Til has sayd it well. I drove 4 vehicles on biomass by now, both wood and charcoal and l can say both have their advantiges but in your case, l wuld go with charcoal. As for fuel prepping, its actualy easyer for me to make and process charcoal thain wood. And certainly faster! It is possible to make charcoal out of green wood, while a wood gasifier requires seasoned wood. Easyer to extract nails out of charcoal too
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Wow, you guys are chock full of ideas. As far as pallets go I can find 20 or so a day if I needed that many by just looking on craigslist within a couple mile radius of my house. I also know of a few fabrication shops that have scrap wood bins out back that are free for whoever wants them. If I need to supplement beyond that I have a few dozen acres of woods nearby that I already scavenge from. The local DNR site also has a 10-15 foot tall pile of various wood scraps that they told me I could use. As far as nails I already planned on disassembling the planks and removing nails before breaking them down, that’s what I do when I chip them for my smaller version. While I do appreciate the concern about cuts, I was a roofer during the summers in Highschool and for few years after. I’d like to think I’m somewhat versed in the art of not getting stabbed, but you can never be too careful.
I never thought about the dirt! I figured a cyclone and filter combo would take care of any particulates but I can see how it might cause problems in the gasifier before it ever got to the engine, especially if any metal shavings get in. I may end up relying on the woods/DNR site and supplement with shop scrap/pallets as needed instead.
As far as charcoal I was already really considering it but my problem is I’m not far from lake St. Clair and the prevailing winds here are pretty strong, they tend to keep smoke low to the ground and send it to my closest neighbors house. I would be pretty limited on the days I can make fuel unless I wanted to be a jerk. Although I guess I could probably just set up a retort in the woods nearby, just have to make sure it’s out of sight as there’s a homeless crowd that camps back there sometimes and I’d be worried they might scrap it or something.
The small gasifier which I built was overkill for a class project and put out enough to run a 7.5 HP generator, It should work with quite a bit more but that is what I had to test it on. I also don’t think it burns the cleanest since its just a FEMA with extra filtration, so I’m scared to run it through there for long. Thank you everyone, I really appreciate the input. I’ve already got lots more to think about.
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Hey Connor,
I am liking your ideas. I intend my wood supply to come from scrap pallets and slash / scrap piles as well. I am planning on building a WK Style gasifier for my pickup. They guys on this site are saying to me “get started already!”. Great bunch of people on this forum. You should plan to go to the Argos, IN “Family Reunion” wood-gas meet in mid-May. Sounds like you live in the 'burbs and commute to WSU or UD or somewhere like that. I am a Detroit kid from the north suburbs also near Lake St. Clair. Used to go out on the ice with my motorcycle in winter, near Metro-Beach Metropark. That was 1970’s 
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You a Macomb county boy too? The house I grew up in was right in between 16 mile and Jefferson about a mile from Metro beach, spent a lot of time out on the ice with atv’s and a truck a few times. Some crazy guy I know even brings a semi out when it’s thick enough, don’t know how he works up the nerve for that though. I’m just north of the air base now but you got it right, I go to Wayne State. I may just have to try and get out to Argos if I can get this thing up and running in time.
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Good morning Connor
If you use a stainless steel grate I wouldn’t worry too much about a few nails. You can run a strong magnet down to the grate and bring out any that doesn’t past on through .
You can go to our Wood Supply thread and maybe get more ideas on wood supply . I just stress if a woodgaser does a lot of driving it takes a lot of wood.
Just another note . I think I would feel at home at Lake St Clair.
My farm is on St Clair road in a community of St Clair Springs in the county of St Clair. 
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Hi Connor,
you’re right, under this conditions charring some wood is challenging.
There is a thread about avoiding smoke during charring because of the same problem.
Maybe this can give you some good ideas?
With a wood-gasifier it is also sometimes impossible to avoid some smoke during lighting, refueling or working on it. Of course it can be limited by proper handling.
Just keep this in mind.
Not to discourage you, but as many others already said it, be realistic on your situation (wood supply, vehicle limits, neighbours and so on) to avoid later frustration.
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Sounds Like you grew up in my old house. I am living / working near Ft. Wayne, Indiana now. Come to Argos just to meet people and see what they have built. It is a 3 day long brainstorming session, with good food and fun. I can’t over-sell the benefits of attendance. There are some overseas folks that would give a tooth to be there. I figure for you its about a 4 hour drive.
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All good advice’s ConnerH, now that you have clarified your where, what and why’s.
Mike LaRosa in Linden Wisconsin has woogasifies two? different Chevy S10 pickups. He did a modified Inbert constricted hearth system. Chunked up site tree woods. He came to like his GM OBD I electronic systems in his pickups. Woodgas engine power was the limitation.Two lane county/country roads he said. Then he went to GM EFI V-6’s for highway capability…
Your “legal” problems will fall into 3-4 different broad areas:
Cops looking for reasons. Do not give then reasons with bad tires, lights and shabby body work. Do not give them reason with erratic driving. Fire Marshals and Fire-Forestry is another do-not-give-them-reasons to see you as a fire-hazard problem.
Second area would be using a non-factory certified fuel creating “emissions”. Mandatory emmisions systems inspected areas, maybe a problem . . .maybe not. Surprising to most here but in the very “Activist” parts of the US just using tree-woods-for-fuels will set off many fellow road users, neighbors, and events folks. I know of one Seattle Metro area guy (a welder) had beverage cans thrown at him and follow him home Eco-Activists; agitating. He pulled off his vehicle signage. Too late. Ended up leaving the state completely.
THINK before you out in public promote; or allow yourself to be “news” highlighted.
The third area is vehicle insurance. One western European fellow wishes he NEVER had asked. Just done.
