A' nev gasifier in denmark.....

[kim jessen]

hei folks...
I have buildet a nev gasifier, hvot doou you thing.... i am not totaly don yet bot her ise some temp. pictuers....

[Andrew Schofield]

This is the fuel I use to make gas for a 5 liter engine. The same gasifier has operated both a Ford 302 cubic inch displacement light truck with four-wheel drive, and a stationary General motors 305 cubic inch displacement with constant speed, variable torque governor.

The GM engine drives a 40 killowatt alternator by means of reduction-gear, so the V8 crankshaft will turn at 2735 RPM. This speed is in the stronger area of the engine's power-curve. The gasifier makes gas from 60 pounds of maple wood solid fuel, to generate 20 killowatts electricty per hour.
Using metric units, 1.361Kg of wood generates 1 Kwh electricity at 50% of the potential load.
The machine can start a 13 killowatt electric motor (18 horsepower). The unit would be great for powering a sawmill.

The 4-wheel drive truck was much more fun to operate.
It came from the factory with electronic fuel injection. I modified the system to operate on either
hated-gasoline, or wood gas. The computer still functions in either fuel mode, controlling;
rear anti-lock brakes, combustion-chamber spark-event timing, exhaust gas recirc, air to the exhaust catylist, and throttle-valve bypass controller. Throttle-valve controller is nice for start-up, because you can just reach in the cab after lighting fires and turn the key-switch, then the engine starts. No problem.

How do you chop wood? Some guys in Sweden I know, use a machine I haven't figured out yet.
I make cross-cuts, and use an axe. Ideal particle size is 40 mm cubes for my gasifiers. My wood comes from treetops left over from logging hard maple trees. In Michigan, this biomass is renewable.

Andy

[kim jessen]

naice .... i get vood chips from a nerbey factory that makes vood boxes for transporting alle sorts of stouf... alle leftover ise chop in to chips, and it ise very cheap, so i make 1KWH fore 0.7 dkr and then doo i ge hot vater fore free...., the grid pover kost her in dk, 1.8 dkr and the doo i have to heat the vater... so that ise the ider, chep electricity and free hot vater.....

[kim jessen]

bey the vay youer variable torque governor, could you place a pic of it....

and hver dit you get it,

[Andrew Schofield]

Say, that wood should be very dry. Most likely dried in a kiln, before being made into the boxes.
Are all the particle sizes close to the same size?

The governor is belt-driven mechanical. I plan to offer a number of them in the V-gas store, as a bolt-on kit, to fit General Motors V-8s. and Ford 300-sixes. Heim-joints transmit precision movement to the throttle-shaft arm as the engine speeds or slows outside adjustable-width dead-band.

What is the engine you are using? It must be efficient to convert woodgas into shaft-power at that cost-rate.

Ho ho, Free hot water!

Andy

[kim jessen]

the engien ise an 1983 nisan sonny 1000ccm it hase 55 hp.... and vith the calkulatet -25% i have some 43 hp, vell thats not the deal... the chips are very cheap and dry and yes they are yousealy close to the same size.... i get it for 250 - 300 .-kdr/ton i think it is some thing like 42 - 51 usd/ton and then i get a lot of vood leftover from a nerbeor construgter....

coud you plase a pic. of the governor i am very interestet in it...

[Andrew Schofield]

Ken,

Those Nissan engines are very durable, and efficient. Are you coupling the engine directly to the electrical generator, or are you using a speed-reducer?
Here is a Pierce Governor, to control a General Motors 5-L engine fueled by woodgas.

Andy

[kim jessen]

i am not schuer hvot you cal it... i vill use a iron armd timing belt, somone has told me that the soony engien runs best around 2900 RPM and the generator must run 2200RPM, so i vill reduse it with ???? weels that drivs the belt????.... that ise hvot i ame building on right nau.... i had it runding dirigtly on the shaft, boud had some problems by having the engien runding at 2200 RPM. sov....

the governor hver do i get it... price????

[Andrew Schofield]

Kim,

Sometimes we get lucky, sometimes we don't... Our supplier is fresh-out of these governors, since my last order. Governors like this one sell for about $120, I've found.
I shall dilligently search for more. What should be a fair price for a simple, low-cost speed-controller?

