I have to say, I have watched hours and hours of gasifier videos on RUclips and your "How to" videos are by far the best. The dedication that you have put into detail in each and every one of them is fantastic, and also very educational and helpful. I particularly like that everything is explained in a way where people like myself (not a rocket scientist) can understand what you are talking about, and how you have gone about building all the different components. This really motivates me to start building my very own gasifier, partly because you show us how to build a unit that really works, and partly because it looks to be a genuine build - not only does I work, but it is properly built and even looks aesthetic in its own way - so once I get my head around all the different phases of the build, I would love to get stuck into it. Incidentally I am not sure that you have mentioned anything about the specifications on the fan that you use. Is it 12V DC, and does it have variable speed/airflow? Whichever way I really enjoyed watching your videos ad just wanted to say thank you for all the time and effort you have put into it.
Howdy Flash, I think that having your mixer so close to the engine is a very good idea, especially for a single cylinder one. These engines like to backfire during starting, which can burn up all of the premixed gas in the delivery hose - thus making starting all the more challenging. Been there, made that mistake, got the tee shirt! I did find one simple solution however. If you put a chunk of stainless steel pan scrubber just ahead of the engine's intake, it makes for easier starting, suppresses back burns and also reduces the pulsing effect in the upstream plumbing while the engine is running. Also, if placed in a clear tube, you can see if there is any dirt in the gas, so this could serve as an early warning device too :) . That stated, it pays to ensure that the scrubber can't move in the tube, as the engine will try to eat it! I ran mine for 4 hours recently, to see if my gasifier mods were beneficial. The results were very encourging indeed, as the gas was invisible and burned with a rich blue flame that would rival even the bluest Smurf. The only thing that eventually stopped the engine was a buildup of moisture in the gas feed hose that shorted out the sparkle-berry The condensate that shorted the plug was totally clear, and didn't taste too bad also, so it looks like the gasser is finally running clean :) . You seem to have resolved your moisture problems, so it looks like I will need to have a think about what might be wrong with mine. Perhaps a cyclone on the carburetor will do the trick. Keep up the good work, my fellow woodgas addict :) .
Steve I hope all is good in your neck of the world. That's good to hear that you are getting things the way you need them to be with your setup and it sounds like the filters are working well for you. Here's a good one for you. I don't change my wood chips anymore. I have around 20 plus hours run-time on them and all I do is pull them out and let them dry in the sun so now everything in the filter section is reused over and over again. One more thing, I agree that it's best to keep the carburetor close to the engine because any changes you make show up with no delays. I have the vibrating carburetor issue solved and I think I may have nailed a new build to the point it may be one of the most simple and possibly better small engine woodgas carburetors out there so I'll be sharing the build soon. You were mentioning water in the line and I do have a workaround that dries the gas enough to not shut things down. On my tri-filters I have a small 4th filter that is a 4 inch diameter piece of the thin walled drainage pipe and what I did was make a cigar shaped cage inside the pipe that I wrap about 6 paper towels around and that's my paper filter and it absorbs water well. This is on the tri-filter build too... The paper filter has no back resistance at all.
flash001USA Yup, things are going well here, especially in the woodgas department. My gasser is running cleaner than it ever has before, and seems to be even more fuel efficient too - but I need to confirm that with some tests. It is interesting to observe that the gas quality is so good that I was able to get a perfectly clean engine run with filters that have not been cleaned out in 5 months! Like you, I am seeing that the filters can be run for a very long time between cleanouts, and that their contents can be readily reused when left to dry out. In the early days of this gasser, when it was running poorly, it took just a few hours of run time to clog the filters with all sorts of goop. No longer is this the case :). My air/gas control valves are quite distant from the engine, but I have solved this problem by running the metered air and the gas to a mixer just ahead of the carburetor. This gets around the premixed gas volume detonation problems and eliminates the delays associated with remote versus local gas mixing. Also, this junction is the perfect place to install the filter purge blower. I do not have mixer vibration problems, as the valves are well away from the engine. While this solution works perfectly well, and allows very precise control over the proportions of the gas supplied to the 'grunter', I think yours is more elegant, and certainly less taxing on the wallet :) . Ahhh yes, I had quite forgotten about your paper filter/gas dryer tube. I should give this a try, as it is surely a simple solution to a most vexatious technical issue. I had wondered about some form of cyclone device, perhaps made from clear plastic, placed in the final feed to the engine - but your solution is almost exactly one zillion times easier to make. Sounds like job for Mr Towelie :) .
I look back at my old FEMA videos and all of that tar all through the system that would collect and ruin everything and it makes me appreciate this new build that much more. I don't see ANY gooey tars anymore and if I do have a snafu it's only going to literally be about a tablespoon very light oily tar near the input of one of the filters but the PVC pipes stay clear as a bell! In the end, that's what the filters are for and as long as the gas hitting the engine is safe that's all that counts.
flash001USA Ahhh, the good old days, when you could make all the tar you could possibly want ;) . It was always interesting to see how the tar could get through all of the filters, no matter how tightly packed they were, and foul up the engine. Unlike you, I was not careful, and managed to munt a couple of engines before I finally learned my lesson. It sure is nice to see the pipes and fittings remaining clean now. In the past, these would turn black in just a few hours - and the carburetor would get choked up with a mixture of soot and tarry goop. Those days are gone now, for both of us :) . The only downside that I am seeing is that the engine is a bit more difficult to start now. In the past, the engine would start within 1 second from cold on woodgas. Now it takes a bit more effort, but a teaspoon full of gasoline kicks the engine into life pretty quickly. Even with these little problems, I am perfectly happy with the system - and will be relying on it during the winter for all of my power needs.
***** I mentioned this to Dan "docdcox" that if you purchase a propane conversion kit they will tell you to gap the plugs tighter and I feel this is due to getting a hotter spark to start up easier. When I did the propane test video I could NOT start the engine on propane until I primed it with a tablespoon of gasoline. I start the engine on a tablespoon of gas then I will quickly choke the intake air to get the engine to draw on the woodgas. These big 6 inch filter tubes breathe much easier and the engine has more torque too. Dan and I have a difference of opinion on how much filtering is needed but that's like comparing Pepsi to Coke so we don't argue and we just agree to disagree. Somewhere along the line I may add a temperature port to my setup but from everything I have read the flare will tell you what the health of the gas is just by it's color and if it is transparent or milky so in reality many roads lead to Rome. The way I see it is the filters are a piece of mind insurance because even with a well designed gasser anything can go wrong during a run especially a 4 or 5 hour run where maybe the gasifier bridges just for a few minutes which would be enough time to make the gas dirty then it could self correct and you may never know that it happened until it happened enough over time to hurt the engine so I'll use the heavier filtering if for no reason just to be on the safe side. Question: Do you have a temperature port on your setup and do you make any measurements?
Hey Flash, I just had a quick question for you . I was wondering what the final length of the cooling pipes are. I just got all the parts painted and reassembled. I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out. Anyway, I'm in the process of building my Flash radiator, of course with a mazdalorean twist. I have a 3" street elbow on the output side of the gasifier , and 3" pipes till the upper manifold. I think the total area of all the down pipes combined is about 2 3/4". I also have a great motor for use as the blower. I'll have to build a housing to mount it in, but it seems like it will pull hard. I also have a nice donor vessel for the expansion tank. It will take some modifying , but I think it will work well. I will post another vid when I complete the radiator assembly.
Thank you flash, your design is simple, you explain it well and the results speak for themselves. The auto grate shaker and wood hopper were gonna be my only suggestion, but you beat me to it. Thanks again
Maybe you have already thought out the vibrator for wood and grate, one simple system we used on a wood pellet storage tank was to fix an old wood / paint sander to the side of the tank and use a timer so it would come on and vibrate for 5 minutes every two hours which suited our needs at the time. We later built a store with better slope on the sides. Hope this helps or gives you a little inspiration. Thank you for a great video.
Thanks for the idea. I'm thinking of using a 12 volt windshield wiper motor with a small counter balance on the shaft for the shaker and a good stout 12 volt solenoid to shake the grate with. I'm going to design my own custom timers for this too.
I think you have some of the best videos on gasifiers, thank you for so much of your information. I hope to watch all of your videos and see more of your new ones. Again thank you!!!!! Gary
Gary thanks for the reply. This build isn't perfect but it works quite well at producing usable clean gas so I decided to put the build on youtube for others to try their hand at a small engine gasifier too.
