Hands down by far the absolute best video on the internet of how to build a gasifier.I haven't watched a million videos but of the dozen or so that I have watched this one is the best.Cant wait to watch the next one.Five stars buddy ☆☆☆☆☆
Thank you for those words of encouragement and for commenting. This system went through a lot of changes including being automated and you will find those videos in my earlier videos on the channel if you are interested in watching them.
@@flash001USA,,Im watching all your videos I can find.But 1 thing I dont understand is the WHY you would need the ash shaker below the burn chamber.Why couldn't you just let the ashes fall to the bottom?I may not understand everything right now but you sure did a fantastic job of making,building and videoing what you did.If you see someone leaving you a ☆☆☆☆☆ comment thats me.Thanks again for all you did and do.All the best and God bless.
Flash,Thank you for "freely"sharing your knowledge and wisdom. While you could easily sell your ideas for money; the fact that you don't shows your heart, and integrity. you are an inspiration.
I came across your video 10 years after it was posted. Thank you for taking your time to share this knowledge. I’m a 40 year commercial/industrial refrigeration guy and I appreciate your attention to detail.
Finally someone is explaining how to do this without going through the trial and error phases. I was getting tired of watching the paint cans and copper tubes. Thank you for investing so much of your time . I'll be studying these videos , and next time I'm getting a note pad to take notes. Thanks again
Thanks Pam. I want to keep this build open source. Had it not been for others sharing their builds this would have been a slow process so I am returning the favor back to others that may be interested in trying this for themselves. Watching an engine run on woodgas was a blast and an inspiration for me to make these videos.
Excellently instructed, thank you for putting everything into layman terms for us workin folks. We really appreciate all the work you put into this project.
My son is a HVAC student and I'm going to build this classifier just to drive him crazy. Really enjoy your videos on " How to". You are a pretty good communicator . Keep up the good work.
Thank you for all of the effort in sharing this knowledge flash. Good man. I know I'll be one of the folks building one. My family will always have a generator, whether is it a 5k honda or a lawnmower with an altenator on it. A limited gasoline supply, and that is what happens in a emergency, will not keep our lights off.
So much valuable information here. I've been studying gasifiers for a while now but I havent been confident enough to build one yet. This is really helping close the gaps in terms of what I need to know before starting. Thank you for making this video. I would love to see where you're at 9 years later in your gasification adventures. There is a lot of money in this technology, especially in an industrial city where I live (DETROIT). Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to make all these videos. It helps tremendously.
Your "cement heat sink / insulator " idea is the key to how and why your design produces stable results with regards tar cracking. In my country we have a saying " Boer maak 'n plan " which translates to " A farmer makes a plan. " Your "plan" is simple, effective and an elegant solution to the problem of erratic distillate cracking and I congratulate you. Its one of those things that once you explained it in the video, I thought to myself "Now why the f#$%^ didn't I think of that!!" The "rim" in my unit is going to be a refrigeration gas cylinder as they are cheaper (free) and will not require so much work to prepare. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the reply. This project will stay open source so that others can try to build it and hopefully improve on this and share their improvements with others.
Hey Flash. hope all is well around your homestead.Glad to see you doing the vid like ya promised.Been up to my A** in alligators lately and my gasifier upgrade has been put off. too much to do and not enough time lately.maybe a 36 hour days will get me caught up.Looking forward to the rest of the vids.appreciate your time and effort
Wish we were neighbors flash, we'd drive our wives crazy working on crazy projects like this and drinking home made wine. Good stuff bro, keep the vids coming.
I actually tested a small piece of this mixture with a propane torch and I got it orange hot and let it cool down. It held up really well. It will never get that hot in the gasifier so I feel good about using this cement mixture in my gasifier.
I really like your design and that you're sharing it with all of us. I was hoping you might have the plans in a PDF file. If you have a copy I'd like to build one of these and try it out on my 7kw generator. So I've been binge watching most of your Gassifier videos from the 1st one over the last couple of days. I was thinking of using vermiculite with the Plaster of Paris, instead of sand until I read it can contain asbestos, which as most people know can cause various forms of lung cancer. So I decided not to, besides sand is a lot cheaper. Thanks so much for sharing your fine build with all of us. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya
Nice job man !! The birth of the big daddy flashifier !! What a grate idea with the cement .it going to be worth the Waite . And the way your making your video is perfect ! Can't ask for anything better than this . Thank you !
Thanks for your reply. I'm just returning the favor since others gave me some pointers. I decided to make these videos because the information on doing the actual construction is hard to find. I hope to see a youtube video from you with a working gasifier in the near future. Good luck, Flash.
Thanks for your time and effort explaining what I have become totally infatuated with since my co-worker introduced me to the concept of gasification last week. I can not stop watching the different forms of gasifiers being produced and amazed at the ease of acquiring materials and constructing of your unit! You win hands down and iI can not wait to get started on my own. I have also turned a friend of a friend who has a CAD laser cutter on to this concept who is also stoked about building one! If you have any plans available please let me know how to acquire them.
Hey, no problem. I decided to share the build in the hopes that others would take it and improve on the build. I just got back in from finishing up the platform to support the gasifier today so that I can finally get it mounted up on my trailer. Between jobs and family my time has been tight on this end. I'll be looking forward to a gasifier video from you in the future. Good luck.
Stove pipe won't hold up for long but there could be a simple "test" workaround. You could make a cone that fit inside of the pipe but instead of 4 inches, reduce down to two inches instead. That would fix the thin steel pipe issue by placing the heat into the fire cone. Your thin steel pipe would become the wood hopper.
@@flash001USA thanks very much for your reply! Almost got the furnace finished. I need to install the shaking assembly, seal my clean out door and seal my lid then its done. I don't know how I never saw your videos when I started out, but this is my 3rd build and I was really despondent after the second build, but your videos gave me the impetus to go again. You're a bloody legend in this little house down under 👍👍
@@allanseagrave8132 Hey look, if you have any issues or questions don't hesitate to reach out. We have a blog where you can ask questions should you have any. www.miniwoodgas.com
@@flash001USA thanks a bunch mate. I'm not at that stage yet, but already thinking about your automation system. I don't have any electrical component experience, do you think it'll be possible to setup automation when I'm ready? Basically I have 4 different engines (for pump, generators and block splitter) here on the farm I want to provide power for and as I'm a sawmiller I have a steady supply of usable fuel for a "Flashifier"
@@allanseagrave8132 Allan it sounds like you have a plan in action. Let me ask you a question. Those other gasifiers you build What happened with them? Did they not work correctly?
Excellent video and explanation soon I`m ready to start with my first wood gasifier,I am off grid so I need something to save the cost of energy ,thanks I will follow up your upcoming videos
andyrivgar there are 4 "How to" videos. I did include some of the main part numbers for the build but I didn't try to draw up detailed plans because it would have been too labor intensive and time consuming but the videos do show everything in detail and if you are a mechanically minded person you should be able to knock this off. The core of the gasifier is a trailer rim, a 55 gallon drum and an old decommissioned forklift propane fuel tank and some fence poles and plumbing stuff.
Hey, thanks for taking the time to do these video's.. i.m al.ost a stalker I have spent many hrs watching and re watchong.. awesome job.. I have built a "flasherfier" is what I call it.. haha.. looking to fire it up in next couple days.. all o have left is filer cage... I took so mu h of you info to help me do mine.. There for It is called The "FLASHIFIER".. Thanks...
I can relate to being a rookie welder. I never owned a welder until I started building gasifiers. My work is getting better but I'm still a rookie welder so I understand where you are coming from.
If you are running on wood pellets it is possible to clean it up. If you are planning on running a small engine like a 5 or a 7.5 Hp engine, make a reduction cone that will reduce down to 2.5 inches. You can get rid of a lot of the tar in a FEMA by setting up the reduction zone correctly. What size burn tube did you use for your FEMA?
Awesome keep it simple lol 😆 love that you talked about engine size I didn't think about. But now I can look at it differently now I'll try to make video when I start working back on it
If you do extract heat from the barrel you might have the "cold drink on a hot summer day" effect where the inside of the barrel collects a lot of hash and trash on the inside of the walls which means you will have to clean the barrel walls to reduce the chance of a sort of flue fire effect. I clean my barrel walls by scraping them to knock off loose charcoal chunks that collect just to be safe.
