How To Make Wood Gas Biofuel (and an experimental gas collection method) 

My grandfather bought a car dealership and garage 6 days before WW2 hit and he didn't sell a car for 6 years. He survived by selling parts and making wood gas generators that were attached to the front of cars. They were huge units about the size of washing machines but worked a treat as gas/ petrol was in short supply. He used to pump what little fuel there was out of the bowser by hooking up a bicycle to the pump and running a belt and pulley to it. My dad as a kid was the one who did most of the peddling. I still occasionally look at the photos and wonder in amazement how innovative they were back then.

I’m kind of obsessed with survival and starting from “The Basics” in terms of survival and working up in terms of technology. This, is incredibly interesting and useful.

One method of charcoal production we used to use here was a 44 gallon drum on it's side on a short stand with a pipe for the wood gas that would feed back and under the drum and into the small fire beneath it. Little camp fire would heat the drum packed with wood, and the gas would then be burned off to continue the process. This would produce large quantities of charcoal which we would then use in a furnace for metal working.

I thought this would be a complicated thing, requiring some special equipment. I was wonderfully surprised to see you using nothing more than cans, jars, and pipes to extract the gas and compress it too. Awesome!

I have watched several of these now. How is this guy so likable? Great videos.

Back in the day, I saw a version of this that used several tractor tire inner tubes as the collection vessels - which were easy to pressurize by placing a weighted platform over them.

I'm impressed by how high quality your results were with such a simple process. You managed to distill quite a pure byproduct from something that's essentially renewable. All using methods so basic a high school student could replicate them. I think this kind of work is valuable.

4:00 To remove the steam, a long spiral descending coil in the form of a cone, even with ice resting in the conical coil, would condense the steam to liquid to drip out the bottom(like a classical still), leaving much of the volatiles to burn. (some might also condense like tars and creosote, would need to control the final gas temperature to prevent this)

Very glad you did this experiment Ben. My unpublished results are exactly the same. I've been wondering if the cleaned gas could be compressed, and used as viable source to fuel a mini foundry when propane isn't available. Also would be great to distill the smoke and let it settle into layers. I hear you can extract acetone and methyl alcohol. Definitely faster (and nicer) than working with manure.

Need to make a nozzle with venturi oxygen mixing in like on a torch or bunsen burner etc... your gas rushing by pulls air in the holes at the base, they mix in the nozzle and with that might be able to make a flame that sustains itself

This is really cool. For more efficient collection and pressurization of the gas, you could use something taller like a water barrel, and fix your collection chamber at the bottom of it at the start

I have a Solo stove (portable backpacking stove) that"s configuration is set up to burn the wood gas coming out of the stove. I didn't know the working theory of charcoal or wood gas but watching your video enlightened me as to what's going on. There are thousands of processes and chemical reactions around us that we see but don't understand, think about or appreciate what's actually happening right there in front of us. Nice work.

The Quality of life in this clip is off the charts

I suspect that the parrot is the one giving you ideas! ;-)

Thank you! What an amazing video! I never knew that heating an organic material such as wood in the absence of oxygen would cause the chemical bonds in the solids to break down and form gasses. This is absolutely fascinating!

As usual I, and I am sure I could say, "we" are not disappointed. I have known about this process and that it was used during WWII but I have often wondered how they may have filtered the smoke and tar from the newly recovered wood gas. This was a great way to do in my opinion. I have had the opportunity to talk with a few people who had experience with this during that time period and one of those was a dear uncle. He said he watched the Germans do this and one of the things they did was to use the freshly made charcoal to heat the next round of wood chunks. One other rambling thought was that when you were 1st lighting your gas after weighting it with the rocks. I made a similar in water collector for a hydrogen generator. I had some success by putting the collection vessel in a ring that allowed it to go up and down but it couldn't tip over. I know that natural gas piped in our homes only has a few pounds of pressure so I placed a two lb. weight on top to give me equal pressure (don't know if my tube size and nozzle made a huge difference or not) for and even less poppy burn. It worked out well for HHO gas torch. I don't want to suggest anyone handle such HHO, just saying what I did was ok for myself and my situation. All gases have potentially dangerous characteristics.