Thank you, for your many hours of hard work in the development for your gasifier. I was wondering if you thought it could run an lp gas heater, or what changes might have to be made to the unit. Thanks,
Sorry for the late reply to your question. This blower fan was originally used to inflate a yard ornament. It was used to inflate one of those 10 foot tall Santa Clause ornaments. I found the blower at a junk yard so it doesn't have an actual part number.
Very impressive, I always wanted to try this but was too busy at work. I recently became disabled and need something to do a little at a time so I might try your design. I made a gasified pellet stove last night and got nice blue flames on my first try. Will continue with videos but yours seem very thorough, thanks for the tips and sharing!
Kevin thanks for the feedback. This has been a learning process for me so this has improved over time. There are a lot others who have also built this along with incorporating their own ideas into the build. Check out www.miniwoodgas.com and join the blog. There are a lot of us out here that will help answer any questions you may have. Good luck.
I can't wait to see the 212 cc setup. That's the size engine in the generator I'd like to run from harbor freight. By the way , I don't know if you saw , but I did upload a Flashifier part 3. Any feedback is always welcome.
No I didn't get a youtube notification from your channel. I will go check it out now. Before I forget, I added a manometer to my setup and I took a piece of sheet metal and made a cone that fits inside of the bottom half of my wood hopper that directs the wood right into the fire cone. I am working on automating the gasifier now and the 212 cc setup will follow that but right now I'm slammed with other projects so it may be a while but it will get done one way or another.
dammannc I tried to reply to your comment but there was no reply button. Go figure. I just cleaned the system 1 hour ago from the run I did in the video and there was not one drop of gooey tar ANYWHERE in the system. No matter how blue the flare was on the FEMA, in the older videos, the whole system including all of the pipes leading up to the filters were always puddled or caked with tar including the filters too. On the new setup, the flare is Halloween orange from soot being consumed at the flare port on the unfiltered side of the gasifier. You made an observation about the flare not being blue on the new setup and I've seen the flare color range anywhere from a baby blue to a solid white flare and even a mixture of white and red and even red with whites and blues and florescent yellows but with one big difference. No tar to be found even before the filters. Here's where things really count and this is where the buck stops. If you noticed when I piped the gas through the filters, there was nothing (00.0) fog or smoke pouring out on the filtered side before it was ignited so in reality the gas was as clean as it gets. If the gas is invisible then there are no impurities in it. I honestly don't know why the filtered flare can be different colors at different times during different runs. I do know this: (1) Is there ANY fog or smoke whatsoever on the filtered side? Nope so the filters are doing their job. (2) Does the engine run? Yes and quite well too. (3) Did I find tar in the system ANYWHERE after the run in this video? Yes inside of the wood hopper but not a drop in anywhere else throughout the system where it is critical.
dammannc To me I relate the blue flame as a clean gas but it seems that there may be a bit more to flare colors than meets the eye too. Keep in mind that I'm still new to this myself since I've only got a year and some change under my belt with gasifiers but this is what I do know to be good concrete information. I'm talking about UNFILTERED gas here. A milky non-transparent yellow flare is almost always gas that has tar present in the woodgas that's being burned right at the flare itself. A Halloween or even a pale orange TRANSPARENT flare is almost always cleaner gas because the tar has been cracked so you have tar soots in the gas (cracked tar particles) being consumed right at the flare giving the flare the orange overtones. If the flare is not transparent there is a probably lot of garbage in it and that can be dust particles and or worse case, tar gas or BOTH. Alright now let's talk about filtered gas that is INVISIBLE when the flare is not fired up. In my mind a blue flare would be a picture perfect gas but there are exceptions where you can have a white flare and I have had solid white flares before. I was told this is the hydrogen standing out in the gas. There are other byproducts in wood that can add some colors to a well a filtered flare as you burn different fuels so it's not cut and dry with just a blue flare. I shoot for a gas that is filtered to the point of being invisible at the flare port before it is fired up. If it can't be seen then it is clean and if it burns and runs the engine that's where it counts too. Since going with this new build, my PVC pipes carrying the gas are tar free so I trust the gas. One more think that is important to mention. Tar gas ALWAYS travels as a vapor that you will see with the naked eye. Somewhere along the line I'm going to cover this topic in a video. Hey man I'm still a student too.
Cool, thanks for all the info, one of these days I will continue with mine. Probably abandon my "starter" FEMA project and start over with a build like yours.
+flash001USA I'm curious about 2 things... 1) what do you use for filter media along with how you built your new filter desing (can't find the video) and 2) Where are all the gasoline like by products like what comes from Mr. Teslonian's system? .... Great build by the way. I plan on doing this when I get my house in the mountains although a little bigger. I plan to use it as a working system to power a welder and charge a large tank for propane appliances. :D
+Eddie Mckie Eddie I'll get you the links on the filters a bit later today. The gasoline like by products that Mr. Teslonian' has are tars. Tar will burn once it's heated up and melted. Yes tar can be processed into lighter fuels but it's nor worth the effort for what you get in return. The better a gasifier runs the cleaner gas it produces which means the less "gasoline like by products " aka tar the system produces. What residual tars this gasifier does produce are captured by the filters because you don't want this getting into the engine. Tars will ruin an engine and you will be doing a tear down to clean tar out of the engine. Mr. Teslonian does produce gas (woodgas) but he is producing tar too which he is calling gasoline like by products,
Hi this build has went light years since this video. Go to www.miniwoodgas.com and contact the web host which will be me and let me know you would like the PDF build and I'll send you everything for free.
I take it when you lengthened the restriction zone bell, You had to make your chains longer? Did you have to modify your shaker handle assembly also? Bottom of the bell still 1" off of the grate? . I am also going to start out with a smaller engine so I will have to make a new flange and restriction ring anyway. As always I thank you for all the info you post. Keep em coming!!!
Everything was only extended by 2 inches so the mods were simple. I have around a 1-1/4 inch gap from the bottom of the bell to the grate. The wood I used last night was a bit too damp but the system still ran flawless with the exception of the gas mixture changing due to the vibration on the carburetor adjustments.
Have a question once the gasifier is producing clean gas...and it attached to the generator... are you using a blower fan in the system as it not clearly show if it removed
No the blower fan is removed from the system. Think of a gasifier as cigarette or a cigar. while someone draws on the cigarette the fire on the end of the cigarette burns brightly and hotter while producing smoke. A gasifier works the exact same way where the blower is drawing on the gasifier to draw air across the ember bed producing the gas. Once the gasifier is started, the engine takes the blowers place and the engine will draw air through the gasifier using it's intake in place of the blower. This is also why a gasifier is considered to be a "gas on demand" system. If you disconnect the engine or even the blower from the gasifier and let it sit, the gasifier will smother out in a few minutes. Hope that helps...
@@flash001USA Thank you it does... in one of your video you mention a new electronic filter....is that still work in progress any updates on your system or filters
It looked like the flare had a lot of orange in it when you called it blue. Your other videos of the FEMA gasifier had a really blue flare. How is this one better?
EXCELLENT VIDEO! Your design is off the shelf with very doable modifications. The explanation you provide is important for both rookies and seasoned system builder's. The idea of a small system in conjunction with solar and /or wind with reasonable conservation and low energy use appliances makes this a reachable goal for those who have a desire bigger than their income to achieve sustainable life style. The excess heat from the gasifier itself could be harnessed as a space heater or oven of some sort further increasing the efficiency and importance of your design.
Hey thanks for the reply. The heat released from this gasifier is pretty low. People think that because you have a fire going inside of a closed container that it gets really hot but in reality the actual ember bed is just a bit bigger than a soft ball so there really isn't a lot of heat to capture. If you captured the heat from the gasifier and the engine you would have something that would warm a well insulated 25 x 25 room. I would probably set up some sort of heat exchanger if I was going to take that route.
Hey Flash, Just came across your builds the last few days and like what you have done. This will definitely be my next project. Just got one question that has probably been answered a lot earlier. How do you make the biochar that you use in the initial light up and is it straight biochar or mixed with some kindling. Thanks in advance. Greg
Just a thought. In a pinch you could use the vibration from the gen thru a conx rod to the shaker. As always, your vids are great. Thanks for all the info.
Ricky that was on my mind too but I decided to make the leap and automate the shaker and the wood hopper with a timer controlled vibrator so that I'll have a bit more "fine tune" options with the setup.
