Yeah what started out as a hobby turned into a full time business over night for me. It wasnt intentional it just sort of happened that way. I launcehd a website earlier this year thinking it would be a side hobby type of business. Something I could do in my spear time.
I was wrong!!
In four short months Ive had to quit my job as field service engineer for a CNC machine tool company and go into this full time. I have established dealers around the US, Canada and the UK. I just started shipping machines a couple weeks ago in beta form.
My little M-1-SGU is what started it all and it is what I would consider a micro gaisifier. I run a 2000 watt 2.8 HP gen with it. It will run a 1300 watt load for 5 hrs. I run pellets in its small form and it performs pretty decent. I will be installing a mount plate for a hopper vibrator for it going forward. Here is vid of it running a 4000 gen under 1500 watt load. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-uLwejWSVc&list=UUIj9jrb2pG4mNb_njWMKxPg&index=2&feature=plcp
I am prepping my 67 JD round fender tractor for an updated M-1. Im probably going to convert it to run on ethanol and bump up the compresion and advance the timing. I will create a thread for this build later.
The unit in my avitar is the E-1 it is spec’d to run around 50 hp engines or around 30 cfm through the unit. I just lauched this unit and am still testing. I have a customer that will be bringing a Farm All M here to the shop to have one installed. I am considering launching another unit that is just a much larger version of the M-1 that may be better siuted for this aplication. This cuctomer is prepared to help with finance and development.
Ive been around in the altnrgy online comunity for some time although much of what I have done has been on private forums. Woodgas was something I took on a few years ago along with many other technologies. I believe I have much to offer to boimass to syngas technologies. My background spans back about 20 years in building speacial automated machinery and engineering. Also I was a certified auto tech. Ill update my profile with all this later. I gotta get back to work. LOL
Thanks for the engine running Info MattR. Real good low output performance.
Please do take ChrisKY up on his offer for a classified listing.
I am one of the ones saying gasification is best learned by DOing. Your system is now the most affordable entry level into this.
My West Coast mountain dial-up time for YouTube viewing is 12:00 AM - 2:00AM. So for us Rural and Mountain folk over here you have to keep’em short 3 minutes (45-60 minute down load) or under, to be watched by the majority here who would actually get and actually use one of your weld up or DYI kits.
Vulcan Gasifier is a manufacturer of entry level, simple to operate gasification systems to meet multiple applications. We offer our systems at low cost and are customizable to meet your needs. We also offer a payment option to make it easier on the budget. To see our full product line go to vulcangasifier.com
Yeah Steve the DIY Kit needs much updating. Things have evolved so fast I cant keep up with myself. lol. This kit will now have the excact components as the fully built M-1. It is a little more complex to build than the first kit and will require us to prebuild the reactor and we will build the blower housing as well. So the cost on that one will go up a bit.
One thing I should mention on the little set up. It is not perfect, it does require constant monitoring. Usually just a bump on the grate will satisfy it. Im hoping the hopper shaker will fix this. Pellets tend to clog things up. So every once in while the char needs to be loosened up. The grate depth on all my units is adjustable. When running pellets I found that the grate really needed ot be choked up so the pellets could be better consumed and when running the little motors on this fuel longer jets were in order. I have ran chips with it and ran into bridging issues. So I have revised this unit to flow better plus the hopper shaker will help.
Yeah Dave Im a trying. Every thing happend so fast but at the same time its been slow going. I had to develop these gasifiers a bit farther than where I was when It started. I wasnt prepaired for the response. I have a good start now and they are now shipping out into the world. Im expecting things to really get busy now. I was just talking with the dealer in the UK and he thinks he will have a big order soon. Right now I have 24 orders on the board. Im trying to build two a week. Actually four every two weeks. It is starting to progress.
I like your straight forward and compact design. Nice flare. I am sure there is demand for such simple and therefore probably affordable gasifier units.
Engines also seem to like your gasifier, since they can easily be hand cranked. An engine that can be started with only one or two pulls is the ultimate test for a gasifier. Two questions. What kind of filter medium do you use? How does the gasifier behave on wood chips?
Ive read some of your other post and seen some of your excellent work. Im jelouse!!
You do some awsome work and I have much to learn from you.
As for filters Ive played around with different filter medias and just did not have much luck. Either the tars got thru any ways or it was too restrictive. Ive built a bulbler/media filter combo that worked OK but the bubbler was to restrictive. So I went back to tuning the gassifier until it made clean gas with out any filters.This took lots of pacients and days of tweaking.
Wood pellets I think is the way to go with the small gassers. Once I was able to get consitant fuel flow going thru the gasser, I could then establish the best possible perameters that the unit would produce good gas. Its not 100% as conditions change all the time in the gasser but it does recover.
I am open to ideas for additional filtration. My question is do you really need to filter the tars or can they be condensed?? To me (and Im still learning here) it seems when the tars come out they are in a gas form just like the moisture. Does the tar just need a lower temp than the moister to be condensed out?