That would probably work. But this is the first time Ive done a project working with metal. I'm a rookie welder. I found out that thin steel is impossible ( at least for me) to weld to. I have so many places in the gaisfier that I burned through with the welder, that starting over with thicker steel makes more sense. Thanks for the tips though! I'll keep watching. This version has been more of a learning experience than anything.
Thanks for your answer. When I last considered syngas, it wa 1983 before the Internet but post the Mother Earth whole Earth Catalogue quarterly magazine then. The FEMA manual was Department of War Home Defense Resource Management Dept. of the Interior Handbook Syngas / Producer gas Project manual. I have the FEMA one I downloaded from the Internet and am surprised the manual says tar and volitiles are a good thing fuel wise. In the older manual, charcoal was considered the best fuel source because it was so carbon rich. They even had a charcoal manufacturing method section in the manual. They speculated then that adding hydrogen peroxide might make a richer gas since much hydrogen would be released in the reaction. I see nothing in the present FEMA manual about that. I think I can build an apparatus to get HO without buying it, but think it would reduce the efficiency of my plant unless it would be added in as a cost like purchasing wood fuel. I am thinking in the direction of wood pellets since they are plentiful in Oregon as the NW is a wood byproducts rich area. I would build this for my home power generation needs. I think in the era of $600.00 a month electric bills under the Reggin in the White House, I would be ahead several hundred dollars a month making syngas electric generation plant. If hydrogen peroxide was released through a bed of manganese dioxide it would be broken down to HO and create a heck of a better gas than the 22% available in normal air which is 78%nigtogen, 22% oxygen (ignoring other inert gasses) I think it would also create less tar. This guy used to sell HO and I think he still does. I just can't find his page right now. rocketbelts.americanrocketman.com/hy-peroxide.html Found it ! This page changed a lot. Lozano is the man who developed this idea for rocket cars. OK, but my interest is in making rich syngas from wood with the power of gasoline. www.tecaeromex.com/ingles/indexi.html I think this is a source for getting HO and then you build the still required to make the strength needed for syngas purposes. Just a thought. Thanks for the reply. I'm 69 YOA but still thinking of this stuff. If I get my arthritis under control, I'll be out in my shop again to build one of these gasogens and power a Toyota previa engine with it. The previa is an excellent engine and would be perfect for this use. John Mahler
There are people that pump it into tanks but here is the problem. Propane is in a liquid state in a propane tank and it turns to gas once the valve is opened but in it's liquid state, you have a LOT of gas in the tank. Woodgas can only be compressed as a gas and not as a liquid so you really don't get a long run-time on compressed woodgas. Woodgas is at it's best as a "on demand" gas. The best way to store it is in a few big tractor inner tubes. You then tie into the air valves to use the gas.
Fantastic videos. What is the largest engine this could run? I have a 2.8L Chevy that I want to pair with a scavenged 10kw generator. What modifications, if any, would I need to do?
THANK YOU !! I have been going thru all Kinds of plans and DIY instructions, bought Mother Earths plans and while some seemed fairly ok most seemed to be filtering out hellatious amounts of Tars or feeding them to the Engine(Yugh!) Your cone cracker with "ceramic" backer is close to what I have been contemplating though I was also planning on coating the interior of the cone in fire brick mortar. I can hardly wait to see your whole design I think so far I'm going with your design so I can run the generator and change the injector and try it on my 18 hp Farmall CUB tractor to plow snow next year if the filtering and unit are portable enough.
Cool! Have been waiting for this. I built a FEMA fasifier last fall and have it almost perfected, but have decided to abandon it. One thing I learned is TOO much tar. I don't think a FEMA is practical. Seems like it would be too much maintenence as parts of it clog with tar build up. So, I plan to build another one based on what I have learned from the Joshua Burks design, your design and a few of my own ideas. Also, where do you get high temp solder?
Hey thanks. I have stayed at this making improvements, correcting mistakes as I learned how to do this. I'm getting ready to upload "How to construct" video # 3 in the next few days so stay tuned.
Flash 1000, I like your videos. You are a pleasant person and speak very clearly as you go from step to step. I have a drawing of a gasifier I have been thinking about since 1983 and the lessons learned under President Jimmy Carter. I am asking you to review this and tell me what "glaring" faults you find. I will be grateful for any suggestions. John M
Seems like it was 4" by 16". But I used a 6" single wall stove pipe and throttled it down to 4". It works ok, but I have a few other issues that need corrected. So instead of fixing up this version, I'll salvage w few parts from this one for the next version. I need a better burn tube than the thin steel one I have now.
The wood gas would probably work as long as it was properly filtered. Some people fill tractor inner tubes up with woodgas then they place a sheet of plywood on top of them with a few bags of sand to pressurize the gas enough to pipe it thru their home. I wouldn't know what to tell you as far as how much woodgas you would need to produce. That is something that you would have to play around with yourself.
Hi Flash001USA. Thanks for the video update! With uncle we are starting to build our gasifier, Imbert based, and the information provided is really helpful. What I consider, a single air pipe entering from the top, with nozzles cut in the end of the pipe. The idea is to be able to "adjust" the position of the nozzles, as well to be easy replaceable. BTW, few times you mentioned your blog but wasn't able to find it. Could you provide it here. The idea with the cement is BRILLIANT!
Hey flash I was comparing the complexity of your burn cone and the one on the charcoal gasifier described in youtube video "Gilmore Gasifier part one" and noted he used a ceramic burn port. Perhaps the cone portion of your unit could be eliminated by replacing your mixture with the kiln material shown in youtube video "Backyard Foundry Tutorial Pt 2" @ 4 min. point. Soliciting your opinion and wondering if you have ever observed gasifier plans utilizing kiln materials verses metal?
I'm in SC. Once you build your gasifier you can experiment with some of your own ideas and who knows what you may figure out. There is one more thing to consider too. You want the embers in the cone to stay at their proper temperature so that you crack the tar so you don't want to try to extract heat directly from the fire cone.
I did find some people that constructed these gasifiers but no info on the actual construction of them. You can send me a message with the link and I can receive it that way. You have my curiosity up now.
William this is the first video where I actually show the build for this particular gasifier. If you check out my channel you will find other videos that cover the ash grate along with other parts of the build that will be relevant to this build.
Awesome series. Is there a reference chart for imbert cone size to HP? Cone height/upper diameter/ lower diameter etc. I see info for FEMA but not imbert. I want to run a small generator, but also a 17.5 hp lawnmower. Little help?
That has always been the hurdle for people building home use gasifiers. There is where things can get tricky. When you are building a gasifier, you have a lot of variables thrown into the mix mainly the wood used for fuel. Just the difference of different wood affects the gas production and the gas quality. When I built my first gasifier I was completely clueless and I had to experiment over and over again until I found what worked for me and gave me clean woodgas. On average you want your restriction throat opening at the bottom of the gasifier to be around 2 inches up to around 3 inches and you want your wood chunks to be anywhere around .5 inches to .75 inches in over-all size. This is what makes a small engine gasifier a bit of a hassle to build and this is why people try to go with the FEMA builds that use the wood pellets which you want to avoid. If you have gone through my build videos you will see me try to cover my wood chunk sizes along with the hearth (what I called the fire cone) diameter and it's depth along with the restriction throat opening diameter. This build can handle smaller engines along with a larger 12.5 Hp engine too. For a 17.5 Hp engine you may need to move up to a restriction throat diameter of 2.5 inches up to 2.75 inches but that's something you will have to experiment with. Keep in mind that the wood needs to be very dry! A good example of how dry you want your wood fuel would be a dried dead branch in a tree that literally snaps when you try to bend or flex it. The wood fuel I use is small dead branches in a diameter of .5 inches up to 1 inch in diameter that have snapped off of trees in the woods that I can get from the ground in the woods or even snap off of lower branches of trees. We do have a woodgas community of people that are willing to answer any questions you may have at www.miniwoodgas.com and you can find a wealth of information at www.allpowerlabs.com/ but they have a tendency to lean towards the more technical side of things. The website does cover hearth sizes and restriction throat diameters vs engine Hp and this did help me understand a lot but in the end it was up to me just tinkering until I go the build to be acceptable. On the website check out the RUclips video links at www.miniwoodgas.com/miniwoodgas_005.htm and go watch the videos I have linked for All Power Labs. That will really give you some serious information. Good luck with your mission and if you build a gasifier, post a few RUclips videos for all of us to watch.