Hey flash!you have Inspired me to do a build.just one question.what size pipe did you end up useing?I have a 2"id stainless round tubing I'm wanting to use but I dont want it to not be able to run a 12hp moter!am I good?
I wound up using a 2-1/4 diameter straight pipe then I extended it like you see on the far left in the video with a bit of a bell shape but in the end I went back to the middle design of just a straight piece of 2-/1/4 inch pipe. It's simple and it works. I hope this answers your question.
very impressive flash, Monster flare alright, i am running that new bell concept thru my head as i type. I think your on a winner there,makes perfect sense to keep the bell tighter than the old traditional wide open design, seems to have boosted the flare also, less filtering doesnt seem to bother it either,,, the way the thermal updraft is with your flare ,you got great airflow goin on, i am in the process of modifying the blower body and pulling the gasifier apart to fit a thermocouple sensor to the inside restriction zone and run a pyrometer from it. Looks like you nailed all the boards in the right places this time ,, good job !
I'm working on the automated part of this now along with a few other minor things. The system was clean when I inspected the pipes so tar deposits are a non issue. I checked out the video where you were boiling water so I'm guessing that you are seriously looking at a steam engine for your setup.
The blower is only used to create a vacuum to start it up. Once it's started the engine pulls a vacuum to keep it running. It works just like smoking a cigarette.
@@engineclinic Yeah I removed the blower but I just removed it from the gasifier so that I could hook the generator to the output instead of just burning the gas off. You are correct that I left the blower physically running but NOT drawing on the gasifier. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that statement.
Hey Flash , I had a couple of questions I was hoping you can answer. In one of your previous vids, you mentioned the temp of the barrel . I think you said somewhere around 350 F max. My question is , do you think inside that barrel is a bad place to run the plumbing to preheat intake air? I don't want to remove heat from the barrel if it is necessary to keeping the ember bed hot enough. I guess my thinking is it wouldn't affect the ember bed temps too bad because of all of the high temp concrete insulating the heat in.Your opinion here means alot to me because I was thinking of plumbing in an internal set of pipes between the hopper and the vessel to preheat the incoming air. That being said , If I did have a series of pipes traveling up and down around the inside wall of the vessel , do you think I would have to deal with draining moisture from these pipes? I've got plenty of room inside the vessel to run these pipes , and I thought it would be a great place to do it keeping the build clean.Any info you can share will as always be greatly appreciated. I am just about done with the ignition port. Then comes the intake plumbing. Wich leads me to my next question. I have always been a firm believer in OVERKILL EVERYTHING. I measured two existing bungs in the vessel for two inch pipe. I was thinking of adding two new ones ( instead of using these ) somewhere between 3 and 4 inch pipe , then reducing on the way into the hopper to one inch to feed the ember bed. My question is do you think that large pipe size will cause any problems ? I know too small of a pipe will cause the air to move too quickly across the ember bed causing the tars to not be cracked thoroughly. I don't see how a large pipe could hurt, but I'd just like your opinion. My goal here is to have a gasifier that can run a large engine , with a minimum of major mods. I still plan on a small engine but you never know. Thanks . Joe
You could use internal plumbing to preheat the air. The worse case scenario would be the internal air pipes collecting any residual tars because the cooler pipes will act like a condenser. Some people take the preheating method to the extremes and All Power Labs even uses the engine exhaust along with the heat from the gasifier to preheat the air. As far as water building up in the intake pipes it may be possible if you have U pipes inside of the gasifier then again, maybe the heat would boil out any trapped water. I can't really answer that question. Your question about larger intake pipe reduced down to smaller pipe should be good to go. You will have less back resistance. I use a larger pipe and reduce too because to me it removes drag or back resistance. Going back to heating the air, yes that does aid in cracking tar but Jim Mason of All Power Labs made a comment that in my opinion hits the nail right on the head. "You never solve a tar problem. You can only manage it." In other words the better the build the less tar you will have but even then things can change internally even if it's for a minute or so that will let a bit of tar gas to pass through the system. That's where your filters come into play to give you piece of mind. My old FEMA would produce enough tar to goo up the whole system and the filters were a nightmare to clean. Even though I don't preheat the air with this new system there is no comparison. Do I see tars. Sometimes but even then the plastic pipes stay shiny clean. I might see a bit captured in the filters but as long as my filtered gas is invisible as I have demonstrated in all of my videos I know that the gas is really safe so for me I don't try to get critical but that's just me.
flash001USA I think you brought up a great point about worst case scenario. If you have tars condensating on the pipes, you start to insulate the pipes in a way that would be inhibiting the the transfer of heat. Thanks for pointing that out. I did see the all power labs guys method with the exhaust from the engine. I guess thats the way to go. Thanks for the info. Joe
mazdalorean The All Power Labs team have been at this a long long time so they really have a grasp on gasifiers compared to backyard builders. In the end it really comes down to just having a stable gasifier and decent filtering. The rest will fix itself.
i watched one of your earlier builds which created a perfect blue flame which is obviously cleaner, this one is orange, doesnt that make this one inferior to the earlier build?
Jayme on the surface I would have to agree with you but there is more to this than meets the eye. If you notice before I ignite the flare I zoom in on the flare tube and there is no smoke or steam releasing from the flare pipe at all. That's where it counts. One more thing too. Live this flare was a very pale blue to the naked eyes but the camera doesn't quite pick it up the same way as it looks live. The flare is so clear that it actually picks up the color of the background behind it as I move around it with the video camera. The sun was setting as I was doing this run and the flare was so pale that it didn't even show up that well on the video. Unburnt tar gas will look just like steam and it will settle on any surface it comes into contact with so what I think you (or I) are seeing is some of the compounds being broken down in the wood that are turned into a gas state.. I don't always use the same type of wood in every run so I'm guessing that it has to be something else in the gas other than tar gas or dust because I have totally 100% invisible gas after the filters before it is ignited and there is zero tar anywhere in the system after a run. Sometimes I do see a pure blue flare and sometimes I see a pale blue flare with a touch of reddish orange overtones but what I've learned to look for is invisible gas past the filters. If the gas is invisible then it is as safe as it gets to put into the engine. I've got around 40+ hours run time on the generator and the engines carburetor is spotless clean and the plug looks healthy too. If I see anything other than invisible gas after the filters I will not run the engine until I determine that it is either just plain steam or tar vapor. One more important but useful tip. My flares are always orange BEFORE the filters. Here is some basic color information for flares. Yellow flares = Tar in the gas. Purple blue or purple red flares = Some light tars in the gas. Orange or even reddish orange flares = cracked tar particles (tar soot) in the gas. I hope this answers your question.
was the earlier build an imbert design and this one a fema? It would be good to see a test of which flame contains the most energy. Eg you did a test of your generator on sin gas and lpg (your guys call it propane) and said it seemed to put out more power on lpg but idled better on sin gas. Would the blue flame system produce more watts from your generator?
Jayme Capurso I've compared woodgas to propane and the propane is much more robust. This build is an Imbert and the air nozzle control is right next to the hopper lid. To be honest I don't know if the blue flare would run any better or not. My guess is that there really wouldn't be any difference in the way the engine ran but I won't tell you that with 100% certainty. The flare in the video you commented on was a very dull pale blue with a bit of red and orange hues but mainly pale blue to the eye's. The camera didn't see what I was seeing in real time during the run. As far as gas quality, the type of wood and the moisture content of the wood do play an important factor in making woodgas. Are you thinking of building a gasifier?
Jayme Capurso You were asking if the earlier build was a FEMA and my first build was but this build has always been an Imbert and I'm still trying out a few ideas just to see how it affects the gasifier's performance.
If my cone is 6in on top and 2in on bottom 5 inches in length, with a 1 1/4 ring welded to it. What's the highest power generator i will be able to run. In your opinion. I'm thinkin of generators from Harbor Freight? I'm to the point of sinkin it in my 55 gallon barrel. I'm gettin excited!!! Your the best Flash!!!!