One in Wales fellow now has gone hidden silent. Safety and Fitness hammered.
And any vehicle registered to me gets called in physically inspected twice a year by my insurance company.
So it is the one’s who think they can change-the-world who get hammered the worst.
I actually in the “woodgas” efforts know of at least 12-15 had to quit, move-away, go very very quiet.
Mum-the-word on all things fun/interesting/and exploratory that would frighten the current established mainstream lock-steppers
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Sorry about that . . . . phone dragged away by the wifie before I could edit above.
Fourth area is road fuel tax not “contributing”.
Big, big deal by state enforcers in some areas. Even in lax enforced areas neighbors and fellow road drivers can make this an issue as you “evading your fair share”. In your face directly. Or by squealer hot-lining.
I do not wish to frighten you away. DOing with no problems is more that just luck. YOU can control this by vehicle years selection and you own promotions.
I’m from the do not ask (openly promote); and do not tell (openly promote) era. Older version of the same was, “Better to ask for forgiveness, than to ask for permission.”
tree-farmer Steve Unruh
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The first paragraph is what l hold on most. I drive low profile, not agresive, clean car, good tires, all the mandatory equipment in the back seat, drive sober… never had problems with police. If l get pulled over, the conversation starts with"licence and registration, plese" and ends with “thank you, have a safe drive” with nothing in between.
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by using a blower and air manifold you can create a curtain kiln. a sheet or curtain of air blowing at a slight angle into the top of a barrel produces charcoal without smoke. see the making charcoal without smoke topic on this forum for this and other smoke free ideas.
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Andrew Heath had posted this in the making charcoal without smoke thread .
To me this idea looks very attractive. It’s a continuous system. Most of the problems with burning wood are the getting up to temperature to achieve a clean burn phase. The other issue magnifying this problem with batch charcoal systems is heating a large mass of wood through to the clean combustion stage.
This approach only burns a small amount of wood volatiles at a time, and is always at clean burn temp.
It will also lend itself very nicely to automation, and could be a great CHP system if rigged to heat a boiler system.
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This is an amazing setup. I want to know a lot more. First of all, does the auger need to be that long at an upward angle? I would think a little auger like Don M. uses would be adequate. I wonder if it has to be filled with charcoal at the bottom so the removal of volatiles remains at the top on the initial run? Maybe the initial run is like a rocket stove pulling air in from the auger hole until the opening is plugged with charcoal?
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The auger length is a good question. I am guessing it is as long as it is because it’s an obtanium build. Also because he wanted enough height to be able to drop char into a pail. But it’s probably also to provide a seal against having a significant air inlet to the bottom, with enough oxygen the char would burn to the bottom.
The concept looks scalable, I believe it could be made a lot smaller using smaller biomass, straw or wood chips.
If the combustion was enclosed in a refractory lining, the burn would be more complete. A chimney would create quite a lot of draw / draft, allowing the burner to be throttled over a range with a damper.
Forced air induction could also be used if necessary, primary and secondary air could be separately regulated / tuned.
This rice husk gasifier is interesting, I don’t know what the internal design is, but he seems to have no issue with char burning to the bottom. However, rice char will be like a plug, charcoal might not behave the same at all.
Finding video…
Couldn’t find the video, but here’s one using the same concept. This one has a shorter combustion chamber, and a gate to open and close, that could be applicable.
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The auger also turns a lot of the charcoal into usable size for a gasifier compared to the feedstock size.
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This is something we need a detailed drawing of, inner workings.
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I think it’s fairly straight forward, looks like a hot water tank inner chamber, a barrel or some kind of tank for the air jacket. The auger will go to the center of the bottom, maybe 4’ long. The only question I have is primary air, I’m not sure if there is any, but the design would likely benefit from a ring of nozzles inside the combustion chamber about a third of the way down.
It’s a top fueled TLUD.
Charcoal is pretty amazing, deprived of oxygen it goes dead once below combustion temps, which appears to be the purpose of the cooling jacket, and then the transfer through the auger.
And yes, the auger appears to be doing a very nice grinding job.
And as was mentioned in the other discussion thread, it would have to be primed with charcoal, either an auxiliary air inlet, which I believe is what you see capped down by the auger, to build up a mass as in a cone kiln, or just throw in charcoal to the 2/3 level, then build a fire on top of that.
I think a member should throw one together… 
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I am a little stuck on sourcing a small diameter auger, I have nothing handy in my obtanium pile. A combine wrecker seems like a possibility, but it would be very antique equipment.
Building an auger wouldn’t be so bad, if there’s access to 18 or 16ga steel, just a matter of developing a pattern in heavy paper to establish the hole and outside diameter, and get fabricating the flights.
Here is some more information and pictures of the continuous charcoal retort.
I really like this idea.
This could be a very promising improvement.
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Hi Connor H, back on the Topic. When Diving Through The City, which is more of a town for me. Some of things is stop and going and waiting at a traffic light. The last thing I want to do is stall the engine on take off.
So what I did when I first started to learn to drive my gasifier truck, is practice taking off over and over again. I found a unused road and would sit there as if at a light. I remember still the first few times, doing it for real in traffic at a light, I was nervous, now no biggie. Becoming very familiar with the gasifier vehicle before heading into the city or town is good insurance.
One other thing is maintenance, burning out your throttle plate and intake. If it fires up while driving in town or in the city you will have what we call, (an event.) Lots of smoke out the tail pipe. You don’t want that when driving in lots of traffic. I haven’t had an event and I’m hoping I never will. If I do my maintenance it should never happen. Fun things to know about running a gasifier vehicle. It’s fun and I still SWEM (smile with every mile), when passing the gas station.
Bob
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