What are the diameters of the cone top and bottom? I am guessing the depth is 6 inches plus a 3 inch bottom piece? I am not able to order theough Northern Tool. I think i am gonna have to fab one of these cones.
Your videos are very well done could you send me plans and answer 2 qustions 1 how do you attach the air intake from the inside and is there a spicific distanse to hang the tray suspended with chain thank you
So far this seems to be the most informative series on gasifiers I have seen made from every day, off the shelves items I have seen. I am truly impressed. Using your materials, do you think welding is mandatory, or will brazing suffice? Do you think your hearth design generates too much heat to braze?
If you go with a single air nozzle design you would want to up size the air nozzle to a 1 inch diameter and maybe make the cone 7 inches at the top instead of 6 inches. You would just have to play around with the build to fine tune it.
That is one hell of a Gasifier I am trying to milk all of your plans and copy a bunch of it. The expantion tankme kind of stalled as how to get it right as soon as the gas is cool enough could you go to a plastic barrell for the expantion tank? I am just getting started on my build I am retired military and just puttering around. When the smoke first comes out in to the pipe going to the expantion tank could you weld fins on it to speed up the cooling?
Hello Flash, Thank you for all the time and thoughtful comments so the rest of us can more easily replicate your (and those before you) processes for the gasifier build-up. I would like to make a system like yours and create part, sub-assembly and assembly drawings for an easier how-to/shopping list of components and notes needed. Can I use you as a "reviewer" of these drawings (since you best know functionality) based on your video posts? BR, Randy
The sky is the limit to the overall design but I wouldn't use plastic for two reasons. (1) Plastic will not be a good heat exchanger for the gas to cool correctly. (2) It may not hold up to the heat. If you watch video four the final video you will see that I made a 4 pipe cooling radiator and I cool the gas before it hits the expansion tank. That made a BIG difference on the quality of the gas. If you can find a small 30 gallon steel drum you could use that for your expansion tank.
Flash, Just found your channel. Great videos. What I am looking at is building a gasifier to provide gas to my hot water heater and central unit and getting off natural gas. I have plenty of wood mass. I live less than a mile from a sawmill. Would this setup provide enough gas to run those two? I haven't been able to figure out how big a gasifier I would need. Thanks and keep the vids coming.
You probably dont care at all but does any of you know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account..? I was stupid forgot the login password. I appreciate any tricks you can offer me
@Dax Chase i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Seems to take a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I've been reviewing some of your other previous videos and have come up with a couple of good questions. The first rim you mentioned was from Harbor Freight and the 2nd from Northern Tool. Are they the same dimensions? It looked like the Harbor Freight was originally a narrower rim. Or is the Northern Tool rim an improvement over the Harbor Freight in design and function? Also, are you keeping with the 5 nozzle design or is the single nozzle simpler with comparable results?
I almost forgot. I would make the cone 6 or 8 inches deep. You could make a cone that was 6 inches on the top and reduce down to two inches at it's reduction and make the cone height 6 or 8 inches in length. You would see a major reduction in the tar being produced provided that the rest of the gasifier was good and air tight.
Hey .Hope all is well. I have had your complete how to build a gasafier in the past under different name.but sence lost the tablet I down loaded the play list on .if I'm not wrong you had a download or pdf we could buy in the past do you still have that or would it be possible to get that from you still. I'm in the place where I can give this a go now.and would also teach my children this to.
Hello Flash, Greetings! I have a doubt - why the reduction zone is also not made with refractory cement?? Is it for a specific reason or any design constraints?
You could use refractory cement or even potters clay but if you were to make the reduction zone just out of these materials they will over time have the tendency to develop cracks. With a steel lining you just want to draw heat away from the steel which will give it a long life. I don't have the tools to work with stainless steel so the workaround to working with mild steel is to protect the mild steel. Think of putting water into a paper cup. If you light the top of the cup on fire it will burn down to the water line and go out. You could even boil water in a paper cup because the water protects the paper. It's the same concept here but you could use both refractory cement or even potters clay with this method. For that matter you could use pure sand with a tiny bit of standard cement mixed in it just to hold it's form. There are many roads that lead to a working prototype.
Hey flash I am thinking about using a 1/4 inch solid rubber gasket on mine that seals the hopper to the outer barrel. just wondering how hot does the top of your barrel get? think it will work?
Joe you may want to use the red high temperature RTV cement instead. The heat will harden the rubber or depending on the rubber, break it down or melt it.
Amazing video!!! what about making a new update of the gasifier? It would be really cool also because i'm going to build a wood gasifier following your advices! Thank you!!
There has been a lot of discussion with people using clay to make a fire cone. The only downfall I see and it's a real issue is the kiln materials could crack. This is why I chose to use a steel liner. I came really close to making a totally ceramic cone.
flash001 you talk about bridging can you extend the cone or make a second cone to go from the fire chamber to the side of your hopper or wood tank. so it all slopes to the reactor or fire chamber.
Richard extending the cone won't solve the issue. In reality all of us doing this are backyard builders tinkering with this stuff and there are so many things that can go wrong during a run that will cause bridging issues which is why that learning your machine once you build it is the key to good runs along with using the correct fuel chunk sizes and once you find the right kind of wood and size of the wood chunks that work best with your build that you stick like glue for what works best for you. At the time of making these videos I didn't have an automatic hopper shaker or an automatic grate shaker which is what keeps bridging issues in check but I now have the build to make this happen and once I finish my off grid building I will be back on this stuff asap. Check out the blog on the www.miniwoodgas.com website and you will be amazed at what some of the people in this circle have built. Most of them will be more than glad to help you too so that's a good thing.
Many thanks for the reply, Flash. I'll look forward to the upcoming video. Of all the sites I've seen on this subject yours is the best. I have three rocket stoves , one being 312000 BTU's, so this is the next "logical" step. Keep up the good work . Hbbyloggr
Flash i need to build one, do you have the list of parts.and how big the gasifier has to be for a Subaru generator, 5000 watts,and how many hours could it run on the amount of wood it burns. thank you.
No I haven't started .still in the learning phase. I need to buy a welder and learn touse it and still studying gasification.How it actually works still stumps me a little. I had some cousins that lived in Gaffney. Bennetts-Jerry,Jon, and Nancy; they all have moved away.Done a little plumbing work around there. What kind of work were you into when you lived in Sparkleberry.
Yes. If you watch some of the later videos you'll see that this has bitter continuing learning process of making it better and at this point the nozzle is running dead center.
@neilgelinas9926 The gasifier that I built is under my shop ready to be used at a moment's notice should things get bad. This was a project that I took on out of curiosity that went beyond that and I'm glad that I took the time to figure it out. There are some people out there that uses kind of Technology along with solar and wind as a sole source of power. This is really a backup system for me should I need emergency power and didn't have access to any fuels.
I would like to know how your mix of plaster of paris with sand hold up with time. Does it still stick together in one pieces? Do you think it may hold without your metal sheet?
It has held up with flying colors but I wouldn't trust it as a stand along fire cone without the steel insert. Another youtube user asked the same question and even mentioned a workaround by adding fiberglass into the cement to make it be stable enough to use without a metal cone. It sounds plausible to me. I hope that helps answer your question.
Flash Great job.. Two question fire cone was 5 inches tall, open width and bottom tapered width were not mentioned. also dimension of round piece being bolted to bottom of vessel was not. any more help would be great. again great job!!!!!!
hi Flash this is really cool stuff. Im trying to build one just like yours .question why do you weld the one inch ring on top of the cone? could you just make the cone come to the top of the vessel?
The reason I put the one inch ring on the top of it is to allow it to hold just a little bit more biochar plus the nozzle will actually go down below the ring to wear the cone starts. For some reason this gives it a better and more through fuel burn.
Almost forgot. There's a lot of people that can help you with this if you go to the mini wood gas website. That will take you to a Blog where you can pick people's brains had had built this up and added their ideas to the build. Here is the address. www.miniwoodgas.com
HEY Flash, (2) question about the Extension Tube, you stated it was 3" LONG, what is the Diameter of it? What are you using inside your Filter Tubes? Your doing a bang up job, grate Videos... better than so online college classes.