Hi Pam, please keep in mind that I flew by the seat of my pants on a lot of this stuff so it was all about experimenting to fine tune things. I can run my 5Hp engine with no issues and I'm willing to bet that I can easily go up to 12.5 Hp with what I have now and a worse case would be to open the 2 inch restriction up by a 1/2 inch to 2 -1/2 inches and that would probably handle a 15 to an 18 Hp engine with no issues too. I cannot stress this enough. The wood you use for fuel is the key to burning clean! I used seasoned wood and mine comes from dried out dead branches from trees around the yard and if I see some good wood someone shoved to the side of the road while I'm driving I'll stop and grab it too. If the wood is damp from either being too green or it got rained on you WILL produce poor gas and steam and tar no matter how well thought out your build is. Steam and tar go hand in hand. Last night when I did this test I started up with biochar but my FIRST big cup of wood was a bit too damp and I produced some tar but only during the start-up and once the gasifier got hot the tar went away but steam from water can hinder the gasifiers ability to reach the temperatures needed to crack the tars. This is also why a good filter system isn't a bad idea because it is your "piece of mind" insurance just in case something goes wrong while you are running the gasifier and it causes a bit of tar to show it's ugly head. You can have bridging issues or other issues that may cause the gas quality to drop even if if's for only a few minutes that causes some tar and then the issue self corrects and you have good gas without ever knowing that you had some tar for a moment so yeah the filters do pay off. Sorry, I didn't mean to write a book here.
Have you every taken any vacuum readings on your system when running. I have started to build a sys. and I think i have read that you need about 6" w.c.(water colum)
you can make a simple Manometer out of clear tubing by fasting it to a board in the shape of a U with about 12" to 14" legs and marking it of in 1" increments.and filling with colored water.
john reb Making the meter is simple enough and I have quite a few little things I'm finishing up on this gasifier. So far, I'm very pleased on the stability of the system. I actually disassembled everything and cleaned it today and the 2 hour burn resulted in zero tar anywhere in the system other than the wood hopper so that was good to see and the bigger tri-filter pipes made a huge difference on how well the system breathes. There isn't enough hours in the day for these kinds of projects.
I wish that I could tell you that I had exact measurements of everything in the build but you got to keep in mind that I was flying by the seat of my pants and making changes "on the fly" as I was building and learning so I felt the best route to take was to just let others see what I built with the how to videos and if they had even just the basic mechanical skills they would be able to knock the build off.
Hey flash today is October 28th 2017 I've been watching your videos for a little while I was wondering if you have a sketches on how to build a gasifier. Thank you very much
Yes. Contact me through flash001@rocketmail.com and I'll send you a PDF file. Be sure to put "asifier build plans" in the header so I know it's not spam.
Technically you can but you would need to store the gas in a few big inner tubes with a piece of plywood on top of them where you placed a few cement blocks to force the gas through some tubing to feed a small stove. In the end you would be better off just cooking with the wood directly.
Flash, great work, I am going to attempt to duplicate your project for a 13 hp gen system. Having a backup plan is smart thinking. Do you have any drawings or part list on your unit? If so I would be greatful for a copy. Thanks, your videos are very helpfull
Turkey day ended up being a Flash001USA marathon. I try to periodically watch all of the imbert gasifier videos to refresh my memory on all the changes and upgrades you've made since the beginning. I have been hammering away at my radiator, and I have another question for you. Does the output of your cooling radiator go straight into the center of your expansion tank , or do you have it set up like a cyclone filter? It looks like it goes straight in the center , but I wanted to find out for sure. Also I was wondering if you changed anything with the filter design other than the obvious inline setup ? Is the fourth filter still the paper towel concept? Are the first three filters filled with the same materials as shown in the tri filter video? As always , any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe.
Yeah the output of the gasifier feeds straight into the side of the bottom tank but not as a cyclone configuration. I really don't need it because the gas is slowed down a lot in the expansion tank. Think of it like a gear ratio where the input pipe is 2 inches going into a 12 inch diameter tank so anything in the gas just falls out and washes to the bottom of the tank. I come right out of the top tank to the first and now the only capture jar before it goes into the filters. To be honest, I couldn't be happier with how this setup works.
I have a few questions about the gasifiers you built, I put up a video of my design of a gasifier if you watch it I habe a few question you might be able to answer
ok your specs. fire cone 3in dia 5inch tall 5 inch dia with your 1inch tall riser on it..... your bell is 2in dia to 2.5 dia that's 5inch long now... ok you got 10inch total length that's cool.....but the fire cone smallest is 3 inch and your bell smallest is 2 inch... could it be redesigned to both being 2 inch for smallest dia. or would screw up the main point of it, or would that be in another mod type of idea? I am in the marking out stage for cuts.
looks good but ill tell u what if u take the bark off the wood first it will burn much hotter and cleaner bark has a sorta natural fire retardant in it and this is probably what is clogging ur grate i only have to shake my grate once at the very beginning and that is it it dosent seem to clog whats weird is my gasifier only has a 3"rest. and it makes gas soo clean all my fitting are still white and my carburetor is still clean i found that a pice of oil impregnated pice of fome rubber from like a couch makes a good last filter im running that now and it seems to work well BTW i cant choose which vids for ur web site i think ill let u choose use any u want =3-
You may be right about the bark. The wood I used last night was a bit too damp but even then with the exception of the carburetor settings moving around (I already have a fix for that snafu too) the system ran good. I had a lot of steam moving in the system but I didn't see any tar issues. I had some light tars during the start-up when I added my first 4 cups of wood but once the system warmed up that went away and the filters and the jar didn't appear to capture anything but water and soot. The gasifier always acts different with different moisture content in the wood fuel but as long as it runs stable and clean where it counts (At the engine) that's all I can ask for. The flare was damn well transparent even in lower light so that was different too. As to my grate I have always had to shake it a bit here and a bit there and I had to do that even on the FEMA but it behaves and clears very well so that isn't an issue for me.
Nice work, your doing great with all this so if I can help.. try using a LP generator so you can hook direct if you pressurized the gas into propane tanks and used that as your delivery for fuel. only use the gasifier to make the gas, then store it. Perhaps integrate the gasification to use the heat from the burn chamber to heat your home and crack that tar down to useable liquid fuel with the same heat ur using to create the gas. Your just scratching the surface my friend. It's great to produce clean gas but even crazier to condense the gas into a liquid fuel. Oh the possibilities. Also, have a look into membrane fuel cells. That gas is Hydrogen and Carbon monoxide so a Hydrogen fuel cell would be another way of harvesting the energy while producing the gas. ( also would give a pure hydrogen gas if ya route the output line from the fuel cell to be pressurized in a tank.) cheers
Jake thanks for the feedback. You wouldn't be able to use an LP carb for this due to the fuel to air ratios. You are better off using an external carb dedicated to the woodgas. Some people experiment with compressing woodgas but I won't go there for two reasons (1) Unlike propane it cannot be compressed down to a liquid so the run-time is next to nothing. You would be better off filling a air mattress and running from that. (2) It's outright dangerous compressing woodgas due to the mixture could get air in it and you now have a potential bomb on your hands. Woodgas is at it's "best" as an on-demand gas where it is also in it's safest form to handle.
flash001USA thanks for the feedback. I'm experimenting with liquid nitrogen to super cool the gas, removing the Carbon monoxide and leaving pure hydrogen. ( hydrogen boils at 14 Kelvin and Carbon monoxide boils at 70 ish. that means the only thing taken out is CO. ) anyways thanks and I'll keep in touch
If you have a way to professionally scrub the gas and refine it then it might be feasible. If you do this please make a video. I would like to see that process and how it is done.
I have to say, I have watched hours and hours of gasifier videos on RUclips and your "How to" videos are by far the best. The dedication that you have put into detail in each and every one of them is fantastic, and also very educational and helpful. I particularly like that everything is explained in a way where people like myself (not a rocket scientist) can understand what you are talking about, and how you have gone about building all the different components. This really motivates me to start building my very own gasifier, partly because you show us how to build a unit that really works, and partly because it looks to be a genuine build - not only does I work, but it is properly built and even looks aesthetic in its own way - so once I get my head around all the different phases of the build, I would love to get stuck into it. Incidentally I am not sure that you have mentioned anything about the specifications on the fan that you use. Is it 12V DC, and does it have variable speed/airflow? Whichever way I really enjoyed watching your videos ad just wanted to say thank you for all the time and effort you have put into it.
Looks great i am working on one of my own I would like to see up close your lay out
Thanks Bryan
Bryan if you go through the videos I break everything down so that people can see how this was constructed.
Howdy Flash,
I think that having your mixer so close to the engine is a very good idea, especially for a single cylinder one.
