a couple of things you might look into :- 1. spend a couple of days learning to weld. 2. learn how you can make the gases SWIRL, this makes better us of time in the CHAMBER. 3.use close to horizontal in and out augers, with vertical in & out feeds, these vertical feeds must be long/high enough to act as air locks. 4. managing air in is easier to control with larger burn mass.5. cause the burner to swirl the burn and you must manage the air volume.
All of your ash is unburned hydrocarbons (fuel) and the ash drop should be shaped like a shallow funnel, then there should be some kind of capture bucket. Your air should be pipes with the holes facing down throughout the combustion chamber. About 2/3rds up the combustion chamber should be preheated air for burning smoke. This will also create higher heat and a faster moving exhaust gas. Also, charcoal could easily be made in the combustion within enclosed wood filled pipes with a tiny hole in them. Good luck.
Thanks for being real. Well done. I hope the agitator solves most of the problems. It was on the brink of running. Looking forward to test 2. I was also amazed at how much water came out of the condenser. I watched from start to test one in one day. That's a rainy day for you. Keep up the Awesome channel.
In the condenser. It looks like you have a fair bit of Creosote. You get rid of that by running your reactor hotter. In my opinion for what it is worth it appears you had too much oxygen in the top part of your reactor. I suggest using a larger fuel and if you can focus your oxygen only to a small area you might get the high temps you need.
Thanks, yeah will be running larger fuel next test, just wanted to try it, my biggest problem was that the agitator wasn't working, that's been fixed, so getting ready for next test, cheers
You should adapt this to run large solid fuel, the bigger the wood input, the smaller the input energy to get the fuel. I'd run full rounds of 6" logs with a charcoal base and a grate above the agitator that would keep the large solids from plugging the grate. Better to load full logs with minimal processing cost, than spend gas and time making the furl smaller. Cheers and best of luck, love your videos keep up the great work!
Thanks, yeah I do want to try the smaller fuel as I have an endless supply of it, the system is designed to run with a stirrer just like spanner Re so might have to install sooner rather than later, cheers
Thanks for sharing your gasifier video. I always enjoy making my own predictions and seeing how close my thoughts are to what actually happens. I do think the fuel you are using is a bit too small. As for the flash back out of the ignition port, if air gets past the char bed it can mix with the gas and cause your fuel to unload itself even out through the top of the hopper. It does look like it was getting in through your access door. That's dangerous. Also you may want to install a check valve before your blowers. This way if they shut down for any reason you don't have air rushing into your pipes creating a bomb. I'm in the process of making one he'll of a fuel processing system. I plan on making 3/4" cubes right from logs. You'll have to keep an eye out for this next video. It's like nothing I've ever seen anyone do so far. Probably in a month or two it should be able to be tested. Oh by the way, check out Saint gobains self stick high temperature gasket material. It comes in rolls and works great for high temperature doors. Anyway thanks for the show. I look forward to seeing your next run. Joe
Thanks Joe, yeah I've got a few items that need sorting, I have gone over to a chunkier fuel, just done the 2nd run, went better, still problems to be rectified. I'm very much looking forward to your next video, as I'm thinking of ways to automate making chunky fuel, cheers
Well done on your first ever gasifier test :) . You have made all sorts of valuable discoveries, which will surely lead to some little improvements here and there. You DO have a flashback arrestor in the flare port feed pipe right? Bitter experience has taught me of the need for this, along with an emergency air purge valve on the input end of the blowers. Keep the magic happening, and burn up all those pesky little woodgas bugs for us :) .
Next time your making charcoal don't bother with a small vessel like that , just use your fire pit , or a old bath tub start a fire and throw your branches on and as the flame die's down cover with more wood then as that flame die's down another layer of wood , carry on like that till you have enough charcoal , shovel into a metal drum and loosely put the lid on and allow the charcoal too cool down before clamping the lid on , if you need to make the finished charcoal smaller then use a shovel and some fly screen or a larger sieve type to get the dust out , and try chunking your wood rather than chipping it , as you now know . Great build as i have said before soon have an aching face and be smiling from ear to ear .( think Lemons ) :)
Thanks mate, yeah I've gone over to chopping the wood much better result, the one thing with making charcoal by off-gassing in a vessel is I don't lose much to oxidation, well apart from the timber burnt to create the heat, I see what you're saying, I did think about it, cheers
Hello, Great job ! From my experience, this gasifier type need wood blocs ( size should be about 1/3 to 1/8 of the reactror diameter, you will have to much pressure lost with wood chip
Thanks mate, was hoping to run smaller fuel as I have heaps, the system is designed to run with a stirrer just like spanner Re, will probably have to install it sooner rather than later, cheers
Yeah i build one to and te best that i let it work on bigger fuel, and maybe instead of 2 cilinders for condensator u can use a big barrel. It loses more water and u dont need to put so much succion on the system
Ur grate/shaker quitting, fuel size + that door leak caused the problems. (As u know) I like ur design overall. Im looking forward to more vids. My question is: where's the ash falling to? N how cld it b airtight w that open? Also, what if the air inlet was piped directly to the burn zone? (Or what about multiple jets placed) To achieve higher temp.. I hope u come up w something great. My design is a combo of diff ideas from diff gasifier builds. (What I thinks best from em) + it's about 75% based on ur model.. so I need to see u nail this! Good luck
Thanks, in time there will be an airtight ash collection chamber at the bottom, my design does not have jets like an imbert, it's more like a drizzler type, 2nd test coming up soon with bigger fuel, cheers
Very nice! In my experience it's better to sieve the wood chips, in order to have a bit bigger pieces. You have a kind of mix, with too much sawdust in there I think, it can clogg the output.
