I went back and looked at what I thought was a preliminary drawing with the name Max on it. It was for a charcoal gasifier similar to Gary Gilmore. Yes those are chains holding the great. Back when this was originally drawn we thought the grate had to be mobile. I have since gone to a more rigid grate mounting. So, Max, what do you think of the idea if the grate was ridged?
Bob; You can’t look at the space in the drawing as being empty and gas just flowing through. Almost the entire volume is filled with first wood, then brands, then char and eventually ash falling through the grate. So ON the grate you have red hot coals. Normally you still have gases such as CO2 flowing through the red hot char,( like water flowing through a jar of marbles) still making CO2 to 2CO. Picking up a new C from the hot coals ( and incidentally cooling the coals ). So, if we allow air to come in as shown it will feed the hot char and create CO just like Gary Gilmore’s simplifier. If the char gets cooled down too much, yes the air will burn the gases and create a lot of heat which will heat the char back up.
I get so upset when I drain the “ashes” out of my gasifier and all this really nice char comes out that did not get burned down to ash. TomC
Ha! Ha! I agree with you TomC.
I want no char left over. This IS hard won, refined down high energy engine fuel!
My chickens currently; ducks, cows and way back sheep make our soil enrichers. And they do this using the input stocks that are very high silica and ash that are Hard to gasify.
Keep up the thinking man. That will be what keeps the 'ol brain perking as long as possible.
Steve Unruh
Lordy Lordy!!! I may have found a little piece of heaven here on earth. I don’t want to calculate my juvenile poultry before they are fully materialized, but------ I was talking to a friend and we have discussed my woodgas truck and he even rode in it. I knew he had a saw mill that I thought was just a hobby thing. We were talking about making charcoal and out of the blue he said something to the affect, can you burn 2x2 pieces in your truck. I said yes if the aren’t to long. His reply was "oh, these are 8 to 12 ft. long. I jumped on that. OMG that is perfect for my chunker. He replied, it is wet. I explained that is the beauty of chunking how it opens the grain to dry. He said he has got piles of it sitting around from all his sawing.Yea Haw!!!TomC
Tom living in WI I would have thought you would be swimming in wood all along. It seems in this part of the state anyway we are tripping on it any where we turn . Saw mills and cabinet shops giving it away everywhere and still just pushing it in piles and burning it even with a pellet mill 20 miles away buying it. Hey, I see an opportunity here.
I stopped in two sawmills between here and Minneapolis. Both are selling the stickers. One guy even told me, “The only thing free here is the air you breathe”. That was after I asked him about sawdust. The mill up here will let me take sawdust, but my son also works there now. He also makes pellets from the sawdust for locals with pellet stoves.
Hi, Tom!
30.1.2016 mess. 249
As earlier stated, I have no part in the lower part of that construction!
Suppose that you are blowing air uppward inside that cylinder on the dangling grate plate: First, the airtube has to be of a bending type, to survive.
Then the new-revived char under the restriction needs some volume in a radiation shielded area, where it can do a second attempt to reduce the (new) CO2.
Where is that going to happen on an avalanching dangling plate?
I see no chance to achieve this on the “open plate”.
Nor do I see it working better if the grate plate is made “stationary”, without redoing the whole lower part…
Max
Hi Max; From here on this is probably just an academic discussion, as I am not able to do a rebuild on my gasifier.
But now having said this; In post 242 I did agree with you that this can not be done with “swinging” grate. I am now using a rigid grate. Your other concern was the avalanching char on the grate. If you look close there is a cylinder around the grate nozzle to prevent avalanching.
I do wish I knew where this concept came from so I could be sure to give them credit. I am not intelligent enough to come up with such ideas. Notice that it calls for a ''ceramic" nozzle. Something that I was not concerned with until Gary Gilmore introduce us to charcoal gasifying.
Hope you are keeping warm Max TomC
PS. If your next question is about the char becoming “packed” in the cylinder surrounding the nozzle, I would say we will be burning ( oxidizing) the char down to a smaller size that will more easily fall through the grate… Besides getting extra gas out of the system, this design should make the char into something closer to “ash”. When I empty my ash bin I get so much nice char that could have given off more gas.
Hi, Tom!
30.1.2016 mess. 251
About a year ago you were starting a rebuild of your hearth and reduction zone, with a sliding grate made with angle-iron. You left it without completing it?
That version had a reductiontube welded to a plate, closing downward the insulation (with ash) around the reduction tube. Straight below it was the grate-shelf, that you could draw out and clean & inspect…
Why not fullfill that this spring, instead of speculating in Gary’s nozzlemelting technics?
There are other possibilities to feed extra air into the reduction tube, without nozzle melting… but one thing at a time.
Hi Max; When I lost contact with you I had questions about the design change. Without your help, in spring I put it back together exactly as I had taken it apart. I drove it down to the Argos get together ( a little under 400 miles ) and I vowed that I would not make any more changes. Then on the way home I hit a strong head wind and it made me realize that the gasifier was sticking up to high and catching too much air. I did cut about 6 inches off the height of everything that protruded above the roof. My main plan for this winter was to change the differential gear ratio. Unfortunately I am not getting out to the shop for anything. I did say that this grate nozzle was just a academic discussion.TomC
As I mentioned sometime back, I burned a barn down. As it was burning it produce a lot of charcoal. I gathered the charcoal up and put in into 55 gal drums, where it has been for maybe two years. It is of no use to me as it is because it is full of nails and variable sizes. I made a process to convert it into usable gasoline replacement for a motor.
Thats good stuff motor fuel,i got about 160 or more last year just cleaning out my ash bin under my wood fire for home heating stove, due too cleaning it out once more often then needed or the wood was burning good for left over char,not sure, Thanks for the help learning your set up of gasifier, i dident see the pics of it till later after my computor phone was replaced.but that really got me interested, seeing the flare out of a smoke pipe,You are a big help too gasifier support building,and it is good you lead me too WK plans,i needed the over all learning team out look.I like those air filters too for handling insulation.
JO You may have a good idea there. I have been mad at myself all winter because I don’t have a project that I am eager to work on. The charcoal was just laying in the shed and I poked around all winter making this rig to make it into something useful. But I, I have no use for the charcoal, so again, not real enthused. Started to convert a welder / generator, but what for? I need something that I really want to do. If I straighten all the nails then I would have to build a new shop or something. Naaa. Don’t want to do that. Get me a challenge. TomC
Yes, charcoal lawn tractor. then you could enter the lawn mower races at Argos. I propose a sprint, endurance race, and slow race. Maybe an economy run too.