These engines like to backfire during starting, which can burn up all of the premixed gas in the delivery hose - thus making starting all the more challenging.
Been there, made that mistake, got the tee shirt!
I did find one simple solution however. If you put a chunk of stainless steel pan scrubber just ahead of the engine's intake, it makes for easier starting, suppresses back burns and also reduces the pulsing effect in the upstream plumbing while the engine is running.
Also, if placed in a clear tube, you can see if there is any dirt in the gas, so this could serve as an early warning device too :) .
That stated, it pays to ensure that the scrubber can't move in the tube, as the engine will try to eat it!
I ran mine for 4 hours recently, to see if my gasifier mods were beneficial. The results were very encourging indeed, as the gas was invisible and burned with a rich blue flame that would rival even the bluest Smurf.
The only thing that eventually stopped the engine was a buildup of moisture in the gas feed hose that shorted out the sparkle-berry
The condensate that shorted the plug was totally clear, and didn't taste too bad also, so it looks like the gasser is finally running clean :) .
You seem to have resolved your moisture problems, so it looks like I will need to have a think about what might be wrong with mine. Perhaps a cyclone on the carburetor will do the trick.
Keep up the good work, my fellow woodgas addict :) .
Steve I hope all is good in your neck of the world. That's good to hear that you are getting things the way you need them to be with your setup and it sounds like the filters are working well for you. Here's a good one for you. I don't change my wood chips anymore. I have around 20 plus hours run-time on them and all I do is pull them out and let them dry in the sun so now everything in the filter section is reused over and over again. One more thing, I agree that it's best to keep the carburetor close to the engine because any changes you make show up with no delays.
I have the vibrating carburetor issue solved and I think I may have nailed a new build to the point it may be one of the most simple and possibly better small engine woodgas carburetors out there so I'll be sharing the build soon.
You were mentioning water in the line and I do have a workaround that dries the gas enough to not shut things down. On my tri-filters I have a small 4th filter that is a 4 inch diameter piece of the thin walled drainage pipe and what I did was make a cigar shaped cage inside the pipe that I wrap about 6 paper towels around and that's my paper filter and it absorbs water well. This is on the tri-filter build too... The paper filter has no back resistance at all.
flash001USA
Yup, things are going well here, especially in the woodgas department.
My gasser is running cleaner than it ever has before, and seems to be even more fuel efficient too - but I need to confirm that with some tests.
It is interesting to observe that the gas quality is so good that I was able to get a perfectly clean engine run with filters that have not been cleaned out in 5 months!
Like you, I am seeing that the filters can be run for a very long time between cleanouts, and that their contents can be readily reused when left to dry out. In the early days of this gasser, when it was running poorly, it took just a few hours of run time to clog the filters with all sorts of goop.
No longer is this the case :).
My air/gas control valves are quite distant from the engine, but I have solved this problem by running the metered air and the gas to a mixer just ahead of the carburetor. This gets around the premixed gas volume detonation problems and eliminates the delays associated with remote versus local gas mixing.
Also, this junction is the perfect place to install the filter purge blower.
I do not have mixer vibration problems, as the valves are well away from the engine. While this solution works perfectly well, and allows very precise control over the proportions of the gas supplied to the 'grunter', I think yours is more elegant, and certainly less taxing on the wallet :) .
Ahhh yes, I had quite forgotten about your paper filter/gas dryer tube. I should give this a try, as it is surely a simple solution to a most vexatious technical issue.
I had wondered about some form of cyclone device, perhaps made from clear plastic, placed in the final feed to the engine - but your solution is almost exactly one zillion times easier to make.
Sounds like job for Mr Towelie :) .
I look back at my old FEMA videos and all of that tar all through the system that would collect and ruin everything and it makes me appreciate this new build that much more. I don't see ANY gooey tars anymore and if I do have a snafu it's only going to literally be about a tablespoon very light oily tar near the input of one of the filters but the PVC pipes stay clear as a bell! In the end, that's what the filters are for and as long as the gas hitting the engine is safe that's all that counts.
flash001USA
Ahhh, the good old days, when you could make all the tar you could possibly want ;) .
It was always interesting to see how the tar could get through all of the filters, no matter how tightly packed they were, and foul up the engine. Unlike you, I was not careful, and managed to munt a couple of engines before I finally learned my lesson.
It sure is nice to see the pipes and fittings remaining clean now. In the past, these would turn black in just a few hours - and the carburetor would get choked up with a mixture of soot and tarry goop.
Those days are gone now, for both of us :) .
The only downside that I am seeing is that the engine is a bit more difficult to start now.
In the past, the engine would start within 1 second from cold on woodgas.
Now it takes a bit more effort, but a teaspoon full of gasoline kicks the engine into life pretty quickly.
Even with these little problems, I am perfectly happy with the system - and will be relying on it during the winter for all of my power needs.
***** I mentioned this to Dan "docdcox" that if you purchase a propane conversion kit they will tell you to gap the plugs tighter and I feel this is due to getting a hotter spark to start up easier. When I did the propane test video I could NOT start the engine on propane until I primed it with a tablespoon of gasoline.
I start the engine on a tablespoon of gas then I will quickly choke the intake air to get the engine to draw on the woodgas. These big 6 inch filter tubes breathe much easier and the engine has more torque too. Dan and I have a difference of opinion on how much filtering is needed but that's like comparing Pepsi to Coke so we don't argue and we just agree to disagree. Somewhere along the line I may add a temperature port to my setup but from everything I have read the flare will tell you what the health of the gas is just by it's color and if it is transparent or milky so in reality many roads lead to Rome.
The way I see it is the filters are a piece of mind insurance because even with a well designed gasser anything can go wrong during a run especially a 4 or 5 hour run where maybe the gasifier bridges just for a few minutes which would be enough time to make the gas dirty then it could self correct and you may never know that it happened until it happened enough over time to hurt the engine so I'll use the heavier filtering if for no reason just to be on the safe side. Question: Do you have a temperature port on your setup and do you make any measurements?
Great stuff! i am going to build one of these as soon as you come out with the plan-set. making renewable energy "free", we need more people like you.
Hey Flash, I just had a quick question for you . I was wondering what the final length of the cooling pipes are. I just got all the parts painted and reassembled. I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out. Anyway, I'm in the process of building my Flash radiator, of course with a mazdalorean twist. I have a 3" street elbow on the output side of the gasifier , and 3" pipes till the upper manifold. I think the total area of all the down pipes combined is about 2 3/4". I also have a great motor for use as the blower. I'll have to build a housing to mount it in, but it seems like it will pull hard. I also have a nice donor vessel for the expansion tank. It will take some modifying , but I think it will work well. I will post another vid when I complete the radiator assembly.
Very shag-O-dellic! Ok to answer your question my pipes are 3 1/2 feet in length.
I'll be looking forward to the new video soon.
Thank you flash, your design is simple, you explain it well and the results speak for themselves. The auto grate shaker and wood hopper were gonna be my only suggestion, but you beat me to it. Thanks again
Maybe you have already thought out the vibrator for wood and grate, one simple system we used on a wood pellet storage tank was to fix an old wood / paint sander to the side of the tank and use a timer so it would come on and vibrate for 5 minutes every two hours which suited our needs at the time. We later built a store with better slope on the sides. Hope this helps or gives you a little inspiration. Thank you for a great video.
Thanks for the idea. I'm thinking of using a 12 volt windshield wiper motor with a small counter balance on the shaft for the shaker and a good stout 12 volt solenoid to shake the grate with. I'm going to design my own custom timers for this too.
I think you have some of the best videos on gasifiers, thank you for so much of your information. I hope to watch all of your videos and see more of your new ones. Again thank you!!!!! Gary
Gary thanks for the reply. This build isn't perfect but it works quite well at producing usable clean gas so I decided to put the build on youtube for others to try their hand at a small engine gasifier too.
Thank you, for your many hours of hard work in the development for your gasifier. I was wondering if you thought it could run an lp gas heater, or what changes might have to be made to the unit.
Thanks,
Hi Flash, incredible project! What kind of a fan are you using to pull the gas from gasifier? What is the wattage and cfm?
Thank you.
Sorry for the late reply to your question. This blower fan was originally used to inflate a yard ornament. It was used to inflate one of those 10 foot tall Santa Clause ornaments. I found the blower at a junk yard so it doesn't have an actual part number.