Do you have a list or link of your gasifier build videos in chronological order so that we may follow from start to finish? Trying to follow them on RUclips is pretty staggered and hard to get in order.. Thanks! Hbbyloggr.
Make the top 6 inches wide and the bottom 3 inches wide. I actually reduce down to 2 inches on my inverted bottom cone because I'm running a small 5 Hp engine. The good thing about the inverted bell is that it bolts onto the bottom of the cone assembly so this means you can change the actual restriction diameter at the bottom of the cone for larger or smaller engines.
Paul the cone without the top ring should be 6 inches at the top and reduce down to 3 inches diameter at the bottom. The cone is 5 inches in height and the top ring adds one more inch for a total height of 6 inches. The bolt on extension is 3 inches so it bakes the total length of the cone and it's reduction zone 9 inches deep.
do you have any idea's on storing the gas for use later on i have heard others have used large propane tanks and i believe they used air compressor to pressurize it,
Charles I wouldn't try to store it under high pressure. It is a waste of time! Think of propane. It is in a liquid state in its canister so this means you can store a large volume of gas and as you use the gas it gently goes from a liquid to a gas state. Wood gas on the other hand will not compress down to a liquid state so you don't get the bang for your buck for the trouble of compressing it plus it can be very dangerous if the compressor screws up during the process! I know someone that stored their gas in 3 tractor trailer inner tubes and they stacked them on top of each other and tied their valves together. They then laid a big sheet of plywood on top of the inner tubes and placed about 100 lbs on the plywood. This gave the force to pump the gas out thru a copper line where the gas could be used to cook or heat water with.
that sounds a lot safer way (inter tube) i was also wondering what size of unit ( dimensions ) it would take to run a large military diesel generator? i am trying to get my non-profit expanded to help with natural disaster
charles matthews Take a look here for large storage bags for outside cooking & Etc. do not use indoors no smell to Carbon monoxide and other gases here that the gas company adds to the methane they are selling you. .
I've been reading all I can find, but still some details are hard to track down. Is there any findings that would determine how large to make the cone? The FEMA literature you reference I assume is for the straight pipe systems and are listed in SAE. I think I will build my first unit to your spec, but I want to know why certain things are the way they are and the cone size is a major topic IMO. It also might be helpful to know how much volume of material with how much velocity is needed to produce X amount of gas. The reference literature I've found only seems to glaze past those details.
+Sky bound All of the info out there is fuzzy because even though nobody wants to admit it there are just too many variables in wood gamification. Even All Power Labs prefers to sell their own calibrated fuel for their gasifiers because they know that what they have works. Look at it this way. Cars are picky about the gas they can run on so the octane levels are divided into three grades of regular mid-grade and high-grade. Some cars will handle all three grades and some cars cannot. With woodgas it's a bit tricky so you have to experiment with the type of wood chunks and once you find a wood fuel that works, try to stick to it. The cone you mentioned concentrates the heat by forcing it to pass thru a smaller opening as the gas passed thru it thus aiding in breaking down the tar in the gas. I had to go with the FEMA plans then literally wing it and experiment with diameters so what I came up with was a 5 up to a 6 inch diameter at the top of the cone down to around 2 or 2-1/2 inches at the bottom of the cone. The FEMA build actually calls for a 2 or 2-1/2 inch diameter pipe when you want to run a small engine. The cone build works quite well and I can get solid runs every time with my setup but it took a lot of tinkering to get it to this point. I hope others take the build and fine tune it even further.
+flash001USA The FEMA spec for your flashifier is 4" by 16". Is this how much volume is needed to produce enough gas for a 15 HP engine? I see your conversion zone is only 9" long, 8" if measured from the air nozzle. From the rest of the videos, it looks like your hopper is welded right to the rim making for the increased diameter (propane cylinder) above the cone. Does the wider diameter change anything in the conversion process? Or is it a matter of just getting the conversion zone within spec and the remaining details become more a matter of preference? I might not be able to track down the same materials as you and want to know exactly what in this design is negotiable and what is not.
Your setup is closely related, so it seems to me, to the Imbert. The dimensions of your cone, with proper air intake should produce gas for a much larger engine. So, I'm just a little confused. Is your limited gas production due to the single air nozzle? And was this intentional?
Lester thanks for the view and your feedback. The single nozzle works fine for smaller engines and it is a very simple concept that can be done with a minimal tools and metal working skills. The single nozzle is simple to change out when needed too. Keep in mind that the hearth what I call the fire cone is funnel shaped and deeper than standard Imbert designs so the single nozzle can be made a bit longer to take advantage of the smaller diameter to tune it for smaller engines in the 5 Hp range or the nozzle can be raised to move up to run a larger engine. This build is right at home with a range of 5 Hp up to 12.5 Hp engines. To answer your question yes this was intentional.
So you are aware of the formula for air injection? I suspect if you quadrupled the air intake you would quadruple your gas production, based on your cone dimensions.
Yes I am aware there are air flow formulas but there are so many other variables like fuel and fuel moisture content, the drag through the filters etc so I used the FEMA guidelines for the restriction throat then I experimented with the nozzle by basing it's diameter just a bit larger than what the engine exhaust and intake diameters were until I found a decent burn with a low to no tar produced gas at the same time the engine could still breathe enough to deliver power. I spoke with some of the guys at All Power Labs and they even said that the calculations would only get you close until you tinkered to fine tune the intake air ratios for the nozzles to get things hot enough to crack the tars correctly. I'm no rocket scientist so this build was by the seat of my pants but it works and it is clean enough that I'm not worried about tar issues.
Yep you are correct. Even if you have plans to building one there are just too many things to factor in and even in Europe they quickly realized how tight the fuel specs have to be no matter how well the build was laid out. They actually had wood stations to ensure the correct fuels for gasifiers. In other words, you really have to know your own system. This is why people can spend thousands of dollars on a well built machine and produce tar while someone living in the back woods can build one out of rusty junk and produce good woodgas.
2185justme My bad. I thought I discussed that but here are the measurements. The cone itself is 6 inches on the top and 3 inches on the bottom. It is 5 inches tall. The top ring is 6 inches in diameter and it is 1 inch tall so when it's welded to the cone, the cone's overall height is 6 inches tall. The bolt-on extension at the bottom of the rim is 3 inches in dia and it is 3 inches in length so when it is combined with the cone and ring you have a cone plus extended reduction zone of 9 inches.
Hands down by far the absolute best video on the internet of how to build a gasifier.I haven't watched a million videos but of the dozen or so that I have watched this one is the best.Cant wait to watch the next one.Five stars buddy ☆☆☆☆☆
Thank you for those words of encouragement and for commenting. This system went through a lot of changes including being automated and you will find those videos in my earlier videos on the channel if you are interested in watching them.
@@flash001USA,,Im watching all your videos I can find.But 1 thing I dont understand is the WHY you would need the ash shaker below the burn chamber.Why couldn't you just let the ashes fall to the bottom?I may not understand everything right now but you sure did a fantastic job of making,building and videoing what you did.If you see someone leaving you a ☆☆☆☆☆ comment thats me.Thanks again for all you did and do.All the best and God bless.
Flash,Thank you for "freely"sharing your knowledge and wisdom. While you could easily sell your ideas for money; the fact that you don't shows your heart, and integrity. you are an inspiration.
I came across your video 10 years after it was posted. Thank you for taking your time to share this knowledge. I’m a 40 year commercial/industrial refrigeration guy and I appreciate your attention to detail.
Finally someone is explaining how to do this without going through the trial and error phases. I was getting tired of watching the paint cans and copper tubes. Thank you for investing so much of your time . I'll be studying these videos , and next time I'm getting a note pad to take notes. Thanks again
Thanks, I had to do a lot of tinkering but this build works. My next task is to get it mounted onto my trailer.
Thanks Pam. I want to keep this build open source. Had it not been for others sharing their builds this would have been a slow process so I am returning the favor back to others that may be interested in trying this for themselves. Watching an engine run on woodgas was a blast and an inspiration for me to make these videos.
Excellently instructed, thank you for putting everything into layman terms for us workin folks. We really appreciate all the work you put into this project.
My son is a HVAC student and I'm going to build this classifier just to drive him crazy. Really enjoy your videos on " How to". You are a pretty good communicator . Keep up the good work.
