WOOD POWER! Off Grid Electricity from Wood - Part 2 

Check out the gassifier build in Part 1: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HhnrKHF8BWU.htmlsi=qTbET5bQFClhVyaU

The real hero of the video is the generator starter.

Being a father ....the most impressive thing is your family...I came for the gasification....and was exposed to an amazing family. Kudos to you man. Keep at it!

I have built a few gasifiers. Try restricting the air intake at the gasifier. Preheating the incoming air helps with fuel production a ton as well. I have had some success in automating the engine air/fuel ratio with a spring on the carburetor valve. The engine timing needs to be adjusted 10-15 degrees advanced to start the spark earlier because the wood gas burns slower than gasoline. This is impossible with many small engines. An electronic O2 sensor in the wood gas stream actuating the incoming air valve is the next iteration I'll be implementing.

Hi guys, love your videos, during ww2 here in Denmark we used gasgenerators like yours to run cars and trucks due to gas shortage, it is good to see ole teqniques come back to use..... greetings from Denmark

You need to remove the air box frome the generator completely and seal the gas hose to the carburetor the engine vacume will draw more gas . I believe the problem your having is the generator is drawing to much outside air and running to lean . Hope this helps

This is the exact reason every good working gasifier has a cyclone "filter/water separator" at the outlet. You need to keep the outside of the cyclone as cold as you can (water cooling?) to promote as much condensation to build and drop to the bottom collection point as possible. You are seeing lots of water because there is lots of water. 5% moisture means 20 kg of wood is 1 kg of water which equals 1 liter. Wood is heavy. I saw another comment about an O2 sensor from a vehicle at the carb to auto adjust the air intake. This is what I use.

It’s nice to see father and daughter taking on a project like this!

Your daughter is an awesome welder

"We have a shop vac contraption, it's like a SNUFFLEUFFLUFFAGUS" 🤣😂😂🤣😜🤣😂 had me losing it! I look forward to Part 3. Love you guys, all the best for fine tuning it,, from Down Under, Australia 🇭🇲🦘🦘🙏🦘🦘🇭🇲

Maybe building a small scale sun kiln for your gassifier wood could be an option? Love your videos and your family!

Back in the 40-50's we used to have woodburning gas public transportation here in Finland. There was 40 000 vehicles in 1947 what ran on wood gas.

that was a blast to watch

Consider sending your gas to a holding tank,great video good luck with it

Build an external condenser. All you have to do is get a small steel drum or something with a removable lid that you can install spring release latches onto. Then just install in and an out ports . Hay is going to be best filter media in the primary filter and you can also use hay in this external filter. Keep in mind the system is under vacuum so moisture due points are much lower. The water is just condesning out later after the stock cooler. This gas cooler is just getting things low enough to drop the moisture; but as you are experiencing its dropping later as you are finding. So add an inline filter / condenser. A gasifier must be able to breath so filter media must be loose enough to allow it to breath but also collect dust and absord soem of the moisture. Once you get things running give it 5 - 10 minutes to get everything warmed up and allow the gasifier to equalize to the engine load. The blower and generator are applying different loads. The blower is more likely driving it harder than the engine. So the gasifier may cool down some as it gets re established to the load the generator is putting on it. When you make an adjust always turn the mixture just slightly richer and only move the valve a fudge. See what it does. Did it improve? If so adjust a fudge more; if not adjust the other way a fudge. I would suggest getting a brass valve for the air as they are easier to adjust than the PVC valves. They dont work all that well. You have to put some presure on them to get them to move and they just let go and you adjust too far. lol

Really enjoying this series. Your water issue is unique and im at a loss for its cause. You could have an air leak or a heating issue or it could be b/c of the ambient humidity. I've built 7 gasifiers since i learned of this technology about 15 years ago to use for various applications and ive not had the troubles you are experiencing. That flame color as perfect when you are flaring. Oh you definitely need to open your gas valve on your carb all the way. Last Christmas I actually got the book for the gasifier you are using and have been gathering supplies to build it. There are a ton of videos on this and other designs on RU-vid by a plethora of home engineers. Also FEMA has several charts on their website about sizing and designs. ...Have you thought about reaching out to the original creator of this design (Ben Peterson) that wrote the book? The people at Mother Earth News have some great contacts for consulting too. Good luck. We are all watching with great interest.

We're all rooting for you! This is a wild adventure and I certainly appreciate you sharing it with us. You'll get it I have no doubt

Love how you all team up and just figure it out! Looking forward to the update! Another great video!

