I am glad you are ok, a building can be rebuild but a live would be lost for ever.
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Really sorry, Tom. I don’t know what to say other that I’m glad your grand-daughter is ok, that you are ok and that your truck is ok.
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I thod some great update/report was goeing on when l saw the blue topic with many new replys, but seems l was wrong. Glad you are ok, hope you get on track soon!
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Wow! Really sorry the hear about your granddaughter and your building.
Glad that she is okay.
We just had an ice storm last night here in western WI, and I plan to go out today with my weed burner to melt ice, too.
I will be more careful.
Pete Stanaitis
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— I meant to say: “I will be more careful than I would have been if I hadn’t heard your story”.
Pete Stanaitis
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Gee, not the stuff we want to see but glad everybody is still kicking!
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Getting the basic shop re-built. The only electricity I have other than a Lincoln welder/generator-- quite noisy when running inside the Quonset. A friend gave me a 220V table saw but the line I ran to the shop from the house for construction purposes is 110V There are 2 wiring diagrams on the motor-- one for “high” voltage; and one for" low" voltage. If I change the wiring on the motor to the “low” voltage diagram, does that mean it will run on 110 v.? TomC Oh I forgot. What do I do with the plug? With the change in the interior wires can I put a 110 plug on the cord to run on 110v or does the “low” voltage wiring mean you use the 220v plug in a 220v socket and the wiring only pulls of one of the 110v legs.??
You would have to put a 110 cord onit. Remember though, at half the voltage you will draw twice the amps.that could be a problem if your cord is very long.
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Getting closer to returning to Woodgas. This is my shop as of today.
The first two are the Quonset over all. The third is my house which closely resembles my shop. Then the “empty” inside of the Quonset. I have a drill press, a table saw, and an arc welder/ generator. Less than a handful of wrenches, and a set of 3/8 sockets. I did buy a battery operated hand drill. The final picture is what will be my winter shop. Obviously I have had to down size considerably. The insurance companies do not pay like they would like you to think when selling you a policy. TomC
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Wow, that’s the size of an airplane hangar!
If you’re not into airplanes you can now house a whole fleet of woodgas vehicles.
Was the Quonset you set fire to that big?
I never realised it was already replaced. I was under the impression you were still kicking things around in the ashes.
I know you managed to save your truck. I don’t know if I dare to ask but did you get to keep your Farmall and chunker?
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The only things I saved were.my wood truck and the curved steel part of the Quonset. The concrete floor blew up in several places, but only about 3/4 in deep and 20 in. Orso in diameter, so it is going to be used ,as is. I lost all four tractors, three motorcycles, four lawn mowers, all my wood working machines, a Honda three wheeler, three air compressors, three generators, five electric welders, three welding tanks and three sets of torches and most of all, thousands of dollars worth of Snap-on hand tools and cabinet. The chucked was mounted on a trailer the weight and the heat bent the axel at each spindle. I have a 10 hp gas engine coming that I am going to hook up to the chunker. I saved another trailer fram that I will mount the chunkier on. The chunkier was mostly heavy castings so I don’t think it got any damage except cooking the castings. I forgot I lost a couple of thousand board feet of sized lumber and God only knows how many bushels of oats. Stoll got the 2x2-8 Ft that a friend cut out of a log. Tried to chunk one up on the table saw ,but the blade was dull. TomC
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I have a roll of 9 gage wire that I have used all over.
Wouldn’t Pepe’s type funnel let a bunch of debris fall through?
Rindert
Rindert; You should go to Pepe’s thread and look at his. Yes I think some trash would get through but it is just sitting in bottom of the hopper so can be lifted out and cleaned under it. I lost a whole roll of #10 gage wire in the fire. TomC
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I was sorry to hear about that fire.
I have looked at Pepe’s thread. His gasifier seems to be working well. I’m not sure why that funnel is better though. Can you explain?
Rindert
Rindert; I add a disclaimer here that I don’t know anything about Pepe’s grate other than what I have seen. I have used gutters around the wall of the hopper and can say they fill up with tar and wood chips and are rather hard to get cleaned out. I feel Pepe’s would be easier to clean. Now having admitted my limited knowledge on Pepe’s grill type, I will say I have question on how it works. Because the grill is so close to the nozzles, I wonder if the condensed moisture won’t get boiled again instead of collect into a container that can be emptied. Being in the char area, will the water break down into H and O2 — I’m sure if the tar gets to this area, it will break down into gases. I hope Pepe or Max can come in here a give us some of their understanding of such a condensation grate. TomC
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Hi All,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrIvYKDj9bA at 6:27 see how well my latest drain system works. I have never had any obstructions (debris or pieces of tar) in my drains to date, although the drainage is very dark.
