Hi Tone , looking at your nozzle photo made me go back and look at your previous photo’s for one moment then i thought i was looking at a charcoal gasifier ,by the state of that nozzle
If you look at the post “Nozzles for charcoal” you will see a variety of Tungsten carbide /boron and other types that will easily stand up to the punishment some even have threads that you can screw straight in from sand blasting nozzles cheaply bought on AliExpress for $10 each , i have one in my charcoal unit still running well since 2018 talk about plug and forget .
Dave
This gasifier is really not picky about fuel, let’s say it’s a mix between the Imbert-heated hopper that provides a hot atmosphere for drying the wood and at the same time hot pyrolysis gases and steam that travel to the glowing charcoal zone, small pieces and twigs are gasified already higher up, such as the upper level of the nozzles, because in this part I always see only brittle coal. The fire hose is made similarly to WK, but with two diameters, the restriction opening is also WK style, the condensation zone is also WK style but smaller, in fact, the gutter for collecting condensation and tar is also a heat exchanger, where the output gases are cooled and at the same time it is kept heated tar. In the event that very hot gas would start to come out, this water and tar would re-gasify and cool the hot zone, thereby lowering the temperature of the gases. An air-cooled grate or heat exchanger, but maybe that’s a special feature,… and a lower nozzle for gasifying the remaining charcoal, which is the style from a charcoal gasifier.
Interesting Tone. No soot at all at the top👍Have you ever meassured pressure drop across the filter? It would be interesting to compare numbers. Wayne claims he looses about half the vacuum across his filter. I trust his guages. I find it hard to believe I meassured loosing only 1/6 across the Mazda hayfilter. I must have had a guage plumbing leak at the time. My filter does let through quite a lot of soot though.
Thanks Tone, and what JO asked. Pressure drops is still something I dont understand. I read 13 or more inches. Isnt the engine choked that way? In the drizzler videos you only see one or two inches. And your filter is compacted sawdust but big surface. How many inches doe you loose there? Interesting. Sorry for the questions, no real life experience over here.
Thanks for explaining what it is and what is does , so what about the nozzle what are you going to do about it ? you just gonna replace it after a few hours run time ? or do you have better plans for that .
But also the pressure difference measurements, otherwise with the battery turbine, I think the engine does not draw significantly more air,…
First, the measurement on the filter is approx. 1", then through the gasifier with the lid open it is approx. 2", and finally through the gasifier when the air enters through the nozzles approx. 5", but I must say that during operation, when the wood is being gasified, the amount of air on the nozzles are much smaller.
And it does not appear that you have any condensation drain at the bottom of your hay filter? With how much moisture runs in my truck I would assume your filter make up would be a muddy sooty mess in less then fifty miles. Is it that your triple layer nozzle system so well cooking everything down to fine grey soot that so little moisture is being passed out throughout the system? Is it the low mc of your fuel, or low atmospheric mc as well?? Hmmm. Once again Tone, well done
I have been out DOW in the V-10 Ram and paid attention to the vacuum gauges .
Cruising 45 - 50 mph and about 1/4 throttle the vacuum on the motor side of the hay filter shows 15 inches WC. With the resistance of the hay filter and the cooling system the vacuum reads 10 inches WC.
Very true. A cold gasifier doesn’t offer much resistance. Or, in other words - gas production will require less air when the heart is hot, which means less hopper vacuum.
Thank you Tone, for your clarifying video.
Thanks Wayne. In other words 1/3 of the vacuum is lost when you start pulling on the heatex. That’s reasonable. My 1/6 test was only across the filter - no piping involved.
Marcus, we have to remember 4000 rpm WOT means hurricane speeds of woodgas, soot and debrie in our systems. Especially for you V8 guys. With tractor speeds close to idle rpms you would definately see less soot in your system as well.
Lack of condensation in Tone’s system is remarkable though. Somehow he seems to manage to convert lots of H2O to H2.
I agree - well done @Tone
I agree and it seems it is being done from the upper and lower nozzle area. A big Hmmm. We have upper nozzles and preheated air. Restriction opening. But the lower nozzle adding a little hot air now it becomes is a charcoal gasifier on out through the grate tubing burning charcoal and stripping H20 wet gases of it’s oxygen making more hydrogen.