Thank you for all of the effort in sharing this knowledge flash. Good man.
I know I'll be one of the folks building one. My family will always have a generator, whether is it a 5k honda or a lawnmower with an altenator on it. A limited gasoline supply, and that is what happens in a emergency, will not keep our lights off.
So much valuable information here. I've been studying gasifiers for a while now but I havent been confident enough to build one yet. This is really helping close the gaps in terms of what I need to know before starting. Thank you for making this video. I would love to see where you're at 9 years later in your gasification adventures. There is a lot of money in this technology, especially in an industrial city where I live (DETROIT). Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to make all these videos. It helps tremendously.
If you go through trough the videos on the channel you'll find more videos with improvements including automation added to the gasifier,
Your "cement heat sink / insulator " idea is the key to how and why your design produces stable results with regards tar cracking.
In my country we have a saying " Boer maak 'n plan " which translates to " A farmer makes a plan. "
Your "plan" is simple, effective and an elegant solution to the problem of erratic distillate cracking and I congratulate you.
Its one of those things that once you explained it in the video, I thought to myself "Now why the f#$%^ didn't I think of that!!"
The "rim" in my unit is going to be a refrigeration gas cylinder as they are cheaper (free) and will not require so much work to prepare.
Thank you for sharing.
+The Mad Man Hey you're more than welcome. Thanks for the reply.
Excellent teacher, very well illustration. I am a beginner on the gasifier just learn about it a few days a go. Thank s a million.God bless you.
Thanks for the reply. This project will stay open source so that others can try to build it and hopefully improve on this and share their improvements with others.
Hey Flash. hope all is well around your homestead.Glad to see you doing the vid like ya promised.Been up to my A** in alligators lately and my gasifier upgrade has been put off. too much to do and not enough time lately.maybe a 36 hour days will get me caught up.Looking forward to the rest of the vids.appreciate your time and effort
Thank you for this step by step build. Taking us past the theory.
Wish we were neighbors flash, we'd drive our wives crazy working on crazy projects like this and drinking home made wine. Good stuff bro, keep the vids coming.
I actually tested a small piece of this mixture with a propane torch and I got it orange hot and let it cool down. It held up really well. It will never get that hot in the gasifier so I feel good about using this cement mixture in my gasifier.
I really like your design and that you're sharing it with all of us. I was hoping you might have the plans in a PDF file. If you have a copy I'd like to build one of these and try it out on my 7kw generator. So I've been binge watching most of your Gassifier videos from the 1st one over the last couple of days. I was thinking of using vermiculite with the Plaster of Paris, instead of sand until I read it can contain asbestos, which as most people know can cause various forms of lung cancer. So I decided not to, besides sand is a lot cheaper. Thanks so much for sharing your fine build with all of us. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya
There are PDF files made on the build. Go to www.miniwoodgas.com and contact me through the contact webhost link and I'll send them to you.
Nice job man !! The birth of the big daddy flashifier !! What a grate idea with the cement .it going to be worth the Waite . And the way your making your video is perfect ! Can't ask for anything better than this . Thank you !
Thank you provided the best information out there on preparation of the initial part to a gasifier .
Thanks for the reply. I want to keep everything I do with these sort of projects open source for others to build and hopefully improve on the build.
Excellent How To RUclips!!! no excuses for DIY practice... Thanks
You have the best how to video I've seen. Thanks for the help so far. Looking forward to part 2
Thanks for your reply. I'm just returning the favor since others gave me some pointers. I decided to make these videos because the information on doing the actual construction is hard to find. I hope to see a youtube video from you with a working gasifier in the near future. Good luck, Flash.
Thanks for your time and effort explaining what I have become totally infatuated with since my co-worker introduced me to the concept of gasification last week. I can not stop watching the different forms of gasifiers being produced and amazed at the ease of acquiring materials and constructing of your unit! You win hands down and iI can not wait to get started on my own. I have also turned a friend of a friend who has a CAD laser cutter on to this concept who is also stoked about building one! If you have any plans available please let me know how to acquire them.
Hey, no problem. I decided to share the build in the hopes that others would take it and improve on the build. I just got back in from finishing up the platform to support the gasifier today so that I can finally get it mounted up on my trailer. Between jobs and family my time has been tight on this end. I'll be looking forward to a gasifier video from you in the future. Good luck.
Stove pipe won't hold up for long but there could be a simple "test" workaround. You could make a cone that fit inside of the pipe but instead of 4 inches, reduce down to two inches instead. That would fix the thin steel pipe issue by placing the heat into the fire cone. Your thin steel pipe would become the wood hopper.
Thanks mate! You've inspired me to make my own "Flashifier"!!
How far along are you with the build?
@@flash001USA thanks very much for your reply!
Almost got the furnace finished. I need to install the shaking assembly, seal my clean out door and seal my lid then its done. I don't know how I never saw your videos when I started out, but this is my 3rd build and I was really despondent after the second build, but your videos gave me the impetus to go again. You're a bloody legend in this little house down under 👍👍
@@allanseagrave8132 Hey look, if you have any issues or questions don't hesitate to reach out. We have a blog where you can ask questions should you have any. www.miniwoodgas.com
@@flash001USA thanks a bunch mate. I'm not at that stage yet, but already thinking about your automation system. I don't have any electrical component experience, do you think it'll be possible to setup automation when I'm ready? Basically I have 4 different engines (for pump, generators and block splitter) here on the farm I want to provide power for and as I'm a sawmiller I have a steady supply of usable fuel for a "Flashifier"
@@allanseagrave8132 Allan it sounds like you have a plan in action. Let me ask you a question. Those other gasifiers you build What happened with them? Did they not work correctly?
Bravo on the safety gear mention. Good form.
Excellent video and explanation soon I`m ready to start with my first wood gasifier,I am off grid
so I need something to save the cost of energy ,thanks I will follow up your upcoming videos
andyrivgar there are 4 "How to" videos. I did include some of the main part numbers for the build but I didn't try to draw up detailed plans because it would have been too labor intensive and time consuming but the videos do show everything in detail and if you are a mechanically minded person you should be able to knock this off. The core of the gasifier is a trailer rim, a 55 gallon drum and an old decommissioned forklift propane fuel tank and some fence poles and plumbing stuff.
Hey, thanks for taking the time to do these video's.. i.m al.ost a stalker I have spent many hrs watching and re watchong.. awesome job..
I have built a "flasherfier" is what I call it.. haha.. looking to fire it up in next couple days.. all o have left is filer cage... I took so mu h of you info to help me do mine..
There for It is called
The "FLASHIFIER"..
Thanks...
Hey flash001usa please get ahold of me brahmanjohnson@gmail.com
I can relate to being a rookie welder. I never owned a welder until I started building gasifiers. My work is getting better but I'm still a rookie welder so I understand where you are coming from.
Thanks! This video has been long overdue. Someone else joked about needing 36 hour days and I would have to agree with them.
If you are running on wood pellets it is possible to clean it up. If you are planning on running a small engine like a 5 or a 7.5 Hp engine, make a reduction cone that will reduce down to 2.5 inches. You can get rid of a lot of the tar in a FEMA by setting up the reduction zone correctly. What size burn tube did you use for your FEMA?
A very helpful explanation of the build. Thank you
Awesome keep it simple lol 😆 love that you talked about engine size I didn't think about. But now I can look at it differently now I'll try to make video when I start working back on it
If you do extract heat from the barrel you might have the "cold drink on a hot summer day" effect where the inside of the barrel collects a lot of hash and trash on the inside of the walls which means you will have to clean the barrel walls to reduce the chance of a sort of flue fire effect. I clean my barrel walls by scraping them to knock off loose charcoal chunks that collect just to be safe.
That would probably work. But this is the first time Ive done a project working with metal. I'm a rookie welder. I found out that thin steel is impossible ( at least for me) to weld to. I have so many places in the gaisfier that I burned through with the welder, that starting over with thicker steel makes more sense. Thanks for the tips though! I'll keep watching. This version has been more of a learning experience than anything.
Brazing is fine too! Once the cement is poured into the vessel that houses the cone it's not coming apart without cutting it apart.
