Wood gas fueled generator in a no /low power situation

[Grog]

 Hi there one and all.

I was pondering something the other day. There are methods to convert gasoline powered lawn mower engines to generators.

There are ways to convert gasoline or diesel powered engines to run on Wood gas. Thus the idea of Wood gas powered generators.

In some situations, this would be a plus, and hiding the smoke dispersal is easy enough, with the right sand bagging to muffle but not get in the way of air flow, I was thinking this may be an alternative in a long term situation.

The basics are from two sources: Fema with the report in http://www.woodgas.net/files/FEMA%20emergency%20gassifer.pdf , and http://theepicenter.com/tipoweek.html for the conversion to generator plans.

While not a big generator, this might be useful some of the time.

[Blueduck]

Try reading this book by FEMA on Woodgas you can build the thing with scraps found inthe dumpsters.... ok just about everything i found in dumpsters around here over about a 2 month perios of time excpt the big schedule 80 pipe and i found that over in Montana but never went to pick it up..... but the stuff is back to being cheap  enough now if you can find it since Dubai has cut back on building......

any how wood gas or destructive distillation does not produce as much "smoke" as you would think cause that is what you are trying to burn, the H2 content of the gases being released.  the design improvement i figured to make is a water injector or mist that is ona  timer so as not to flood the chamber but enhance the production of both H2 and O2 for better production and run times. And in a book that i bought which was written back in the 1940 by the Cash brothers out of Australia they too said it was a wise idea to add a water injection device for that purpose.

Nope I have not built the unit, it sits in pieces waiting for the day i choose to start a new/old project..... I probably shouldhave already done it and been using the wood gas for both running a vehicle and powering the house.  I figure to use a inline 300-6 ford which would produce about 160 HP which would be sufficient to drive a generator for the house, and also pull things down the highway.

there are several folks who have built the things and they tend to keep to themself about it cause they figure they are being watched as it is and dont want shut down for being self reliant... ido not think that would happen, but one never knows.

Woodgas is an awesome idea, and in WW2 there was a whole industry built up around it, as gasoline was near impossible to get in Europe...... and there were 7 companies in the several stats which made units that bolted into the cars of the day..... I wish I could find a unit on the shelf of some old shop somewhere and reverse engineer it.

ce le vi`

[Canuck In Denver]

A small generator would be great for recharging batteries, or at least helping to recharge them. I've got a few lawn mower engines kicking around, junk from the last tenant and the landlord, ranging from 4 to 13 HP if you include the riding lawnmower I'm going to turn into a go-cart / trailer puller.

[Blueduck]

I have the book Convert Wood into Charcoal & Electricity which is enough to run a small engine a few minutes, can be built in the backyard out of some inexpensive buidling materials if you have to pay full retail and can find them in a salvage yard somewhere.....

It is a good book to give a fella [or lady] an idea of where to start in destructive distillation, and Mathots books are very good reading too, though oriented towrds the old gas plants to run the city gas lights http://www.lindsaybks.com/prod/sub/energy.html

I really like lindsays books for getting back to the lost knowledge of yesteryear.... cause it aint lost if it is still in print.... some of it may not be of a whole lot of use in a modern shop, but you dont have to reinvent the wheel so to speak if you have soemthing to go by.

[msm_04]

There was a show on a few months ago called the "Colony"..... It was a scenario of a complete colapse of society.... Any ways they built a generator using a gas pressure washer, alternator from a car, and ran it using wood gas...... They also ran a vehicle using wood gas..... And there didn't seem to be any real modifications done..... It is rather interesting to see all these survival type shows coming out based on a complete colapse of society.... Makes you really wonder!!!!!!

[Grog]

Not so long ago, Blue Duck and I shared comments on converting a small lawn mower / generator to use woodgas in a low/no petro situation.
 Here attached are 2 pdfs on the subject for woodgas, the lawn mower conversion..

http://theepicenter.com/tow02077.html

http://theepicenter.com/tipoweek.html

http://www.nhne.com/y2kreport/reports/0028.html (welcome the retro of pre Y2k)

[Canuck In Denver]

I may have to tinker with some lawnmower engines since there are about 4 around here.

Wood gas power my 13 hp riding lawnmower/go-cart for bug out situations

[Grog]

As an alternative, how about moding one of those engines to run on methane from a methane generator?

Setting it up similar to composting maybe?

not sure about mpg / mpcu? (miles per cubic foot of gas)

[Canuck In Denver]

Maybe ... will have to look into it.