I know absolutely nothing about a gasifier, other than watching you build one, but I'm rooting for you 👍👏🙏

I love how you guys kept troubleshooting. I've also watched Part 1 and I love how supportive you are of your kid. Also, her welds are SOLID! Clearly takes pride in what she does. You can't teach that mentality and it's amazing to see. Congrats on getting it running.

You need a dry gas scrubber before the generator. We run generators off natural gas all the time in the oil field and you always have a fuel gas scrubber to take out any moisture/liquids prior to burning as fuel. Build a scrubber out of an 8” piece of steel pipe with caps on the end. Run your fuel line in the bottom and your outlet out the top of the scrubber to the generator. Put a dump valve on the bottom to drain liquids and a pressure gage on the top so you can monitor your gas pressure. You may not be getting enough gas pressure under higher load. Probably need about 20-40 psi of gas pressure but check your generator specs. We run our giant 1.5KW generators at about 40 psi and have to shed loads whenever we drop below that.

I want one of these so bad! I live in MO, and we have Osage Orange everywhere, highest BTU output for wood. I live the idea of combining this technology with coppice agroforestry of select hardwoods with high BTU.

You can make a solar powered fan ventilated wood drying shed. Just need some pallets to stack and separate wood into layers under cover with forced air ventilation. Once found a solar powered attic fan on marketplace for $50 which would be ideal.

For drying next year's fuel wood, try a method I heard of years ago (in either Backwoods Home or Countryside magazine), assuming you have a forklift or front loader: In the spring, stack your cut wood on pallets, cover the stacks with clear plastic, and wrap them with cling film pallet wrap, then leave them in the sun for the summer.

What a great mom and dad!

Cool stuff! Since you are already working with a gaseous fuel, you shouldn't need a "carburetor", per se, just an air/fuel mixer. That is what the LPG inlet of your generator is designed to do. It has a demand regulator that adjusts how much fuel is allowed to the engine based on how much vacuum the engine is producing. Wider throttle openings create more vacuum, and the regulator opens wider to allow more fuel in. It is then mixed with the right amount of air before entering the engine. (The right amount of air for burning propane, that is.) Perhaps keep the large pipe feeding the generator: since there is very little pressure behind it coming off the gasifier, you need the volume. Then adapt down to the LPG inlet size right at the generator, using as few fittings as possible. Seal them well. And it shouldn't need the extra air intake before going into the generator's fuel system. At least that would be my assumption since a propane fuel source doesn't need it. The earlier comment about adjusting the ignition timing may be accurate, too. Then there is the unknown BTU content of the wood gas. It may not be able to produce very many horsepower, but your results so far show that it should at least be a useful amount. Have fun!

Hello, I have a suggestion for getting the gasified carb settings right. If you can replace the two ball valves you are using as a gasified carb with two small throttle bodies from a fuel injected vehicle, maybe even a motorcycle, they will have throttle position sensors built into them. With sensors you could move the throttles and monitor their positions. One for the air and one for the gasified fuel. Once you find the sweet spot for each of them you can record the throttle position of each of the throttles. This would allow you to go back to the same exact throttle settings each time. In addition, these could be wired to an Arduino motherboard with input from your charge controller. So that as the charge controlled draws more power, the Arduino board could open the throttles to the desired settings exactly, every time. To do this you would have to use “throttle-by-wire” type throttle bodies. These have electric motors built into them as well as throttle position sensors. This way the controller could automatically add more air/fuel as necessary, automatically. I am not a software engineer, but I have been teaching automotive diagnostics for 20+ years and this should not be a challenging thing for someone to write software for. I would be happy to discuss the finer details of this with you and provide a wire diagram for what I am suggesting. I don’t really want to give out my contact info to the whole world so you’d have to give me an email address I can PM you on. Mr. D

i discovered the series about wood power yesterday and today i get to see the next episode already im thrilled

Thanks for another great video guys

Good job guys. Looking forward for the next video on this! 👍

If you keep having a problem with water in the gas you should try putting a moisture trap from an air compressor on the gasifier's outlet (where you are attaching the flexible hose). You can also put a filter over the air inlet of your makeshift carburetor (the Tee intersection with the two valves), that might help some.

Hi try compressing your gas into a pressure vessel thru water filters and then run gas back through your propane option. Keep up the good work!

Good morning from Syracuse NY everyone thank you for sharing your adventures

I agree with the comments about the humidity on the air intake side to your gasifier - I think you need an air dryer like you put on a sandblaster setup.

Is the water from the humidity in the air coming through the air intake?