Also I do have a simple cyclone/water trap, That I have just before the ICE that I mix the air fuel in. The idea there is to introduce cold air to further condense the gas and get out any remaining tars and moister. What Im now considering is a finnal filter that will use the activated char that comes out of the gassifier as a finnal filter and have this after that.
Thanks for the kind words I look forward to your respnce.
Im still working on getting wood chips and chunks to work and I do think I will get there. I have not been able to test the new design yet with these fuel medias. I think with the new design and the addition of a hopper shaker it will work though.
You cannot filter tars. They pass every filter, because you can consider them gas or fumes until they condense further downstream. Mostly just after a pressure drop, like behind a throttle valve. Best way is to avoid tars, by a well insulated hearth, right dimensions and a fuel that is consistent in flow. Every gasifier makes some tars, but the trick is to have only those that do not condense very easy.
Wood chips are not an easy fuel in a small gasifier. They tend to bridge, causing clinkers and tars. Not real hollow burns that stops an engine, but short time bridging. Hard to recognize, but if you make tar AND clinkers you have short time bridging.
Hi Matt,
I really like the flare and the video of running the generator. Really good stuff. I also checked out the site and saw the builder kit. That seems to be a good value and would save people a lot of time. I have seen just a few burners using pellets, but I chose to do my learning on pellets and I have a few questions for you…
Are you using a gravity feed for the pellets from the upper tank ?
I see you use a condensation trough, is that the right angle ring thingy and does it go at the top of the hopper close to the lid ?
Have you seen any problems with the pellets getting all soft and crumbly ?
Do you know about what temperature the gas starts to condense and does your cooler get there ?
For the feed I am useing a gravity for the feed. The units do have a mount plate for a hopper shaker to address bridging if needed. As for the pellets getting soft I did have some issues there, However after tuning this problem has been resolved. I have increased the size of my condensor a bit more, so there is still some more testing to there. It does a pretty good job though. I also use a seperator at the engine to get rid of tar and moister. This compination has worked very well for me and is free flowing. Ive enlarged the tubing on the condensor to accomadate larger engine sizes and still need to test at the higher CFM. I have not had to much issue with condensation either. I think the unit is tuned to the point where it is cracking the moister.
As for the Kit, It is on hold at the moment. The gasifiers have evolved very rapidly and I just have not had the time to update all the prints and procedures. Once we get caught up I’ll start work on the kit. It is going to go up in cost as well it will be a little more involved for us to build but it will be a much better kit.
Yes I do sell the 5" cyclone and Condensor. You can purchase them sepperatly or as a set. The Cyclone cone has a 5" top opening and a 1.5" bottom openning and is 7" in length. I can accomadate any port size with in reason as well.
The condensor has an optional blower housing. You can get the blower and cage from Auto Zone. If you choose to use your own blower I can provide a bypass. Its just a simple plate that would go in place of the blower housing.
For the condensor I would need $200.00 and with the blower housing I would need $300.00
If you are interested in the Cyclone I would need $200.00 for it. I think I could have them ready in two weeks or less. Actually we will be building four of em next week to complete the builds we have going. I could through in an extra for you if you are interested. Its much faster to build in bulk.
Got a question. I am going to be developing a new unit for large engine aplications. Farm equipment, Autos and such. So I am going to mod the Buick for testing. This car has the 3.8 ltr engine.
My question is do I dare inject the producer gas in before the MAF sensor? Or do I need to build a mixer that I can install after this onto the throttle body. Also can I build a mixer that just meters the producer gas that would work in conjuction with the throtle body plate.
Im going to do a couple experiments. One is I want to run two of the E-1’s together. Ive never seen any one do this, Is there a reason you cant run two units in together? It makes sense you can double the fuel capacity and also if you just wanted to run a small engine of one you have that option.
Then I will build the new unit, it is going to share the same arcitectuer as the M-1 just a bit bigger with a 12" hearth. Im going to try and build it so it will eat just about any thing you put in it. I also would like to run a twin set up with this unit as well.
Is your 3800 the aluminum intake early series engine? Looking at trying woodgas on a 1990 Olds. The MAF can carbon up just running on gasoline - so not sure how well it would fare on tar - Mike L can probably answer on the 3.8’s. I’m also going to update the old style Magnavox coil to the Delco with the coil towers all on one side. This site has some great info for 3.8’s: http://www.6007.us/ Look under ‘Cars, Musings, Fixes & More’ then Assorted articles (http://padgett.performanceresearch.us/cars/coils.htm) for the switch. Having to do the crankshaft dual hall sensor tomorrow. Also trying the Delco Rapidfire 14 plugs. Got to get it running on gasoline well before trying anything else Looking forward to seeing how your conversion goes on the 3.8.
William
This one is sort of an odd ball year. It is considered a series I… but it has the plastic intake plentium like the series II. On this one the plentium comes a part and I think would be easy to clean if needed.
Looking forward to seeing how your conversion goes on the 3.8.