Very impressive, I always wanted to try this but was too busy at work. I recently became disabled and need something to do a little at a time so I might try your design. I made a gasified pellet stove last night and got nice blue flames on my first try. Will continue with videos but yours seem very thorough, thanks for the tips and sharing!
Kevin thanks for the feedback. This has been a learning process for me so this has improved over time. There are a lot others who have also built this along with incorporating their own ideas into the build. Check out www.miniwoodgas.com and join the blog. There are a lot of us out here that will help answer any questions you may have. Good luck.
I can't wait to see the 212 cc setup. That's the size engine in the generator I'd like to run from harbor freight. By the way , I don't know if you saw , but I did upload a Flashifier part 3. Any feedback is always welcome.
No I didn't get a youtube notification from your channel. I will go check it out now.
Before I forget, I added a manometer to my setup and I took a piece of sheet metal and made a cone that fits inside of the bottom half of my wood hopper that directs the wood right into the fire cone. I am working on automating the gasifier now and the 212 cc setup will follow that but right now I'm slammed with other projects so it may be a while but it will get done one way or another.
dammannc I tried to reply to your comment but there was no reply button. Go figure. I just cleaned the system 1 hour ago from the run I did in the video and there was not one drop of gooey tar ANYWHERE in the system.
No matter how blue the flare was on the FEMA, in the older videos, the whole system including all of the pipes leading up to the filters were always puddled or caked with tar including the filters too.
On the new setup, the flare is Halloween orange from soot being consumed at the flare port on the unfiltered side of the gasifier. You made an observation about the flare not being blue on the new setup and I've seen the flare color range anywhere from a baby blue to a solid white flare and even a mixture of white and red and even red with whites and blues and florescent yellows but with one big difference. No tar to be found even before the filters.
Here's where things really count and this is where the buck stops. If you noticed when I piped the gas through the filters, there was nothing (00.0) fog or smoke pouring out on the filtered side before it was ignited so in reality the gas was as clean as it gets. If the gas is invisible then there are no impurities in it.
I honestly don't know why the filtered flare can be different colors at different times during different runs. I do know this: (1) Is there ANY fog or smoke whatsoever on the filtered side? Nope so the filters are doing their job. (2) Does the engine run? Yes and quite well too. (3) Did I find tar in the system ANYWHERE after the run in this video? Yes inside of the wood hopper but not a drop in anywhere else throughout the system where it is critical.
So a nice blue flame is not such a big deal then?
dammannc To me I relate the blue flame as a clean gas but it seems that there may be a bit more to flare colors than meets the eye too. Keep in mind that I'm still new to this myself since I've only got a year and some change under my belt with gasifiers but this is what I do know to be good concrete information. I'm talking about UNFILTERED gas here.
A milky non-transparent yellow flare is almost always gas that has tar present in the woodgas that's being burned right at the flare itself. A Halloween or even a pale orange TRANSPARENT flare is almost always cleaner gas because the tar has been cracked so you have tar soots in the gas (cracked tar particles) being consumed right at the flare giving the flare the orange overtones. If the flare is not transparent there is a probably lot of garbage in it and that can be dust particles and or worse case, tar gas or BOTH.
Alright now let's talk about filtered gas that is INVISIBLE when the flare is not fired up. In my mind a blue flare would be a picture perfect gas but there are exceptions where you can have a white flare and I have had solid white flares before. I was told this is the hydrogen standing out in the gas. There are other byproducts in wood that can add some colors to a well a filtered flare as you burn different fuels so it's not cut and dry with just a blue flare.
I shoot for a gas that is filtered to the point of being invisible at the flare port before it is fired up. If it can't be seen then it is clean and if it burns and runs the engine that's where it counts too. Since going with this new build, my PVC pipes carrying the gas are tar free so I trust the gas. One more think that is important to mention. Tar gas ALWAYS travels as a vapor that you will see with the naked eye. Somewhere along the line I'm going to cover this topic in a video. Hey man I'm still a student too.
Cool, thanks for all the info, one of these days I will continue with mine. Probably abandon my "starter" FEMA project and start over with a build like yours.
+flash001USA I'm curious about 2 things... 1) what do you use for filter media along with how you built your new filter desing (can't find the video) and 2) Where are all the gasoline like by products like what comes from Mr. Teslonian's system? .... Great build by the way. I plan on doing this when I get my house in the mountains although a little bigger. I plan to use it as a working system to power a welder and charge a large tank for propane appliances. :D
+Eddie Mckie Eddie I'll get you the links on the filters a bit later today. The gasoline like by products that Mr. Teslonian' has are tars. Tar will burn once it's heated up and melted. Yes tar can be processed into lighter fuels but it's nor worth the effort for what you get in return. The better a gasifier runs the cleaner gas it produces which means the less "gasoline like by products " aka tar the system produces. What residual tars this gasifier does produce are captured by the filters because you don't want this getting into the engine. Tars will ruin an engine and you will be doing a tear down to clean tar out of the engine. Mr. Teslonian does produce gas (woodgas) but he is producing tar too which he is calling gasoline like by products,
Do you have any drawings of how you built your reactor? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Hi this build has went light years since this video. Go to www.miniwoodgas.com and contact the web host which will be me and let me know you would like the PDF build and I'll send you everything for free.
I take it when you lengthened the restriction zone bell, You had to make your chains longer? Did you have to modify your shaker handle assembly also? Bottom of the bell still 1" off of the grate? . I am also going to start out with a smaller engine so I will have to make a new flange and restriction ring anyway. As always I thank you for all the info you post. Keep em coming!!!
Everything was only extended by 2 inches so the mods were simple. I have around a 1-1/4 inch gap from the bottom of the bell to the grate. The wood I used last night was a bit too damp but the system still ran flawless with the exception of the gas mixture changing due to the vibration on the carburetor adjustments.
Have a question once the gasifier is producing clean gas...and it attached to the generator... are you using a blower fan in the system as it not clearly show if it removed
No the blower fan is removed from the system. Think of a gasifier as cigarette or a cigar. while someone draws on the cigarette the fire on the end of the cigarette burns brightly and hotter while producing smoke. A gasifier works the exact same way where the blower is drawing on the gasifier to draw air across the ember bed producing the gas. Once the gasifier is started, the engine takes the blowers place and the engine will draw air through the gasifier using it's intake in place of the blower. This is also why a gasifier is considered to be a "gas on demand" system. If you disconnect the engine or even the blower from the gasifier and let it sit, the gasifier will smother out in a few minutes. Hope that helps...
@@flash001USA Thank you it does... in one of your video you mention a new electronic filter....is that still work in progress any updates on your system or filters
The electrostatic filter is definitely a future project. That should hold a promise.
It looked like the flare had a lot of orange in it when you called it blue. Your other videos of the FEMA gasifier had a really blue flare. How is this one better?
the guy u were talking about with the big system does he make videos ? would love to see it as well ..
Here is a link to his latest video. Mine is small compared to his build. Gasifier/run with all stainless steel filter media
flash001USA thanks a bunch
EXCELLENT VIDEO! Your design is off the shelf with very doable modifications. The explanation you provide is important for both rookies and seasoned system builder's. The idea of a small system in conjunction with solar and /or wind with reasonable conservation and low energy use appliances makes this a reachable goal for those who have a desire bigger than their income to achieve sustainable life style. The excess heat from the gasifier itself could be harnessed as a space heater or oven of some sort further increasing the efficiency and importance of your design.
Hey thanks for the reply. The heat released from this gasifier is pretty low. People think that because you have a fire going inside of a closed container that it gets really hot but in reality the actual ember bed is just a bit bigger than a soft ball so there really isn't a lot of heat to capture. If you captured the heat from the gasifier and the engine you would have something that would warm a well insulated 25 x 25 room. I would probably set up some sort of heat exchanger if I was going to take that route.
Hey Flash,
Just came across your builds the last few days and like what you have done. This will definitely be my next project. Just got one question that has probably been answered a lot earlier. How do you make the biochar that you use in the initial light up and is it straight biochar or mixed with some kindling. Thanks in advance. Greg
Why do u use a down draft instead of an updraft?
Just a thought. In a pinch you could use the vibration from the gen thru a conx rod to the shaker. As always, your vids are great. Thanks for all the info.
Ricky that was on my mind too but I decided to make the leap and automate the shaker and the wood hopper with a timer controlled vibrator so that I'll have a bit more "fine tune" options with the setup.