Thanks for your answer. When I last considered syngas, it wa 1983 before the Internet but post the Mother Earth whole Earth Catalogue quarterly magazine then. The FEMA manual was Department of War Home Defense Resource Management Dept. of the Interior Handbook Syngas / Producer gas Project manual. I have the FEMA one I downloaded from the Internet and am surprised the manual says tar and volitiles are a good thing fuel wise. In the older manual, charcoal was considered the best fuel source because it was so carbon rich. They even had a charcoal manufacturing method section in the manual. They speculated then that adding hydrogen peroxide might make a richer gas since much hydrogen would be released in the reaction. I see nothing in the present FEMA manual about that. I think I can build an apparatus to get HO without buying it, but think it would reduce the efficiency of my plant unless it would be added in as a cost like purchasing wood fuel. I am thinking in the direction of wood pellets since they are plentiful in Oregon as the NW is a wood byproducts rich area. I would build this for my home power generation needs. I think in the era of $600.00 a month electric bills under the Reggin in the White House, I would be ahead several hundred dollars a month making syngas electric generation plant.
If hydrogen peroxide was released through a bed of manganese dioxide it would be broken down to HO and create a heck of a better gas than the 22% available in normal air which is 78%nigtogen, 22% oxygen (ignoring other inert gasses) I think it would also create less tar. This guy used to sell HO and I think he still does. I just can't find his page right now. rocketbelts.americanrocketman.com/hy-peroxide.html
Found it ! This page changed a lot. Lozano is the man who developed this idea for rocket cars. OK, but my interest is in making rich syngas from wood with the power of gasoline. www.tecaeromex.com/ingles/indexi.html I think this is a source for getting HO and then you build the still required to make the strength needed for syngas purposes. Just a thought. Thanks for the reply. I'm 69 YOA but still thinking of this stuff. If I get my arthritis under control, I'll be out in my shop again to build one of these gasogens and power a Toyota previa engine with it. The previa is an excellent engine and would be perfect for this use.
John Mahler
Hey man, no problem. I'll get the next video out as soon as I get the time to sit down and work out the details.
POP + sand. I have been seeking for a simple and excellent heat insulation, thanks.
There are people that pump it into tanks but here is the problem. Propane is in a liquid state in a propane tank and it turns to gas once the valve is opened but in it's liquid state, you have a LOT of gas in the tank. Woodgas can only be compressed as a gas and not as a liquid so you really don't get a long run-time on compressed woodgas. Woodgas is at it's best as a "on demand" gas. The best way to store it is in a few big tractor inner tubes. You then tie into the air valves to use the gas.
I don't see any issue with plumice as long as it isn't too coarse.
Fantastic videos. What is the largest engine this could run? I have a 2.8L Chevy that I want to pair with a scavenged 10kw generator. What modifications, if any, would I need to do?
Use foam aircrete with plaster of paris make a great insulator for cone and your drum
Thank you for that suggestion.
Hey, no problem. I'll be looking out for a gasifier video from you in the near future.
Thanks, I am working on the second follow-up video now.
WOW this is awesome you have inspired me I got my rim cut today I'm on my way to building me one!!!
Hey thanks for the reply. Make a video of the job once you complete it.
THANK YOU !! I have been going thru all Kinds of plans and DIY instructions, bought Mother Earths plans and while some seemed fairly ok most seemed to be filtering out hellatious amounts of Tars or feeding them to the Engine(Yugh!) Your cone cracker with "ceramic" backer is close to what I have been contemplating though I was also planning on coating the interior of the cone in fire brick mortar. I can hardly wait to see your whole design I think so far I'm going with your design so I can run the generator and change the injector and try it on my 18 hp Farmall CUB tractor to plow snow next year if the filtering and unit are portable enough.
Cool! Have been waiting for this. I built a FEMA fasifier last fall and have it almost perfected, but have decided to abandon it. One thing I learned is TOO much tar. I don't think a FEMA is practical. Seems like it would be too much maintenence as parts of it clog with tar build up. So, I plan to build another one based on what I have learned from the Joshua Burks design, your design and a few of my own ideas. Also, where do you get high temp solder?
Hey thanks. I have stayed at this making improvements, correcting mistakes as I learned how to do this. I'm getting ready to upload "How to construct" video # 3 in the next few days so stay tuned.
Flash 1000, I like your videos. You are a pleasant person and speak very clearly as you go from step to step. I have a drawing of a gasifier I have been thinking about since 1983 and the lessons learned under President Jimmy Carter. I am asking you to review this and tell me what "glaring" faults you find. I will be grateful for any suggestions.
John M
If you decide to take the project on, I will be more than glad to help answer any questions you may have.
Thank you bro you should be a teacher your videos are amazing. i have been tellin everyone to watch your stuff
Seems like it was 4" by 16". But I used a 6" single wall stove pipe and throttled it down to 4". It works ok, but I have a few other issues that need corrected. So instead of fixing up this version, I'll salvage w few parts from this one for the next version. I need a better burn tube than the thin steel one I have now.
The wood gas would probably work as long as it was properly filtered. Some people fill tractor inner tubes up with woodgas then they place a sheet of plywood on top of them with a few bags of sand to pressurize the gas enough to pipe it thru their home. I wouldn't know what to tell you as far as how much woodgas you would need to produce. That is something that you would have to play around with yourself.
Hi Flash001USA. Thanks for the video update! With uncle we are starting to build our gasifier, Imbert based, and the information provided is really helpful. What I consider, a single air pipe entering from the top, with nozzles cut in the end of the pipe. The idea is to be able to "adjust" the position of the nozzles, as well to be easy replaceable. BTW, few times you mentioned your blog but wasn't able to find it. Could you provide it here. The idea with the cement is BRILLIANT!
Well done. I really enjoyed!!!
Hey flash I was comparing the complexity of your burn cone and the one on the charcoal gasifier described in youtube video "Gilmore Gasifier part one" and noted he used a ceramic burn port. Perhaps the cone portion of your unit could be eliminated by replacing your mixture with the kiln material shown in youtube video "Backyard Foundry Tutorial Pt 2" @ 4 min. point. Soliciting your opinion and wondering if you have ever observed gasifier plans utilizing kiln materials verses metal?
I'm in SC. Once you build your gasifier you can experiment with some of your own ideas and who knows what you may figure out. There is one more thing to consider too. You want the embers in the cone to stay at their proper temperature so that you crack the tar so you don't want to try to extract heat directly from the fire cone.
I did find some people that constructed these gasifiers but no info on the actual construction of them. You can send me a message with the link and I can receive it that way. You have my curiosity up now.
William this is the first video where I actually show the build for this particular gasifier. If you check out my channel you will find other videos that cover the ash grate along with other parts of the build that will be relevant to this build.
Awesome series. Is there a reference chart for imbert cone size to HP? Cone height/upper diameter/ lower diameter etc. I see info for FEMA but not imbert. I want to run a small generator, but also a 17.5 hp lawnmower. Little help?
That has always been the hurdle for people building home use gasifiers. There is where things can get tricky. When you are building a gasifier, you have a lot of variables thrown into the mix mainly the wood used for fuel. Just the difference of different wood affects the gas production and the gas quality. When I built my first gasifier I was completely clueless and I had to experiment over and over again until I found what worked for me and gave me clean woodgas. On average you want your restriction throat opening at the bottom of the gasifier to be around 2 inches up to around 3 inches and you want your wood chunks to be anywhere around .5 inches to .75 inches in over-all size. This is what makes a small engine gasifier a bit of a hassle to build and this is why people try to go with the FEMA builds that use the wood pellets which you want to avoid. If you have gone through my build videos you will see me try to cover my wood chunk sizes along with the hearth (what I called the fire cone) diameter and it's depth along with the restriction throat opening diameter. This build can handle smaller engines along with a larger 12.5 Hp engine too. For a 17.5 Hp engine you may need to move up to a restriction throat diameter of 2.5 inches up to 2.75 inches but that's something you will have to experiment with. Keep in mind that the wood needs to be very dry! A good example of how dry you want your wood fuel would be a dried dead branch in a tree that literally snaps when you try to bend or flex it. The wood fuel I use is small dead branches in a diameter of .5 inches up to 1 inch in diameter that have snapped off of trees in the woods that I can get from the ground in the woods or even snap off of lower branches of trees. We do have a woodgas community of people that are willing to answer any questions you may have at www.miniwoodgas.com and you can find a wealth of information at www.allpowerlabs.com/ but they have a tendency to lean towards the more technical side of things. The website does cover hearth sizes and restriction throat diameters vs engine Hp and this did help me understand a lot but in the end it was up to me just tinkering until I go the build to be acceptable. On the website check out the RUclips video links at www.miniwoodgas.com/miniwoodgas_005.htm and go watch the videos I have linked for All Power Labs. That will really give you some serious information. Good luck with your mission and if you build a gasifier, post a few RUclips videos for all of us to watch.