Thankyou for sharing your learning curve. Gid bless.

Condensation - hot air meeting cold? Some kind of moisture trap like those used on air compressors? Some kind of kiln for drying the wood? Looks like some other commenters actually know a thing or two about gasifiers, unlike me. I'm just excited. 😁 Anyhoo. Great stuff!

Don't forget ambient humidity.... you may need to filter both sides of your system....

Good job guys!! Almost there!! A bit more tweaking and you got it! Thanks for sharing your time n talents with us today....!! Amazing!!👍 👍🧙‍♂️🐺🤙

ahh, so good to see these types of projects. Keep it up!

Love your stuff keep it up!!!!

That's awesome!

Absolut legends !! you guys rock keep up the great work !!

A few things to change, Change the ball valves to gate valves will provide for finer adjustment of the air to fuel ratios. you need more cooling coils directly after the reactor put a fan on the coils too, drop the gas temp as fast as possible will precipitate moisture out of the gas. the velocity of the gas in the cooling coils if to fast will drag the moisture into the hay filter which is only for catching particulate matter. I also think you might need to choke down on the air inlet of the reactor, get a manometer the reactor is not supposed to burn in free flow and should be somewhat starved for oxygen. change wood species to wood with higher heat value, hardwood is best or redfir if not available.

really like the straw-cob-insulated walls :)

what a great video thank you for all your efforts, i am an electrician so find this very intriguing!! keep up the good videos!!

Cool vids, impressive!

Very interesting to follow.. good on you for your perserviance..you will get it no doubt and make it work..keep us in the know this is good information!

Boy this one frustrating and rewarding at the same time !

Keep up the great work! Super interested in your generator/wood gasifier project. Keep it coming please!

So awesome. I love that your girls get to benefit from your mad scientist forays. I know that I benefit from them.

Awww snap !!! Been curious on this ,waiting lol sooo close

The best gasifier video ever! Love the detailed and honest explanation of the challenges with this thing, and can't wait to see the next video on getting it dialed in. Super great work as usual you guys!

Percistence! Wow. I am impressed by you and your family s ability to not giving up! This video is also a reminder of the fact that even if you get more and more independence from the grid, we are independent of other sorts of "grids". You need neighours, friends, family, other people and also products with parts stemming from maby far far away 😊

Moisture traps from air compressors are a good idea. They come in all different sizes. Another idea is you can use a natural gas fuel cell pump.fill the tank and use the gas from there to be constant and you'll be able to regulate it just an idea.

Whoa just watched the first part this morning and wondered when the next part would come out

you got some smart kids there 👍👍

1st off Excellent Job! Well done! You guys aren't quitters and can all work together, what a pleasure to watch! ❤ On another note... A friend told me years ago in WW2 he saw taxis burn smoldering palm leaves in the trunk and siphoned forward to the engine. Amazing what folks can accomplish even with primitive forms of equipment to work with.

For sure in the 1000’s of comments someone said the water isn’t from the wood but the cold air thats being sucked in being much damper than was intended. For sure someone said this.

Science + Technology Learning Centre extraordinary. Wow the family teamwork and learning ... no better schooling like hands on. Thanks so much.

Congratulations on 220k .. I've been here for year's now..be safe.

Wishing you success in you new venture .

good job brother

Love uou enginuity

Crazy how much moisture you're getting, even with dry wood. Good luck, hope you're able to get it dialed in!

I was just waiting for the big bang and for you to stand there with black heads. From this point of view, very well done. The rest is the usual troubleshooting of a new installation, just trying it out and improving it.

This is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing!!

Interestingly back in victorian times, the main stove would have been able to also supply electric, and was able to prove upto maybe 200watts 12v but in those days not many people needed power so was not very popular. Awesome adventure

Things to keep in mind. Wood isn't the only place you will get water from. Anytime you compress air, whether it be through squeezing it through a piston, or passing it through a venturi, the air in question may contain moisture/humidity. Another design you may integrate rather than the piping style you have could be an orifice. Take a look at the design of a gas furnace for instance, there is typically a manifold that has an orifice that jets into a burner venturi. Think of the burner venturi as the throat of a carburetor. Simply aim the orifice at the throat of the carburetor allowing air to come in around the orifice. Adjust the size of the orifice depending on the required load. If all else fails, boiling water to generate steam to turn a turbine may be a viable option. Best of luck, hope it all works out...Will be following to see what you come up with...Great video, thank you for sharing.

Yea I think you will need to start adding electronics to automate the values.. it’s awesome you got it working.

This is probably the greatest success story I have ever heard thanks for your time and hard work!!!!

