Wood Power..........

[Macaroon]

I've made a number of wood gasifier stoves over the years, and my go-to stove for a good while now is one I made two years ago. During my research for the theory of it all I read a little about trucks and tractors being run on woodgas during the rationing in WWII and have always meant to have a go at this on a larger scale. I had a little look around today in preparation
for my project and found this, which I thought may be of interest to others here.

All comments welcome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6e3CprVTi8

 

[RE8ELD0G]

That is awesome.
i have downloaded and stored the FEMA plans for use if s.h.t.f.

 

[British Red]

I see some irony in needing an electric fan to start your generator

 

[Macaroon]

I see some irony in needing an electric fan to start your generator

That's the bug in this particular design, but will not be a part of my final one; I don't need a fan to start or run any of the ones I've used and I'm sure he's done this for convenience rather than as a necessity. As in the fan-powered stoves this wouldn't be of interest to me if it was an integral part of the design.

Anyway, had you not noticed how irony seems to escape our cousins across the water?

 

[British Red]

To be fair, its no worse than a battery "start" on a genny.

I do wonder if this is more efficient than a stationary steam engine driving a turbine to produce the electricity?

 

[Macaroon]

Two different horses performing the same task, perhaps. The thing that appeals greatly to me about the woodgas burner is that you are essentially getting power from burning what to all intents and purposes is debris, and on a small scale this fuel is easily available pretty much everywhere. I wouldn't be an evangelist for this way of getting power on any large scale but I think it definitely has a place in small scale applications, is very simple to set up and costs very little.

One of the advantages over a steam engine is that you eliminate the water side of things - just take the energy straight from the initial source rather than interspersing a water tank into the equation...............

I'm just thinking aloud here really

 

[British Red]

No I see that - I guess I was thinking though you are only converting the "pyrolising gas" into energy, not the bulk of the solid carbon so it is less efficient per unit of wood in that respect.

A really efficient answer would be to tap off the pyrolising gas vented from a charcoal kiln and use that to power the generator.

 

[TeeDee]

Could you not use multiple TEG's to initiate?
Not sure how much they can be stepped up.

 

[Macaroon]

And there, yet again, is the rub! How to make use of the heat which is generated by the process as well as the gas; that would make it extremely effective and I do intend to research this aspect of it all, though I suspect
it'll throw up as many questions as it will answers. That's part of the fun of it, eh?

@ TeeDee; I don't know much at all about TEG's, but they're on the reading list over the next few days