What are the diameters of the cone top and bottom? I am guessing the depth is 6 inches plus a 3 inch bottom piece? I am not able to order theough Northern Tool. I think i am gonna have to fab one of these cones.
Your videos are very well done could you send me plans and answer 2 qustions 1 how do you attach the air intake from the inside and is there a spicific distanse to hang the tray suspended with chain thank you
So far this seems to be the most informative series on gasifiers I have seen made from every day, off the shelves items I have seen. I am truly impressed. Using your materials, do you think welding is mandatory, or will brazing suffice? Do you think your hearth design generates too much heat to braze?
If you go with a single air nozzle design you would want to up size the air nozzle to a 1 inch diameter and maybe make the cone 7 inches at the top instead of 6 inches. You would just have to play around with the build to fine tune it.
That is one hell of a Gasifier I am trying to milk all of your plans and copy a bunch of it.
The expantion tankme kind of stalled as how to get it right as soon as the gas is cool enough could you go to a plastic barrell for the expantion tank? I am just getting started on my build I am retired military and just puttering around. When the smoke first comes out in to the pipe going to the expantion tank could you weld fins on it to speed up the cooling?
Hello Flash,
Thank you for all the time and thoughtful comments so the rest of us can more easily replicate your (and those before you) processes for the gasifier build-up. I would like to make a system like yours and create part, sub-assembly and assembly drawings for an easier how-to/shopping list of components and notes needed. Can I use you as a "reviewer" of these drawings (since you best know functionality) based on your video posts?
BR,
Randy
The sky is the limit to the overall design but I wouldn't use plastic for two reasons. (1) Plastic will not be a good heat exchanger for the gas to cool correctly. (2) It may not hold up to the heat. If you watch video four the final video you will see that I made a 4 pipe cooling radiator and I cool the gas before it hits the expansion tank. That made a BIG difference on the quality of the gas. If you can find a small 30 gallon steel drum you could use that for your expansion tank.
Flash,
Just found your channel. Great videos. What I am looking at is building a gasifier to provide gas to my hot water heater and central unit and getting off natural gas. I have plenty of wood mass. I live less than a mile from a sawmill. Would this setup provide enough gas to run those two? I haven't been able to figure out how big a gasifier I would need. Thanks and keep the vids coming.
you, sir are a genius and an inspiration. good work!
Thanks man, I really appreciate this, I've been thinking of using something like this to help tackle Invasive trees.
You probably dont care at all but does any of you know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account..?
I was stupid forgot the login password. I appreciate any tricks you can offer me
@Jamari Julius instablaster ;)
@Dax Chase i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff atm.
Seems to take a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Dax Chase It did the trick and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy!
Thanks so much you saved my account :D
@Jamari Julius You are welcome :D
I've been reviewing some of your other previous videos and have come up with a couple of good questions. The first rim you mentioned was from Harbor Freight and the 2nd from Northern Tool. Are they the same dimensions? It looked like the Harbor Freight was originally a narrower rim. Or is the Northern Tool rim an improvement over the Harbor Freight in design and function? Also, are you keeping with the 5 nozzle design or is the single nozzle simpler with comparable results?
I almost forgot. I would make the cone 6 or 8 inches deep. You could make a cone that was 6 inches on the top and reduce down to two inches at it's reduction and make the cone height 6 or 8 inches in length. You would see a major reduction in the tar being produced provided that the rest of the gasifier was good and air tight.
Hey .Hope all is well. I have had your complete how to build a gasafier in the past under different name.but sence lost the tablet I down loaded the play list on .if I'm not wrong you had a download or pdf we could buy in the past do you still have that or would it be possible to get that from you still. I'm in the place where I can give this a go now.and would also teach my children this to.
Hello Flash, Greetings! I have a doubt - why the reduction zone is also not made with refractory cement?? Is it for a specific reason or any design constraints?
You could use refractory cement or even potters clay but if you were to make the reduction zone just out of these materials they will over time have the tendency to develop cracks. With a steel lining you just want to draw heat away from the steel which will give it a long life. I don't have the tools to work with stainless steel so the workaround to working with mild steel is to protect the mild steel. Think of putting water into a paper cup. If you light the top of the cup on fire it will burn down to the water line and go out. You could even boil water in a paper cup because the water protects the paper. It's the same concept here but you could use both refractory cement or even potters clay with this method. For that matter you could use pure sand with a tiny bit of standard cement mixed in it just to hold it's form. There are many roads that lead to a working prototype.
@@flash001USA Thank you so much for clarification.
Hey flash I am thinking about using a 1/4 inch solid rubber gasket on mine that seals the hopper to the outer barrel.
just wondering how hot does the top of your barrel get? think it will work?
Joe you may want to use the red high temperature RTV cement instead. The heat will harden the rubber or depending on the rubber, break it down or melt it.
Amazing video!!! what about making a new update of the gasifier? It would be really cool also because i'm going to build a wood gasifier following your advices! Thank you!!
There has been a lot of discussion with people using clay to make a fire cone. The only downfall I see and it's a real issue is the kiln materials could crack. This is why I chose to use a steel liner. I came really close to making a totally ceramic cone.
flash001 you talk about bridging can you extend the cone or make a second cone to go from the fire chamber to the side of your hopper or wood tank. so it all slopes to the reactor or fire chamber.
Richard extending the cone won't solve the issue. In reality all of us doing this are backyard builders tinkering with this stuff and there are so many things that can go wrong during a run that will cause bridging issues which is why that learning your machine once you build it is the key to good runs along with using the correct fuel chunk sizes and once you find the right kind of wood and size of the wood chunks that work best with your build that you stick like glue for what works best for you. At the time of making these videos I didn't have an automatic hopper shaker or an automatic grate shaker which is what keeps bridging issues in check but I now have the build to make this happen and once I finish my off grid building I will be back on this stuff asap. Check out the blog on the www.miniwoodgas.com website and you will be amazed at what some of the people in this circle have built. Most of them will be more than glad to help you too so that's a good thing.
Many thanks for the reply, Flash. I'll look forward to the upcoming video. Of all the sites I've seen on this subject yours is the best. I have three rocket stoves , one being 312000 BTU's, so this is the next "logical" step. Keep up the good work .
Hbbyloggr
Flash i need to build one, do you have the list of parts.and how big the gasifier has to be for a Subaru generator, 5000 watts,and how many hours could it run on the amount of wood it burns. thank you.
No I haven't started .still in the learning phase. I need to buy a welder and learn touse it and still studying gasification.How it actually works still stumps me a little. I had some cousins that lived in Gaffney. Bennetts-Jerry,Jon, and Nancy; they all have moved away.Done a little plumbing work around there. What kind of work were you into when you lived in Sparkleberry.
I make my living at electronics during the day and I play music damn close
to being full time in the evening anywhere from 3 to 5 nights a week.
Can the air nozzle go straight down into the burn cone instead of from the side at 45 degrees?
Yes. If you watch some of the later videos you'll see that this has bitter continuing learning process of making it better and at this point the nozzle is running dead center.
@@flash001USA Thanks for the info , I really like the time you have spent making the videos and building the unit.
Its now 2024 how is your gassifyer still running. I want to make on like yours for a 8 hp generator.
@neilgelinas9926 The gasifier that I built is under my shop ready to be used at a moment's notice should things get bad. This was a project that I took on out of curiosity that went beyond that and I'm glad that I took the time to figure it out. There are some people out there that uses kind of Technology along with solar and wind as a sole source of power. This is really a backup system for me should I need emergency power and didn't have access to any fuels.
Thanks. I'll check that out. How clean does it burn?
I would like to know how your mix of plaster of paris with sand hold up with time. Does it still stick together in one pieces? Do you think it may hold without your metal sheet?
