You are right Stephen, expect to have a ton or more of chips on hand if you want to do any meaningful work… and then try to keep up replacing them as you use them.
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Hi Wood Gassers,
Another Gas Station Lite is leaving home.
This is Jim Hart’s unit which you may see at Argos.
Last time I was in Alaska I realized how these alternative energy devices need to be very portable so I designed the new Gas Station to break down and fit on the back seat of any four passenger helicopter or SUV. Even with a 4kW included this unit can be moved anywhere in the world in one trip and be making electricity in fourteen hours from green tree limbs(assuming it’s not -20F and the wood can dry). Now if I just had that darn automixer!!
Stephen
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Hi Wood Gassers,
Several people have asked me for a parts list for the non-welded Constance gasifier. Today I added the list and links to the McMaster-Carr items to her page:
Stephen
Hi Wood Gassers,
I had the Gas Station Lite out today running her new 4kW generator. I wanted to get in some practice before demo season. Everything ran great.
The gas going to the mixer was only about 90F with the engine running under a 500W load. I still need to get the power up, however. The engine bogged down way too easily at high speed.
I suspect this engine will have to stay intact for demos and the new wood gas battery charger will get a timing advance right from the start.
Stephen
3 Likes
Hi Wood Gassers,
We have had a few days of rain so I got in some time on my CAD system. Here is the result:
I know small engine powered alternators have been done to death on the web but I am sorta proud of this little thing. It has a 105 amp GM single wire alternator, the alternator is spring loaded so the belt should never need adjustment, and there are cut outs for oil changes so it doesn’t go all over the deck. The little panel on the front has a voltmeter, ammeter, and a 180 amp load shut off switch which is on the way. I’m not sure if the gauges will be shaken to death but that is what testing is for.
This unit is going to be my backup for demo season.
I suspect this 1200-1800rpm unit is going to have much better output compared to my 3600rpm generator. It’s just hard to get the gas completely burned when turning half the speed of light.(not really but you get the idea)
One thing I learned when researching other designs is that a lot of the “single plate mounts” have the alternator turning backward. This results in the air trying to be scooped in toward the rotor while centrifugal force is trying to sling the air outward. The resulting fight lowers the air flow and can cook the alternator. This design doesn’t have that problem at the cost of increased size.
As always, if anyone wants one drop me an email and I will work up a price. Back to the automixer…
Stephen
3 Likes
Looks nice Stephen, I have something similar to this on my plate as well. We built a large AC machine as a stand alone system for existing producers. I now have all the parts to build a small DC system like this, just need to find the time to build it. I am hoping to get this built in time for Argos 
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Nice set up StephenA
On both the engine and the alt you can use temperatures to set safe long-term loads and working speeds.
Use a temp probe on the engine down the oil fill tube. Do not exceed 300F contiguous. Increase engine speed to increase air flow cooling.
The alternator best point temp pivk up will be at the center iron stator core lamination’s. Do not exceed 275F continuous there as you will be heat degrading the epoxy dip holding the winding’s integrity.
A number of ways to improve cooling on these Delco small frames. Look up pictures of 15SI and 17SI units and you can see “D” shaped grind cuts in the aluminum case halves where they sandwich the center stator to allow more in-drawn air flow there. The 12SI units will show a revised front case with a duct-ed cast plastic vacuum flow extractor fan.
The next-on generation GM units, “CS’s”, used the external cast plastic extractor fan in the front. And at the rear of the rotor has a rotor mounted expellor fan too.
Latest generation GM’s, Fords, now gone like original Chrysler, and later Nippondenso to a dual internal metal rotor mounted expellor fans. Bosch now too on this style of cooling. Double doughnut air/heats flow pattern then. HOT expelled air OUT at the stator to cases edges. Cool new air IN at both ends of the unit at the bearings.
HOT ran air flow-throughs like this original would tend to heat shorten bearings requiring expensive higher temp greases to try and compensate. And very hard to get good air flow past the tight fitted spinning rotor to stator gap all of the way from back out the front.
Regards
Steve Unruh
3 Likes
Stephen,
You should be… 
I’m tempted to order one less engine and alternator…
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I appreciate the thought. Let me get some hours on her. Nothing goes out without a full shake down. 
Stephen
Ok , I’ll need the belt and pulley also.
Jeff
P.s. gages to…
This setup up with what Alex T is making would be a perfect fit for me to charge my battery bank up north.
Looks great Stephen!
As soon as I am sure it’s a quality product I will blast you a message and we can talk.
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Hi Wood Gassers,
I was just out running the Gas Station Lite and her 4kW. I have been thinking about how open the air mixer was in my video and it dawned on me that I might be able to go with smaller nozzles, increase the blast rate, and get more power. I reduced the nozzles from .25 to .188. That may not sound like much but it almost doubled the blast rate and drastically improved the performance. It was easily holding 500W and held 1500W for almost a minute before the fuel/air ratio went off and everything tanked. Not bad considering that the timing has not been advanced.
The only down side was that there was more sooting, but I would expect that with a high blast rate. Strangely enough she ran with the mixer in just about the same position. I suspect there was more reduction and water gas shift resulting in more gas volume.
Back to work!
Stephen
Stephen,
Just a thought; an adapter for an electric motor to drive the alternator would be handy for a person that wanted an indoor welder. Your design is so open that it would only take a few minutes to swap out an engine. I’m thinking about making a scratch start TIG.
Jeff
Hi Wood Gassers,
I just went out to break in the battery charger before she gets her first taste of wood gas:
So far, so good. There were no issues which immediately jumped out at me.
Stephen
3 Likes
that does look nice Stephen but there is always a but ive been off grid for 15 or so years and charge batteries many ways over the years and that’s a pretty small motor for the job with that pulley set up been there done that .then I got a hold of a 3 cyl geo when the alt was powered that geo would groan for a while intil the batteries rose in voltage . after a few years of abuse I went diesel a 3 cyl refer unit lots more low end but if you don’t let the motor warm up a couple I can still bring that to a stop . so your system looks good through a dead battery bank on and see how much a load it pulls im pretty sure gas will have a hard time little lone wood gas.
Hi Paul,
There are a bunch of things I admit to not knowing. Just by the numbers I think I will be OK. If I derate the engine 50% I will have 2400W of shaft power(Ish). The alternator puts out 1200W max and is probably 50% efficient so it will want 2400W of shaft power. It should be closely matched. The limit of V-belt power transmission is about 3hp or 2200W('ish) so that is at the limit too. I am also worried about heat build up in the alternator. Nothing to do but to run it, see, and put some operating limits on it.
Stephen
I didn’t crunch any numbers trial and error and on smaller motors I ended with almost 1 to 1 on ratios and never had a overheating on the alt it helps the way you have it not bolted to the motor [no heat transfur ] just remember trying to jump start someone when the cables are attached the car doing the jump bogs down when you get a god conection. big draw. interested to see and still like your work
paul
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Hi Wood Gassers,
So far so good…
Now I am going to go out and kill that battery and see how she restarts.
Stephen
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Restart with a dead load applied…OH HECK NO!!!