The air going through the gasket would explain the little explosion at the beginning... The problem could be resolved by putting some grease onto the gasket? Maybe it would melt with the heat...
very exciting project! My aunt had stormy weather in N. Zeeland too. Question: I've seen similar setups with normal wood (pellets) not charcoal. Why is it needed to charcoal the woodchips?
It is best to start on charcoal so you don't produce tar, if starting from cold on woodchips it will produce tar until up to temperature, on following startup the system is already primed with charcoal, cheers
Man, be careful air testing, like that. I worked for Campbell Hausfeld for a few years. I saw several air compressors fail back before they went to hydro testing. The amount of energy released is amazing. Hope you kept that down low on the pressure. Not trying to be a smart a$$. Just don't want to see a dead... you. -David
Thanks mate, no worries all good here, the vessel is under vacuum, the blowers are sucking air through the system, what happened was caused by the charcoal bed slumping below the ignition port and me blocking off the inlet at the top etc. Next test will be more careful, cheers
@whathappensintheshed I mis-understood how you was testing the welds on the system. A common thing is to pressurize the system and wet the welds with soapy water and look for bubbles. I thought that was what you was doing in the early part of the video. It can be vary dangerous. Something similar to the size of that vessel pressurized (to check the welds) to a level of 50psi would have more potential energy stored that a pound of TNT. I've built a crap ton of gasification system a few years back, not sure why the algorithm is populating my feed again with them but... if you ever need a custom part made, I have a pretty extensive shop. -David
@@GorillaStrengthEquipmentyou ain't kidding.. I over see hydro testing at refineries and when ever we have to do pneumatic testing due to water weight constraints, I try to get my job done asap because of the energy stored in pneumatic testing.
Thank you so much for an excellent series. I'd like to get in touch with you directly but could not find a way to send a direct message or email. I'm interested in building an omnivorous gasifier. Thank you
Thanks, glad you liked the videos, feel free to message me in the comments, I keep it all seperate from our personal email, although I did produce detailed drawings, I have deviated from them quite a lot, to the point that some of what I'm doing is done on the fly, you should do videos on your build, things have been somewhat quiet on the gasifier front, cheers
20:13 "I wasn't expecting that" Man, you're building a wood gasifier, aren't you? Of course there's going to be a gas build up if you don't make an outlet. You're lucky it didn't explode in your face like that gasifier incident you had earlier because pressurized jet of flaming gas with steam to the face would be far nastier than puff of some ignited charcoal dust. At least you're wearing glasses by default so your eyes are somewhat protected.
I only make charcoal for the initial start up, once I've got this up and running properly I won't need to make anymore. Was I to start on wood it would generate a lot of tar gas before reaching 1000 deg, cheers
Yeah fuel is way too small. You need chips around 25mm X 25 -40mm X 10 - 20 mm thick. Your machine looks like it will run chunked up fuel as well. Blocks ranging from 25mm on up to 50mm square. The smaller the fuel more density it has. The more density the more pyrolisis gas produced. Your reduction can only process so much and its being overwhelmed with this high dense gas. This is where all that water and tar is coming from because that is what is bypassing your reduction zone. Then you have that clogging issue that is leading to lower temps also factoring in the poor water shift and tar cracking performance.
Yep sure no worries, it's from Paramount Browns Adelaide South Australia, it got delivered up here to South East Queensland, model SCT300, I'm doing a video on it should be out next month, cheers
Yeah I know what you saying, getting the new welder has helped though, I guess manage heat distortion better, turn it up a bit and slow down in some cases, just keep going, cheers
Dont let all these self proclaimed called "weld police" talk spit. All they can do is weld. Thats it. Congrats to them right? They're God's gift to tradesmen.
Haha nah it's all good mate, I definitely could do with some welding lessons, but anyway I'll keep hacking away at it, something is bound to happen, thanks for the feedback, much appreciated, cheers
I have few remarks about your video: I don't understand why you are making charcoal to burn in your wood gasifier. You have been burning the very gas that you want to make in your gasifier, go figure. I have seen people using fire wood in their gasifier. I notice that you are using your crescent wench the wrong way. Also, you don't tight a plate in sequence. The correct way is a crisscross pattern :) It appear to me that you are somewhat mechanically challenged :( Anyway, wood gasifier were used in Germany during WW2 to run cars. They looked like a water heater bolted to the back of a car.