Thanks for the video, probably the easiest explanation of wood gas i've seen. The transparent collection containers was helpful, I had to go back in the video to make sure the fish tank was actually clear at the beginning of the process.

You're such a happy dude

This knowledge is so practical and extremely useful for rural areas anywhere in the world

I LUV u'r ' Go 4 it ' attitude. It's the BEST WAY to educate oneself. God Bless U young man. ALOHA.

As far as I know from my grandpa when they had wood gas to run their cars after WWII here in Germany, the big advantage is you don´t need to store woodgas at high pressure. After you cleaned the gas from tar with some water cooling and a sawdust filter, you can blow and collect it inside a balloon. Even the balloon will give you enough pressure to make it usable to run an engine. Just make sure it´s a vacuum system with no oxygen coming in.

Came from Codyslab recommending one of your videos and I'm hooked. You thoroughly explain everything, have very clever designs and ideas and your editing is fantastic. The best part is your huge grin when you see something working the way you wanted it to 😂 You are one cool ass dude and it's nice to see innovative people like you because this world seems to be losing people like you, Cody, and other RU-vidrs alike because we rely so heavily on corporations and gov't to do the work for us while we are the ones that get screwed in the end for letting them do so.

Well now i understan! I have had a wak understaning about how to make the gass, but this short video gave me all the info i need! Thanks

You sure are a smart guy. I happen to be a chemist, but I haven't done that many "life hacks" like making fuel from trash, or wood as you have. It's a fun method you used, with the fish tank. Thanks for the video.

Very cool experiment! I actually have a friend that converted a Geo Tracker to run on wood gas and it works very well. Much better than I thought it would. Thanks again for sharing your method! --Eric O.

Just a quick shout out: You're awesome. Thanks for the great vids and good content. It's refreshing to see passionate RU-vidrs out there educating other folks on the how's and what's of the natural world. Definitely going to be putting your education to good use! Thank you.

I have been trying to understand how it works. You just explained it in less than 12 minutes. Thank you sir.

Awesome! This is the clearest explanation of producing wood gas that I've seen so far.

"Experimental Collection Method" Makes a Gravity Bong

GUYS ITS WILL WHEATON

the level of simplicity in the video is unmatched! thanks

I just tried it, and it works surprisingly well! Thanks for informing me!

Great video, not sure if it was mentioned but, because you started harvesting gas right from the beginning of the burn, I believe you would have collected all the oxygen that was in the can with the sticks. If you look at the volume of the can vs the collector, there is probably 30% maybe? Which would have made quite a leaner mix of gas. I wonder if you did this again but started collecting after it had run for a bit, purging the can so the gas would have been more pure/ a richer mix of wood gas. The flame then should have burned constantly out of the tip

Great video! The tank of water was sooo black after filling the vessel just once.

i never knew tar can be produced this way .. very informative .. great video , great work

This has given me a great idea for a secondary heat chamber on a wood stove. Now if I can figure out a way to get the tar it produces back in to the wood stove to use it as fuel for the fire as well. That way it doesn't collect in the gas chamber. Thanks!!

I love your bird! Also for an alternative collection method you could lead the gas into a small container in which the soot will be deposited, possibily full of water to scrub the gas, then have a nozzle coming out and fill balloons!

Try pumping it out of the small container with your pvc vacuum pump then using the outlet of the pump to pressurize the wood gas into a separate, detachable container.

Your videos are always so easy to understand. Many thx!

a bird in a harness is the cutest thing ive seen all day !

another great video!

He looks like James Arthur doin' some Science and Engineering hahaha. Nice content man. Keep it up.

Ben: Nice to see you involved in Music plus Science plus Survivalism! Greetings fro a South American, Brazil. I myself am a prepper since 1.995. I like nature, trekking, antiques, craftsmanship, detectorism, art and so on. See you!

As an artist, the first thing I thought about was using your charcoal for mark making. Awesome!

