ring with a tighter center thru opening.
The tar / condensate has had the consistency of motor oil during a hot engine oil change. Very little condensate in the mix and no real separation. Not to excessive but still to black for what I want. Id like to get it cleaner with consistency of water.
I really miss the automation. The hopper flow was very good, I didnt need to intervene at all. Im going pay attention to the natural funnel it creates and try to duplicate it on later more refined versions. The grate needs some intervention about every 15 minutes and I over do it to get it to run longer in between these interventions. This Im sure is causing the gas to be a little dirty. If it was automated and not so aggressive but with more intervals I think it would run cleaner and stable.
The AFR mixer I think is the first thing I am going to build and Ive been wanting to work on a new one that just uses the input sig straight from sensor so we can eliminate that expensive kit. So that will happen soon. 
7 Likes
Video here
4 Likes
Sounds good Matt. How many watts load on the generator?
2 Likes
I didnt really do a whole lot with it as far as loading. But that generator is running our shop. While it was running I went back in and worked until it stalled lol. But I ran our drill press, band saw, grinder, one florescent light, radio and even did some welding with the Miller 220 volt. I had cranked up to about 60% or so and it just couldnt quite do it. It would slowly die lol. But I only needed to tack weld this part anyways. .
It should be able to produce 3.5 kW, I think the 8750 watt rating HF gives that generator is a bit high.
4 Likes
Today was the true test, letting the gen sit overnight and firing it back up today. AndâŚ
Ok so I gave her a pull and I thought I heard something but it pulled over like normal. So gave it choke and gas and pulled over twice and no fire!! argh!!! So pulled off the valve cover and all is fine in there so put it back together. Maybe low oil switch? put a plug on it and pulled over and yes there is spark. Ok maybe spark plug is gunked up?? Pulled it and it looked fine. Maybe gas is clogged up Ok I fire up the gasifier and got it going and tried to run on wood gas. No go!!
The only thing I didnt try was changing out the plug, put the one in that sparked and she fired right up.
So I still want to try to tune this gasifier but I think all it really needs is a better filter. So back to work I go.
8 Likes
I had the same issue with a sparkplug on a Harbor Freight generator of the same size. It would not run on ether either. New plug and it fired right up. Go figure! Gary
6 Likes