It has held up with flying colors but I wouldn't trust it as a stand along
fire cone without the steel insert. Another youtube user asked the same question and even mentioned a workaround by adding fiberglass into the cement to make it be stable enough to use without a metal cone. It sounds plausible to me. I hope that helps answer your question.
Is it necessary to have that fire cone metal or could i use something to make that shape and once it sets up just remove it?
You can make it out of potters clay as long as it's baked and cured so that it doesn't crumble or crack on you.
@@flash001USA thanks
Flash Great job.. Two question fire cone was 5 inches tall, open width and bottom tapered width were not mentioned. also dimension of round piece being bolted to bottom of vessel was not. any more help would be great. again great job!!!!!!
and can you use this gas to put in a propane tank and grill with it?
hi Flash this is really cool stuff. Im trying to build one just like yours .question why do you weld the one inch ring on top of the cone? could you just make the cone come to the top of the vessel?
The reason I put the one inch ring on the top of it is to allow it to hold just a little bit more biochar plus the nozzle will actually go down below the ring to wear the cone starts. For some reason this gives it a better and more through fuel burn.
Almost forgot. There's a lot of people that can help you with this if you go to the mini wood gas website. That will take you to a Blog where you can pick people's brains had had built this up and added their ideas to the build. Here is the address. www.miniwoodgas.com
HEY Flash, (2) question about the Extension Tube, you stated it was 3" LONG, what is the Diameter of it? What are you using inside your Filter Tubes?
Your doing a bang up job, grate Videos... better than so online college classes.
Do you have a list or link of your gasifier build videos in chronological order so that we may follow from start to finish? Trying to follow them on RUclips is pretty staggered and hard to get in order.. Thanks! Hbbyloggr.
I can relate to the 36 hour day! This is also why I have dragged my feet on doing this video too.
On your cone design, how big is the top and bottom opening of the 5inch cone
Make the top 6 inches wide and the bottom 3 inches wide. I actually reduce down to 2 inches on my inverted bottom cone because I'm running a small 5 Hp engine. The good thing about the inverted bell is that it bolts onto the bottom of the cone assembly so this means you can change the actual restriction diameter at the bottom of the cone for larger or smaller engines.
Thanks k you so much now could you explain how to hook it up to a generator? Please please please
Love the vid's, question what r the measurments on the cone, small dia. large dia and lenght / height? Thanks keep up the good work.
Paul the cone without the top ring should be 6 inches at the top and reduce down to 3 inches diameter at the bottom. The cone is 5 inches in height and the top ring adds one more inch for a total height of 6 inches. The bolt on extension is 3 inches so it bakes the total length of the cone and it's reduction zone 9 inches deep.
do you have any idea's on storing the gas for use later on i have heard others have used large propane tanks and i believe they used air compressor to pressurize it,
Charles I wouldn't try to store it under high pressure. It is a waste of time! Think of propane. It is in a liquid state in its canister so this means you can store a large volume of gas and as you use the gas it gently goes from a liquid to a gas state. Wood gas on the other hand will not compress down to a liquid state so you don't get the bang for your buck for the trouble of compressing it plus it can be very dangerous if the compressor screws up during the process! I know someone that stored their gas in 3 tractor trailer inner tubes and they stacked them on top of each other and tied their valves together. They then laid a big sheet of plywood on top of the inner tubes and placed about 100 lbs on the plywood. This gave the force to pump the gas out thru a copper line where the gas could be used to cook or heat water with.
that sounds a lot safer way (inter tube) i was also wondering what size of unit ( dimensions ) it would take to run a large military diesel generator? i am trying to get my non-profit expanded to help with natural disaster
charles matthews
Take a look here for large storage bags for outside cooking & Etc. do not use indoors no smell to Carbon monoxide and other gases here that the gas company adds to the methane they are selling you.
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I've been reading all I can find, but still some details are hard to track down. Is there any findings that would determine how large to make the cone? The FEMA literature you reference I assume is for the straight pipe systems and are listed in SAE. I think I will build my first unit to your spec, but I want to know why certain things are the way they are and the cone size is a major topic IMO. It also might be helpful to know how much volume of material with how much velocity is needed to produce X amount of gas. The reference literature I've found only seems to glaze past those details.
+Sky bound All of the info out there is fuzzy because even though nobody wants to admit it there are just too many variables in wood gamification. Even All Power Labs prefers to sell their own calibrated fuel for their gasifiers because they know that what they have works. Look at it this way. Cars are picky about the gas they can run on so the octane levels are divided into three grades of regular mid-grade and high-grade. Some cars will handle all three grades and some cars cannot. With woodgas it's a bit tricky so you have to experiment with the type of wood chunks and once you find a wood fuel that works, try to stick to it. The cone you mentioned concentrates the heat by forcing it to pass thru a smaller opening as the gas passed thru it thus aiding in breaking down the tar in the gas. I had to go with the FEMA plans then literally wing it and experiment with diameters so what I came up with was a 5 up to a 6 inch diameter at the top of the cone down to around 2 or 2-1/2 inches at the bottom of the cone. The FEMA build actually calls for a 2 or 2-1/2 inch diameter pipe when you want to run a small engine. The cone build works quite well and I can get solid runs every time with my setup but it took a lot of tinkering to get it to this point. I hope others take the build and fine tune it even further.
+flash001USA The FEMA spec for your flashifier is 4" by 16". Is this how much volume is needed to produce enough gas for a 15 HP engine? I see your conversion zone is only 9" long, 8" if measured from the air nozzle. From the rest of the videos, it looks like your hopper is welded right to the rim making for the increased diameter (propane cylinder) above the cone. Does the wider diameter change anything in the conversion process? Or is it a matter of just getting the conversion zone within spec and the remaining details become more a matter of preference? I might not be able to track down the same materials as you and want to know exactly what in this design is negotiable and what is not.
Your setup is closely related, so it seems to me, to the Imbert. The dimensions of your cone, with proper air intake should produce gas for a much larger engine. So, I'm just a little confused.
Is your limited gas production due to the single air nozzle? And was this intentional?
Lester thanks for the view and your feedback. The single nozzle works fine for smaller engines and it is a very simple concept that can be done with a minimal tools and metal working skills. The single nozzle is simple to change out when needed too. Keep in mind that the hearth what I call the fire cone is funnel shaped and deeper than standard Imbert designs so the single nozzle can be made a bit longer to take advantage of the smaller diameter to tune it for smaller engines in the 5 Hp range or the nozzle can be raised to move up to run a larger engine. This build is right at home with a range of 5 Hp up to 12.5 Hp engines. To answer your question yes this was intentional.
So you are aware of the formula for air injection? I suspect if you quadrupled the air intake you would quadruple your gas production, based on your cone dimensions.
Yes I am aware there are air flow formulas but there are so many other variables like fuel and fuel moisture content, the drag through the filters etc so I used the FEMA guidelines for the restriction throat then I experimented with the nozzle by basing it's diameter just a bit larger than what the engine exhaust and intake diameters were until I found a decent burn with a low to no tar produced gas at the same time the engine could still breathe enough to deliver power. I spoke with some of the guys at All Power Labs and they even said that the calculations would only get you close until you tinkered to fine tune the intake air ratios for the nozzles to get things hot enough to crack the tars correctly. I'm no rocket scientist so this build was by the seat of my pants but it works and it is clean enough that I'm not worried about tar issues.
Once upon a time these were sold on the open market, attached to all manner of vehicles. They worked out the bugs.
Yep you are correct. Even if you have plans to building one there are just too many things to factor in and even in Europe they quickly realized how tight the fuel specs have to be no matter how well the build was laid out. They actually had wood stations to ensure the correct fuels for gasifiers. In other words, you really have to know your own system. This is why people can spend thousands of dollars on a well built machine and produce tar while someone living in the back woods can build one out of rusty junk and produce good woodgas.
2185justme My bad. I thought I discussed that but here are the measurements. The cone itself is 6 inches on the top and 3 inches on the bottom. It is 5 inches tall. The top ring is 6 inches in diameter and it is 1 inch tall so when it's welded to the cone, the cone's overall height is 6 inches tall. The bolt-on extension at the bottom of the rim is 3 inches in dia and it is 3 inches in length so when it is combined with the cone and ring you have a cone plus extended reduction zone of 9 inches.
is there a rule of thumb to up size for a larger engine, eg 100hp?