It's good to see you doing a video on this! I've been interested in wood gas (also known as producer gas) for a while now, ever since I learned that it was used to power cars back during WWII. There was even a training tank converted to run off it! Minus the turret and most of the excess weight, of course. Unfortunately the problem with producer gas cars is that if everyone starts using them, it creates mass deforestation issues. On the other hand, if you have one yourself, all you need to drive cross-country is an axe and a saw. I'd love to see all the scrap wood from mills and other places being used to produce wood gas. Maybe even wood from demolished buildings and such too? Who knows? There's certainly an untapped potential out there. Eventually we may need to start seriously considering it once other sources of fuel begin to dry up or become more expensive.

I made a gas collector out of a 5 gallon bucket and an giant upside down nalgene beaker. I had 4 half inch PVC tubes as guides. The PVC tubes we're spaced from the sides of the bucket in order to loosely allow the straight sided nalgene beaker to slide up and down in the bucket. Drill a hole in the bottom (now the top) of the beaker, a couple of rubber washers, a bulkhead hose barb. Fill the bucket with water, push the beaker down so that it is flush with the water, hook up the hose to gas source. The beaker will rise as it fills with gas. Place a weight on top of the beaker to increase gas pressure.

Ramble on as led zeppelin sings. You addressed so many awesome questions. Fantastic episode thanks.

I always said the best inventions are made around the kitchen table and sooooo 2 speak a fish tank in the back yard has proven correctly, lol. I loved your posts and you definitely explained things so even an old Marine like me can understand. God bless you and thank you again..

You might try using the nozzle from a propane torch so you get air mixing with the wood gas for better combustion. Good video!

We used to call that a gravity bong.

That was a nice cheap intro to wood gas. Great capture method similar to methane digester capture and use by weighting a sliding sleeve in a container. Appreciate the video..

You are a pretty smart guy with good ideas, Thank you. In gardening circles the charcoal is desired product referred to as bio char as a great soil supplement.

You need an air mix extension, like propane torches have, a jet in the center and air is allowed to come in from the sides and mix with it prior to the point of ignition. It might work. Also you may have too much water vapor in it, try running it through a back of rock salt, or a box of salt to remove water.

Instructions unclear. I created a Level 3 Nuclear Biohazard.

Your method is really smart. It's a great filtering method. If you wanted to store the gas you would only need a pump to compress the gas and then direct the pump to a gas tank that withholds pressure.

I love your channel. This wood gas video is just a typical example of your top notch content. Biochar/activated charcoal might be a good parallel, but standalone video idea.

Nice bong

you are a great youtuber. I enjoy your work. Please keep it up!

Thank you, this will help me to give an example of how to create energy with biomass. God bless you!

a bigg thank you from sri lanka!!! your experiment is immensely valuable to us. we support your channel by all means brother....

Some homes used to run on wood gas. Not the most efficient but it was a great use for the byproduct of charcoal that would other wise be wasted

keep uploading such wonderful videos👍😄

Loved the vid, Thankyou so much, I was thinking of a cooled serpentine to condense the steam from the gas so it arrives in the the collection chamber already separated. Superb project. Rob

Congratulations Ben ! You did a fantastic job ! Seeing videos like that just make my day , kudos to you 💪💪🤙

Nice setup. If I could suggest a few improvements: 1. Have your container of gas at the bottom of the tank all the time, then you won't need to lower it. 2. The cap on the end made he pressure too high: I think that's why it burned better without the cap. It may burn better still if a little air is mixed with the gas before you put the lighter to it: like the mixer valve on a Bunsen burner. 3. Cool the gas before it goes into the container: put a wide section of pipe under water so that the tar condenses out. A wider pipe will take longer to get blocked with tar. These are genuine suggestions, I don't claim to be an expert and I don't have the resources to try myself, so offer these suggestions to you so that you may try them for me!

I'm starting a fundraiser to get NHIL an iron for his shirts.

I checked an old book I own called The Lore of Still Building, and some stills use something called a “slobber box”. This is just a wider chamber with a spigot or valve on the bottom that you hook up in the middle of the outfeed tube. This might help your design, as such devices are used to collect tars and impurities and drain them off separately. But your wood gas videos are very interesting to watch and I’ll be trying this as it will work better than the methods I use now.

