Can We Use Wood to Beat the Gasoline Shortage?
(Page 2 of 2)
May/June 1974
Reprinted Courtesy Popular Science Monthly, from an article January 1944
As shown in the schematic drawing, the gas producer is a downdraft type. Air is supplied to the fire — within the conical walls of the refractory, or gas-generating area — by five air nozzles which run through the firebrick from the outer air jacket. The gas, produced by partial combustion of the fuel, flows out the offtake pipe to four cleaning and cooling tanks, fitted with baffles and connected in series. As it is cooled the gas becomes denser (under Boyle's law) and hence more Btu's are supplied to the motor at each intake stroke.
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A condensation trap is provided at the end of the fourth cooling tank to catch any moisture deposited by the gas, which next passes through a steel-wool filter and oil bath in a tank on the running board. Just before the gas pipe reaches the intake manifold, a valve admits air to the gas, at about a one-to-one ratio, and the mixture is then fed past the throttle to the motor.
During standby periods with the motor off, the stack valve at the top of the producer is opened, giving enough air to keep the fire going. This valve is also used to release excess gases at the end of the day. A dashboard control affords a means of varying the amount of air mixed with the gas as it enters the motor; the correct setting changes frequently with the behavior of the fire and the speed of the engine. In practice, the driver controls speed with the throttle and intermittently readjusts the air-gas mixture for best performance. Direct linkage of the two controls is not practicable.
Whether such vehicles, long familiar in Europe, will succeed in replacing conventional trucks in this country depends in large part on whether gasoline shortages become more acute. Certainly the indications are that reduced power and more frequent servicing lay heavy handicaps on producer gas in free competition with gasoline.
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