The spoked funnel is mainly for fuel feed purposes. It also aids in drying fuel as heat and moisture rises up through the funnel and then down the outside walls of the gasifier.
My funnel was just an experiment that happened to get good results, I’m sure a solid funnel will work. The moisture will probably condense on the upper cooler areas above the funnel. I had a top gutter on one of my fuel hoppers that worked OK also.
Pepe
OK, I should tell my fuel prep story. I use 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" hardwood, mainly maple
and some yellow birch. I air dry in small ranks then cut it into 2 1/2" to 3" pieces. Clean your fuel at the easiest point. I roll them around on a large piece of 1/2" mesh hardware wire to sift off the debris. It’s now pretty clean. I’d rather spend my time doing this than digging and scraping on the not easy to access innards. I do anticipate that some loose debris is bound to fall through the grate. Fore warned is fore armed. If you look at my fuel hopper, you’ll see cleanout ports around the base perimeter. These allow easy access to the condensate drain and moat for cleanout.
Let me add that I had a fuel bridge that shut me down. I installed the hopper vibrator seen here.
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Thank you Pepe for stepping in. I would have to go back and see what I said that started this. I’m sure I said something about liking your design. It should help drain condensate if it isn’t to hot down that far, but another thing I like about it is it should let wood chunks/charcoal “slide” down the slope to the nozzle area. Thus eliminating bridging.
We are on my thread and talking about condensation so I would like to ask Max Gasman a question. You have possibly told me this before, but with my memory, I some times repeat questions. I apologize. When Imbert puts a mantel around the hopper and runs hot gas through it, he is eliminating the surface for condensing water vapor. I am concluding that the water vapor has to go through the nozzle area and if the temperature is high enough, it will be broken down in H2 and O2. From what I understand, it takes a lot of Btu’s to make that happen. So is that how it works? Do you gain more heat from the mantle to offset the heat to make the H2/O2 shift.
I have my shed closed up again and I have one more thing to do on it, and maybe then I will be able to saw up some chunks and get back to my truck. TomC
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Hi, Tom!
27.8.2018
Both an Imbert GMR and a silo condensing gasifier looses a lot of heat from the hearth up “in the woods”!
Condensing:
Boiling out steam from the wood consumes a lot of of that up-rising heat, and it is lost with the steam as it is condensing in the mantel condenser and/or in the outside cooler tubes.
This makes the dried wood easier to pyrolyse, so the
“lost heat” brings process advantage.
GMR:
Heating the silo with part of the exit heat energy is also relieving the “pyrolyse-job”, as the water boiling is well done above the pyrolyse area.
(Remember, that most of the exit heat goes to the crows anyway!)
The superheated steam does not bother the gasification process too much, if the wood is well dried by delivery.
In both cases the primary air needs to be pre-heated to get optimum results.
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The silo condensing case can be additionally improved by introducing exit gas through the silo in a “plank”.
Lesser part to the crows!
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Thanks for this clear clarification Max! This makes lot more sence to me now. Thats why the lmbert formulas predict such large cooler areas! It depends on it to clear out all the water from the gas!
But if l get this right, shuld the wood be dryed via monorator/WK hopper, the gas cooler area can be reduced conciderably?
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Hi, Kristijan, Tom, etc…
27.8.2018
Both cases start with equal heating value/weight and equal humidity/weight…
The silo condenser gets away with a great amount of useless (for process) water
at a lower temperature = lower heat loss, compared to Imbert GMR.
The hearth has more energy to spend on cracking and reduction,
as there is less “useless heat-transport water”.
Exit heat (costing nothing) can contribute in the silo drying (plank).
Imbert GMR has to take ALL the wood humidity and superheat it for cracking a part of it,
and the rest is just robbing reduction process volume in the hearth and transporting heat away.
BUT: Near a silo-end the “heavy baked” fuel gets so dry, that the hydrogen production comes to an end!
That is happening every time when the silo-funnel gets rid of the last fuel.
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