I still have a 70s mother earth news magazine with a article about fueling a vehicle with wood turned to gas. I haven't read it for about 15 years now but will b digging it out.

During the second world war many German vehicles like trucks and cars were equiped to produce and use woodgas as fuel. They were called Holzvergaser. This was due to the oil shortages at the time.

It would be cool to see this compressed and running something like a stove or water heater

Thank you, I now know that I can use not only wood to make charcoal but also I can save the gas as fuel. mucho Appreciato

Oh! What a smart looking bird! What a joy to see that bird/mascot in every video. I envy you to have such a nice playfll friend... Good luck in your life endeavours!

It's possible to make bio crude oil out of wood and algea could you possibly make something in a simple and easy method

if you put a condenser on the brake line (like a shine still) and then had the line running it to a jar with a lid to collect the tar and then a line out of the jar running to a compressor to compress the gas in to a lpg tank to collect it for future use, would that work? i may have to try it myself in the future. i will just have to make shure to get all the air out of the system before attempting to compress the gas so that it wont have a chance to ignite because of the pressure.

People make the process seem so complicated thanks for making it simple.

I love your channel! You do things i like to do. This one is new for me.. im thinking in using it for cooking.. but obviously i need a pressurized container... keep spreading good knowledge.. some day we gona need it in real life.

"- dear, walk the parrot, please. - ok, i'll take it to make some wood gas"

I'm a little sad that a channel like this gets less views and subs than something like "king of random" who boils seawater......... this channel deserves more subs!!!!

Good work well done. I think it is very useful in an era of energy crisis.

Ok guys this is the crocodile hunter of science! Dirty hands band aid green shirt makes him so reliable. Good luck man!

0:17 homie recorded himself dragging on the bong for the audio effect.

I want to see this done a second time, but with using a series of “doublers” where the gas is passed thru methyl alcohol and/or ethyl alcohol to capture methanol. Kind of like a thump keg or thumper in alcohol distillation. Weigh the quantities present both before and after to see if it collects some methanol, and also check the “proof” using a proof and tralles hydrometer. I bet it would work well.

Just one of your many superb videos!! Thank you sir.

dude you litterally just made a massive bong for wood gas. amazing

Lmao he basically made a fish tank bong

Hey Nighthawkinlight you should try bending the brake line at an angle in which it points the gas back into the oxygen intake to double the efficiency of your charcoal wood stove. P.s. If you make a small bubbler system for the gas to run through before going back into the stove, it will clean the gas before it burns

This was really cool! I have been a fan of wood gas for a while now.

wow! nice vid. very very helpful vid. that black liquid can be used in organic farming as pest control, improves soil quality, its called mokusaku (wood vinegar) ive been searching on how to collect the gas, this by far is the best thanks for giving me an idea on how to collect the gas very very helpful vid.

I got one of those Aussie *_"QUIT SMOKING"_* ads before the video. I think it thinks that I wanna use this thing to *SMOKE.*

I would love to see a way of capturing the wood gas and transferring it to a pressurized filtered tank

Great video . Will be trying a few different ones myself . Thanks

Great video your idea for a water filter worked especially well, great ideas thanks for sharing.

In Scandinavia, in WWI, they ran busses off wood gas.

nighthawk has the baby face of a Confederate general I mean that in a good way

Thanks so much for this video. First time I heard of wood gas.

Great job ! That was so awesome ! And the things you used for your experiment were simple ,but hey it worked !

Now to find away to filter the smoke and tar out quickly and effectively!

Try to compress it to some kind of gas tank and try to use it in for example burner, that would be great.

Very enjoyable. Instructive, too. There is a guy with a RU-vid that shows his contraption for catching Hydrigen gas he produces by electrolysis. It is a large bellows (like with plywood sides large enough to trap a 15 gallon trash bag and when the bellows is full it triggers a compressor that sucks the H2 out if the bag and puts it in a cylinder. He is careful (don’t ask me how) to not get any air or O2 in the cylinder.

Need more people like you ❤ the video and content.