I wonder if this is whats happing when my gasifier is running low on fuel. I have really good rich gases. Sometimes if I time it right. I will be just a few miles from home. At about a 1/4 of a mile I switch over to gasoline. Pull into the driveway stop, open up the hopper and hardy no smoke comes out with no steam. The lid is still wet but just dry heat coming out, looking down carefuly into the gasifier firetube I see glowing charcoal just at the top of the firetube some times at the nozzles. This makes me wonder what the gas is like going through the grate. I know I am making more hydrogen when my gases are running rich. Remember I am using the auto mixer so my ratio is 1 to 1 in volume mixing air to gas.
I remember @Matt was doing this with his wood gasifier and charcoal gasifier all in one unit. I think he still has that unit. @Tone your tractor unit gasifier system is working good. Keep us posted on any changes and we like the DOW drives with you.
Bob
Friends, my theory and observations about what happens in the hot zone and in the grid area
mostly the wood is already charred above the area of the upper nozzles, where the hot atmosphere without oxygen, only pyrolysis gases and water vapor prevails
water vapor is a lighter gas than pyrolysis gases, therefore a layer of water vapor prevails under the cover, where it also partially condenses and drains into the gutter, I also notice when the gasifier is working stationary, a lot of tar condenses here, and I get more water from the refrigerator
the charred wood moves down into the hot zone, where oxygen is supplied, the amount of which is determined by the diameter and number of nozzles and, most importantly, the pressure difference in this area, below, below the restriction opening, the pressure difference is the largest, so I believe that it is always here red-hot coal, otherwise small and mixed with ash, it is difficult for any tar gas or water vapor to break through here
the conversion of gases probably takes place gradually, partly already at the upper nozzles, mostly in the narrower part of the lower nozzles and the rest in the area of the grate
the hot gases leaving the process are first cooled on the grate surface, where they transfer heat to fresh air, and then give off the heat to heat the funnel and the condensation chute
i think the conversion of gases in fine char, then cooled gases, large volume of ash space - low gas velocity, gives the result, clean good gas
I’ll just add a link here about the control system of the diesel engine on wood gas, because it’s a silent movie, like Charlie Chaplin movies, it’ll be a short description: First, I show the vacuum tube on the vacuum regulator of the diesel pump, then the branch for the connection to release the vacuum, on the other side is the throttle valve and the vacuum tube is attached under it, here I added another branch for the connection to the vacuum regulated wood gas valve and more one smaller valve to reduce vacuum. The valve for wood gas has the advantage of opening before diesel fuel, it opens already at a lower vacuum, when the diesel fuel is still completely closed, and the valve on the right side gives it an even greater advantage. The operation is quick and easy, which enables normal work with the tractor. If this helps someone, I will be happy.
These processes in the gasifier fill my brain, the wood gas drugged me. Well, here I am attaching a sketch of the slightly changed shape of the interior, the obliquely placed rectangular tubes of the grill should close the flow of gases in the upper part, and in the lower part, allow more space, and the exchange surface would also be slightly larger. The lower nozzle would have a larger diameter, for better heat dissipation and the creation of a wider hot area, the limiting plate would also have a larger diameter. The fire hose would have one row of nozzles, an element would be welded above the nozzles, which would allow gases to be sucked in from the scum, and a ring would be welded a little higher on the wall, which would allow an empty space below it for the gases returning from the top along the wall. I am attaching the connection of starting and stopping the tractor, after approx. 1 hour of operation, mostly at pony load, driving, the resistance through the system is normal, the gas power is good.
Tone, this is the only colour of gas l aproove as good woodgas. Not talking about the flame but the unburnt gas. Clear with just a barely visable haze. When you see your gasifier makes such gas you can be preety sure you made a good gasifier
Tone I like your on-hands way of showing.
I like that you are now showing/talking in a unified singular energy system. You have been alarming me recently with divorced ‘pure’ processes talking with the goal only focused on “better” gas making. These divorced processes are too complex. Have too many failures points. Too many energies losing steps. Never useful working engines validations. “Don’t feed the Geeks! They will multiply.”
One word in your text does not translate with a clear meaning: scum (impure matter on the surface of a liquid). Do you mean “scrum”? Rugby gripping/clinging mass, energies locked, with no clear direction change?
Regards
Steve unruh
