WOOD-GAS UPDATE
More about MOTHER's woodburning truck and homestead electricity-generating plant; including cutaway detailed diagrams of the conversion process.
September/October 1981
By the Mother Earth News editors
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[1] The updated gasifier is lighter, more compact, and in many ways more practical than its predecessor. [2] Condensed and filtered wood gas goes directly to the modified carburetor through this outlet tube. Note the woven filter medium below. [3] We've realized an improvement in performance and mileage with the new apparatus, as well. [4] The redesigned stationary components take up a minimum of floor space, and thus leave plenty of sheltered area for scrap lumber storage ...or for wood heating and drying equipment.
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More about MOM's woodburning truck and homestead electricity-generating plant: In our last issue (see MOTHER N0.70, page 182) we described our 10-kilowatt power— and heat—generating plant that uses scrap wood as the fuel for its internal combustion generator. At that time, we promised to update the article as we accumulated more information from the series of controlled—as well as "real world"—tests that followed the completion of the experimental equipment.
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As expected, the two-month "trial by fire" brought out both the good and bad features of our cogeneration system, and also gave us an opportunity to try several new concepts that, it now appears, might [1] increase the gasifier's efficiency, [2] make it more practical to use, and [3] reduce the maintenance required by the setup.
A STUDY IN SMOKE
In a nutshell, our extended testing reinforced what we had already learned about wood gas, but also caused us to examine some of the quirks of the gasification process. For example, after several attempts to come up with an inexpensive and durable filter medium (some that we tested weren't particularly effective in cleaning the smoke, and others tended to clog too easily), we finally took a hard look at the gasifier itself, hoping we might be able to devise modifications that would allow it to burn—rather than pass along—some of the tar and ash that, in the early models, had collected in the condenser and filter chambers.
We also found that the gasification unit on our stationary generator sometimes "slowed down" and couldn't meet the engine's fuel demands, simply as a result of the wood supply's forming a "bridge" over the hearth and blocking the passage of fresh chunks into the combustion zone. Such a situation had rarely occurred in the mobile gasifier fueling our pickup truck (see MOTHER NO. 69, page 126), because that unit was subject to constant movement.
In addition, we discovered that the excessive summer humidity in our area, coupled with the high moisture content of some types of wood, occasionally resulted in the production of an unusually large amount of steam inside the gas generator. As a result, the temperatures within the hearth weren't always as great as they should've been, and that relative coolness lowered the quality of the gaseous fuel.
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