Hello. How much do you consume per hour with this flame?
Always a pleasure to see it back
Hey flash!you have Inspired me to do a build.just one question.what size pipe did you end up useing?I have a 2"id stainless round tubing I'm wanting to use but I dont want it to not be able to run a 12hp moter!am I good?
I wound up using a 2-1/4 diameter straight pipe then I extended it like you see on the far left in the video with a bit of a bell shape but in the end I went back to the middle design of just a straight piece of 2-/1/4 inch pipe. It's simple and it works. I hope this answers your question.
very impressive flash,
Monster flare alright, i am running that new bell concept thru my head as i type.
I think your on a winner there,makes perfect sense to keep the bell tighter than the old traditional wide open design, seems to have boosted the flare also, less filtering doesnt seem to bother it either,,, the way the thermal updraft is with your flare ,you got great airflow goin on,
i am in the process of modifying the blower body and pulling the gasifier apart to fit a thermocouple sensor to the inside restriction zone and run a pyrometer from it.
Looks like you nailed all the boards in the right places this time ,, good job !
I'm working on the automated part of this now along with a few other minor things. The system was clean when I inspected the pipes so tar deposits are a non issue.
I checked out the video where you were boiling water so I'm guessing that you are seriously looking at a steam engine for your setup.
Do you keep the blower running while the generator is running? If so, why?
The blower is only used to create a vacuum to start it up. Once it's started the engine pulls a vacuum to keep it running. It works just like smoking a cigarette.
@@flash001USA that's what I thought but when you shut it down I could hear the blower running.
@@engineclinic Yeah I removed the blower but I just removed it from the gasifier so that I could hook the generator to the output instead of just burning the gas off. You are correct that I left the blower physically running but NOT drawing on the gasifier. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that statement.
Hey Flash , I had a couple of questions I was hoping you can answer. In one of your previous vids, you mentioned the temp of the barrel . I think you said somewhere around 350 F max. My question is , do you think inside that barrel is a bad place to run the plumbing to preheat intake air? I don't want to remove heat from the barrel if it is necessary to keeping the ember bed hot enough. I guess my thinking is it wouldn't affect the ember bed temps too bad because of all of the high temp concrete insulating the heat in.Your opinion here means alot to me because I was thinking of plumbing in an internal set of pipes between the hopper and the vessel to preheat the incoming air. That being said , If I did have a series of pipes traveling up and down around the inside wall of the vessel , do you think I would have to deal with draining moisture from these pipes? I've got plenty of room inside the vessel to run these pipes , and I thought it would be a great place to do it keeping the build clean.Any info you can share will as always be greatly appreciated.
I am just about done with the ignition port. Then comes the intake plumbing. Wich leads me to my next question. I have always been a firm believer in OVERKILL EVERYTHING. I measured two existing bungs in the vessel for two inch pipe. I was thinking of adding two new ones ( instead of using these ) somewhere between 3 and 4 inch pipe , then reducing on the way into the hopper to one inch to feed the ember bed. My question is do you think that large pipe size will cause any problems ? I know too small of a pipe will cause the air to move too quickly across the ember bed causing the tars to not be cracked thoroughly. I don't see how a large pipe could hurt, but I'd just like your opinion. My goal here is to have a gasifier that can run a large engine , with a minimum of major mods. I still plan on a small engine but you never know. Thanks . Joe
You could use internal plumbing to preheat the air. The worse case scenario would be the internal air pipes collecting any residual tars because the cooler pipes will act like a condenser.
Some people take the preheating method to the extremes and All Power Labs even uses the engine exhaust along with the heat from the gasifier to preheat the air. As far as water building up in the intake pipes it may be possible if you have U pipes inside of the gasifier then again, maybe the heat would boil out any trapped water. I can't really answer that question.
Your question about larger intake pipe reduced down to smaller pipe should be good to go. You will have less back resistance. I use a larger pipe and reduce too because to me it removes drag or back resistance.
Going back to heating the air, yes that does aid in cracking tar but Jim Mason
of All Power Labs made a comment that in my opinion hits the nail right on the head. "You never solve a tar problem. You can only manage it." In other words the better the build the less tar you will have but even then things can change internally even if it's for a minute or so that will let a bit of tar gas to pass through the system. That's where your filters come into play to give you piece of mind.
My old FEMA would produce enough tar to goo up the whole system and the filters were a nightmare to clean. Even though I don't preheat the air with this new system there is no comparison. Do I see tars. Sometimes but even then the plastic pipes stay shiny clean. I might see a bit captured in the filters but as long as my filtered gas is invisible as I have demonstrated in all of my videos I know that the gas is really safe so for me I don't try to get critical but that's just me.
flash001USA I think you brought up a great point about worst case scenario. If you have tars condensating on the pipes, you start to insulate the pipes in a way that would be inhibiting the the transfer of heat. Thanks for pointing that out. I did see the all power labs guys method with the exhaust from the engine. I guess thats the way to go. Thanks for the info. Joe
mazdalorean
The All Power Labs team have been at this a long long time so they really have a grasp on gasifiers compared to backyard builders. In the end it really comes down to just having a stable gasifier and decent filtering. The rest will fix itself.
i watched one of your earlier builds which created a perfect blue flame which is obviously cleaner, this one is orange, doesnt that make this one inferior to the earlier build?
Jayme on the surface I would have to agree with you but there is more to this than meets the eye. If you notice before I ignite the flare I zoom in on the flare tube and there is no smoke or steam releasing from the flare pipe at all. That's where it counts.
One more thing too. Live this flare was a very pale blue to the naked eyes but the camera doesn't quite pick it up the same way as it looks live. The flare is so clear that it actually picks up the color of the background behind it as I move around it with the video camera. The sun was setting as I was doing this run and the flare was so pale that it didn't even show up that well on the video.
Unburnt tar gas will look just like steam and it will settle on any surface it comes into contact with so what I think you (or I) are seeing is some of the compounds being broken down in the wood that are turned into a gas state..
I don't always use the same type of wood in every run so I'm guessing that it has to be something else in the gas other than tar gas or dust because I have totally 100% invisible gas after the filters before it is ignited and there is zero tar anywhere in the system after a run.
Sometimes I do see a pure blue flare and sometimes I see a pale blue flare with a touch of reddish orange overtones but what I've learned to look for is invisible gas past the filters. If the gas is invisible then it is as safe as it gets to put into the engine. I've got around 40+ hours run time on the generator and the engines carburetor is spotless clean and the plug looks healthy too. If I see anything other than invisible gas after the filters I will not run the engine until I determine that it is either just plain steam or tar vapor. One more important but useful tip. My flares are always orange BEFORE the filters.
Here is some basic color information for flares. Yellow flares = Tar in the gas.
Purple blue or purple red flares = Some light tars in the gas. Orange or even reddish orange flares = cracked tar particles (tar soot) in the gas.
I hope this answers your question.
was the earlier build an imbert design and this one a fema? It would be good to see a test of which flame contains the most energy. Eg you did a test of your generator on sin gas and lpg (your guys call it propane) and said it seemed to put out more power on lpg but idled better on sin gas. Would the blue flame system produce more watts from your generator?
Jayme Capurso
I've compared woodgas to propane and the propane is much more robust. This build is an Imbert and the air nozzle control is right next to the hopper lid. To be honest I don't know if the blue flare would run any better or not.
My guess is that there really wouldn't be any difference in the way the engine ran but I won't tell you that with 100% certainty. The flare in the video you commented on was a very dull pale blue with a bit of red and orange hues but mainly pale blue to the eye's. The camera didn't see what I was seeing in real time during the run. As far as gas quality, the type of wood and the moisture content of the wood do play an important factor in making woodgas. Are you thinking of building a gasifier?
Jayme Capurso
You were asking if the earlier build was a FEMA and my first build was but this build has always been an Imbert and I'm still trying out a few ideas just to see how it affects the gasifier's performance.
If my cone is 6in on top and 2in on bottom 5 inches in length, with a 1 1/4 ring welded to it. What's the highest power generator i will be able to run. In your opinion. I'm thinkin of generators from Harbor Freight? I'm to the point of sinkin it in my 55 gallon barrel. I'm gettin excited!!! Your the best Flash!!!!