Your engine had a certain difficulty driving the generator at crank-shaft speed?
It may be the camshaft-lobe profile is best suited for automotive-vehicle loads.
Research on camshafts is needed to optomize for woodgas. Do you know Thomas Koch?

As soon as I find another low-cost governor, I shall contact you first.

Andy

[kim jessen]

i gladly pay $100-120, for a simpel speed/rpm controler.... i have thes probleme that the european pebole doo not play around in that vay like these.... so the parts i ned, do i have to get from usa....

and no i dont know thomas koch... hue ise that...

[Andrew Schofield]

Hi Kim,

Thomas Koch has built many wood gasifiers in Denmark. His most famous machine (famous to American gasifier folk) is at the Technical University of Denmark. Perhaps you have seen his work. This man has given me great inspiration, and words of encouragement. Always new gasifiers he comes up with, each one better than the last.

With electricity rates so high where you live, It is good that you are building your own generation-plant.
The rates in Michigan are low now, but I expect them to change soon.

To be only an electric-power consumer leaves one to be at the mercy of decisions made by others.
The recent change in crude-oil price will make the the decision-makers fall asleep again. Then when the prices rise again, I will hear much complaining by those whom are only consumers. We producers will just smile, and create wheelbarrow loads of money, from wheelbarrow loads of wood. You know this is harder than it looks.

Keep in touch.

Andy


kim jessen said:

i gladly pay $100-120, for a simpel speed/rpm controler.... i have thes probleme that the european pebole doo not play around in that vay like these.... so the parts i ned, do i have to get from usa....

and no i dont know thomas koch... hue ise that...

[Andrew Schofield]

Hi Jake,

If you hear from Mr. Williams, wish him well for me. He has helped me through some sticky messes.
No troubles anymore, because of his help.

Although it does not effect day to day operation, I have noticed some of the particles that move through my grate is magnetic. I have disregarded this until you and Mr. Williams were discussing this. I always thought These particles were from my fabrication-process, or wasting steel components,because of the heat.

Others whom use expensive alloys for high-temperature components may not find any magnetic particles. Has anyone found magnetic particles in alloy gasifiers?

If the carbon has become magnetic itself, perhaps a degaussing (de-magnetizing)-process could be used to further examine this phenomenon. What have you found?

Merry christmas,

Andrew Schofield

jake said:

Hi My name is Jake Martin
I am from New Zealand and have built 3 gasifiers.
I would like to say nice work on the gasifier good to see doers and not dreamers on this forum.
Could i suggest that you put in a reduction tube. It would just be the same diameter as your hole you have in there now but it would mean you could tune the gasifier to not produce tar how you do this is to move the tube up until it touches the bottom of the oxidation lobes which come from the nozzles. I do this by welding tacks on the tube 3 of them then if i want t move it up grind them off and re weld them. You should move the tube up until you see the top of the tube being affected by the heat. You could also put the grate in the tube as reduction (turning your CO2 and H20 from your combustion in the oxidation lobes) stops at 500oC the longer you leave the gas in a bed of cold char the more will turn from carbon monoxide into soot and carbon dioxide this is called reversion.

Good work

Jake Martin

[Andrew Schofield]

Ja kleinere wereld dan de gedachte van Ies (as per babel fish).

OK, dank u...
Hearth made completely of alloy steel, and magnetic particles were
still found, check.

Perhaps iron as mineral from soil from when the tree was dragged along,
or as the tree grew.

If the carbon itself forms magnetic-properties, a degaussing test could be
tried.

I remember a project where archaeologists collaborated with geologists, and physicists to study charcoal in man's very old campfire places. This led to discovery of earth's plate-movement processes.

Andy


Dutch John said:

Hello Andy,

Nice to meet you here..... Small world, huh...

I have found magnetic carbon in the soot. You know my gasifier is made of stainless 316. That does not loose iron at high temperatures. I suspect the magnetism either be iron, present in wood or C60, a magnetic carbon polymer. Unfortunately I have no acces to a lab to find out what it is.

Regards,
DJ