Wood Gas! Wood Gasification Powers this Truck
(Page 2 of 6)
May/June 1981
By Mother Earth News editors
The carbon dioxide and nitrogen are inert, and such nonfuels pose no threat to the powerplant. However, the tar and ash must be removed from the gas, or they may produce deposits and, perhaps, result in engine damage. So, to clean the fuel, the "smoke" is first routed through a liquid-cooled "densifier" (a multitubed heat exchanger surrounded by a water jacket and plumbed into a junk automobile air conditioning condenser that's mounted in front of the existing radiator), which precipitates moisture and residue from the gas. Then it passes on to a tubular filter that's [1] packed with strands of commercial air conditioning filament, woven transport padding, or a similar material that won't disintegrate, rust, or burn, and [2] equipped with perforated flame traps at its entrance and its exit.
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The final strainer catches the remnants of ash and tar in the gaseous fuel, which then travels through a slightly bowed horizontal tube (where most of the little remaining moisture is trapped) and on into the engine.
Compound Carburetion
To allow for the use of either wood gas or gasoline, our research crew fabricated a unique mixing chamber and linkage setupusing scrap carburetor parts, a pair of old brackets, some cabinet door hinges, and three clevises — that seems to suit the nature of producer gas to a T.
Because the vaporous fuel has a fairly low BTU value (and because the amount of usable power contained in the wood "smoke" can be affected by engine speed, load, moisture, and other factors), the proportion of gas to air has to be much greater than that of, say, a propanepowered engine. But the driver must be able to adjust the mix in transit — if the wood gas system is expected to maintain a consistent degree of performance under all types of driving conditions — yet he or she shouldn't have to be constantly manipulating controls.
Well, our team came up with a design that meets all of those requirements. They first scrounged up a fourinch length of 1/8" X 2" X 4" tubular steel, and — using the stock gasoline carburetor and manifold as a template-drilled fuel passage and mounting holes through its broad upper and lower surfaces. Next, they sealed up the tube's "inboard" end with a piece of scrap metal . . . trimmed out a section of 1/4" X 2-1/2" X 4-1/2" plate . . . and bored and tapped 5/16" mounting-stud holes at each corner of this panel, spacing the openings to correspond with the base of a Ford Autolite/Motorcraft 5200 or a Holley 5210 two-barrel carburetor. (These particular units were original equipment on Pintos and Vegas, respectively, and they should be readily available in auto wrecking yards, as scrap, for a very reasonable rate.)
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