Hi Pam, please keep in mind that I flew by the seat of my pants on a lot of this stuff so it was all about experimenting to fine tune things. I can run my 5Hp engine with no issues and I'm willing to bet that I can easily go up to 12.5 Hp with what I have now and a worse case would be to open the 2 inch restriction up by a 1/2 inch to 2 -1/2 inches and that would probably handle a 15 to an 18 Hp engine with no issues too.
I cannot stress this enough. The wood you use for fuel is the key to burning clean! I used seasoned wood and mine comes from dried out dead branches from trees around the yard and if I see some good wood someone shoved to the side of the road while I'm driving I'll stop and grab it too.
If the wood is damp from either being too green or it got rained on you WILL produce poor gas and steam and tar no matter how well thought out your build is. Steam and tar go hand in hand. Last night when I did this test I started up with biochar but my FIRST big cup of wood was a bit too damp and I produced some tar but only during the start-up and once the gasifier got hot the tar went away but steam from water can hinder the gasifiers ability to reach the temperatures needed to crack the tars. This is also why a good filter system isn't a bad idea because it is your "piece of mind" insurance just in case something goes wrong while you are running the gasifier and it causes a bit of tar to show it's ugly head. You can have bridging issues or other issues that may cause the gas quality to drop even if if's for only a few minutes that causes some tar and then the issue self corrects and you have good gas without ever knowing that you had some tar for a moment so yeah the filters do pay off. Sorry, I didn't mean to write a book here.
Have you every taken any vacuum readings on your system when running. I have started to build a sys. and I think i have read that you need about 6" w.c.(water colum)
You read minds sir. That's of the next things I'll be adding to this system asap.
you can make a simple Manometer out of clear tubing by fasting it to a board in the shape of a U with about 12" to 14" legs and marking it of in 1" increments.and filling with colored water.
john reb Making the meter is simple enough and I have quite a few little things I'm finishing up on this gasifier. So far, I'm very pleased on the stability of the system. I actually disassembled everything and cleaned it today and the 2 hour burn resulted in zero tar anywhere in the system other than the wood hopper so that was good to see and the bigger tri-filter pipes made a huge difference on how well the system breathes. There isn't enough hours in the day for these kinds of projects.
Man, Flash this was a awesome video. now on your website do you have this full system spec's i got ppl interested in it now.
I wish that I could tell you that I had exact measurements of everything in the build but you got to keep in mind that I was flying by the seat of my pants and making changes "on the fly" as I was building and learning so I felt the best route to take was to just let others see what I built with the how to videos and if they had even just the basic mechanical skills they would be able to knock the build off.
cool, but i got one question how do you place the air inlet, i don't want to be too far down but i ma not sure if there is a to high either....
thomasheisler
My nozzle goes 1 inch deep into the fire cone. This way I'm not burning wood in the bottom of the fuel hopper which would waste wood.
cool
Thanks Jakob. This project is addicting once you start on it especially when you see an engine run on woodgas!
Hey flash today is October 28th 2017 I've been watching your videos for a little while I was wondering if you have a sketches on how to build a gasifier. Thank you very much
Yes. Contact me through flash001@rocketmail.com and I'll send you a PDF file. Be sure to put "asifier build plans" in the header so I know it's not spam.
Can you use you wood gas for cooking ie cook top or bbq
Technically you can but you would need to store the gas in a few big inner tubes with a piece of plywood on top of them where you placed a few cement blocks to force the gas through some tubing to feed a small stove. In the end you would be better off just cooking with the wood directly.
Another great video great job flash I am learning a lot from your videos. Joe
Flash, great work, I am going to attempt to duplicate your project for a 13 hp gen system. Having a backup plan is smart thinking. Do you have any drawings or part list on your unit? If so I would be greatful for a copy. Thanks, your videos are very helpfull
have you thought about automating your shaker
+Rebel James Yeah it's all in the works. I had to put this aside last year for personal reasons but I hope to finish the build this year.
Turkey day ended up being a Flash001USA marathon. I try to periodically watch all of the imbert gasifier videos to refresh my memory on all the changes and upgrades you've made since the beginning. I have been hammering away at my radiator, and I have another question for you. Does the output of your cooling radiator go straight into the center of your expansion tank , or do you have it set up like a cyclone filter? It looks like it goes straight in the center , but I wanted to find out for sure. Also I was wondering if you changed anything with the filter design other than the obvious inline setup ? Is the fourth filter still the paper towel concept? Are the first three filters filled with the same materials as shown in the tri filter video? As always , any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe.
Yeah the output of the gasifier feeds straight into the side of the bottom tank but not as a cyclone configuration. I really don't need it because the gas is slowed down a lot in the expansion tank. Think of it like a gear ratio where the input pipe is 2 inches going into a 12 inch diameter tank so anything in the gas just falls out and washes to the bottom of the tank. I come right out of the top tank to the first and now the only capture jar before it goes into the filters. To be honest, I couldn't be happier with how this setup works.
I have a few questions about the gasifiers you built, I put up a video of my design of a gasifier if you watch it I habe a few question you might be able to answer
ok your specs. fire cone 3in dia 5inch tall 5 inch dia with your 1inch tall riser on it..... your bell is 2in dia to 2.5 dia that's 5inch long now... ok you got 10inch total length that's cool.....but the fire cone smallest is 3 inch and your bell smallest is 2 inch... could it be redesigned to both being 2 inch for smallest dia. or would screw up the main point of it, or would that be in another mod type of idea? I am in the marking out stage for cuts.
looks good but ill tell u what if u take the bark off the wood first it will burn much hotter and cleaner bark has a sorta natural fire retardant in it and this is probably what is clogging ur grate i only have to shake my grate once at the very beginning and that is it it dosent seem to clog whats weird is my gasifier only has a 3"rest. and it makes gas soo clean all my fitting are still white and my carburetor is still clean i found that a pice of oil impregnated pice of fome rubber from like a couch makes a good last filter im running that now and it seems to work well BTW i cant choose which vids for ur web site i think ill let u choose use any u want =3-
You may be right about the bark. The wood I used last night was a bit too damp but even then with the exception of the carburetor settings moving around (I already have a fix for that snafu too) the system ran good. I had a lot of steam moving in the system but I didn't see any tar issues. I had some light tars during the start-up when I added my first 4 cups of wood but once the system warmed up that went away and the filters and the jar didn't appear to capture anything but water and soot. The gasifier always acts different with different moisture content in the wood fuel but as long as it runs stable and clean where it counts (At the engine) that's all I can ask for. The flare was damn well transparent even in lower light so that was different too. As to my grate I have always had to shake it a bit here and a bit there and I had to do that even on the FEMA but it behaves and clears very well so that isn't an issue for me.
I like it, sure would like to have one..
Nice work, your doing great with all this so if I can help.. try using a LP generator so you can hook direct if you pressurized the gas into propane tanks and used that as your delivery for fuel. only use the gasifier to make the gas, then store it. Perhaps integrate the gasification to use the heat from the burn chamber to heat your home and crack that tar down to useable liquid fuel with the same heat ur using to create the gas. Your just scratching the surface my friend. It's great to produce clean gas but even crazier to condense the gas into a liquid fuel. Oh the possibilities. Also, have a look into membrane fuel cells. That gas is Hydrogen and Carbon monoxide so a Hydrogen fuel cell would be another way of harvesting the energy while producing the gas. ( also would give a pure hydrogen gas if ya route the output line from the fuel cell to be pressurized in a tank.) cheers
Jake thanks for the feedback. You wouldn't be able to use an LP carb for this due to the fuel to air ratios. You are better off using an external carb dedicated to the woodgas. Some people experiment with compressing woodgas but I won't go there for two reasons (1) Unlike propane it cannot be compressed down to a liquid so the run-time is next to nothing. You would be better off filling a air mattress and running from that. (2) It's outright dangerous compressing woodgas due to the mixture could get air in it and you now have a potential bomb on your hands. Woodgas is at it's "best" as an on-demand gas where it is also in it's safest form to handle.
flash001USA thanks for the feedback. I'm experimenting with liquid nitrogen to super cool the gas, removing the Carbon monoxide and leaving pure hydrogen. ( hydrogen boils at 14 Kelvin and Carbon monoxide boils at 70 ish. that means the only thing taken out is CO. ) anyways thanks and I'll keep in touch
If you have a way to professionally scrub the gas and refine it then it might be feasible. If you do this please make a video. I would like to see that process and how it is done.
thumbs up from Italy! Keep going man... ;-)
Thank you very much
nice~!!
like it
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