As to my previous comment. Place the steam trap off the condenser not further down stream, you need the gas as dry as is possible when entering the filter. I believe you can run without an O2 sensor, with out all the moisture, it will run fine. This is why your unit runs best after the moisture is all drained and you start dry. Moisture is in your reactor because it's building and backing up from you condenser. You may want to build a much bigger, more efficient condenser to handle higher moisture content wood. I've seen automobiles run just fine under load this way.

Me again. I "grow" compressed air on my homestead in North Texas. I do with compressed air what you are attempting to do with a gasification. I ultimately realized, for me at least, it's way easier to have one air engine generator tuned to the "mean" flow rate for say, a chest freezer. When the thermostat calls for power, the engine-generator combination comes on, handles the 180% start up load, then levels off providing a clean supply of 120 v alternating current to the compressor until it shuts off. Your gasifier-generator problems are mostly "control" issues. I have those too, but my power comes from a CONSTANT nearly-2,000 gallon supply of compressed air via solar PV panels and 12 volt motors running transmissions, then small compressors.

Good luck!

I would not add any charcoal as it has already burned and therefore give off less gas I would assume but that's just a guessing

Wood gas is really difficult to get working right, so getting this far is definitely an accomplishment! The gas production rate either has to be matched or subceeded by the generator. And I'd imagine that gas production rate is changing over the course of the burn and even between batches. If water content continues to be an issue would, maybe try working on the radiator/condenser. The cooler the gas, is the dryer it is. I hope you're able to keep it working, and would love to see what you guys do to get it more consistent!

Joshua De Lisle uses 2 stage gas filter before feeding the generator: first uses water to catch humidity and solids (it has steel mesh to make bubbles smaller), the second uses charcoal to filter chemical contamination.

Ok I had a thought, as a Canadian that grew up in north eastern Washington using dried cow patties for fire fuel, it seems to me that you could greatly improve your fuel output. I’m sure horse apples. Would work about the same. The methane gases as you’ve shown in other videos, could greatly benefit you in other ways. Like I said, just a thought. love you guys’ content I now live in Louisiana, so I’ll see y’all‘a Contant. Keep up the good work hey!

Need more cooling rails and a condensate tank to drop the water out sufficiently pre filter. Don’t stray from the hay filter. My girls and I love you guys from Thunderbay. God bless

You need some control system. I develop PLC code for a living. You could automate the flow with modulating valves and could ramp charge through a programmable charger or variable power resistor. Still did well, good job.

Your best bet is to get you a pellet mill, fill rubbermaid trash cans and throw some desiccant in with it to keep it dry till you're ready to use it.... Oh, you can also add a cyclonic filter right after your heat exchanger to help remove a good majority of that tar and moister before it gets stored up in your filter....

Another idea to consider... Should you perhaps build a kiln? A kiln is basically a box where you can store wood pile witch is ventilated with warm air for a certain time. You would simply first dry the wood and then use the dry wood in the gasifier / generator.

Use the heat exhaust to warm a tent of wood and an AC unit to help dry the wood. The gasifier is loaded with moisture so you don't want to use the exhaust fumes to heat the wood but, capture the heat from the exhaust system using an AC unit and the heat off of the AC unit to dry the wood and also run your gasifier fuel line through a cold bucket of water and then to the carburetor on the generator.

A wood drying buffer tank would be neat. A storage tank attached to the side of the combustion chamber that only reaches a bit above boiling, to ensure each batch of wood is more fully dried before loading it (assuming you run it basically continuously). You might also want to shield the aftercooler from the combustion heat. You want that as cold as possible without freezing...

Don't waste all the heat its making you can easily have hot water or run a boiler. That is some of the cleanest fire humans have learned to make. Amazing to see it in action.

I built a retort for making charcoal and it is the same thing you are doing but I am not capturing the fuel and way less complex! When my retort runs for about 20 min you can hear the wood gas burning like a turbo torch. It is really cool. I think on your last video it was a wood moisture issue. I always use dry hard wood for my retort. Great build guys!!!

Okay - the fact of the matter is that each of you have managed to put a gasifier together that can be used to heat your home, cook your food...and if you tweaked it just a little more with practice... it is going to be running the genny very soon -flawlessly! Fantastic!!

Great video ! Love the content. Having a few gasifiers myself, getting them to run consistently requires patience, only changing one thing at a time and above all, having a working knowledge of Voodoo. Good luck and keep at it !

Hi guy's, New to you all. Awesome family. The girls are welding, doing leather work and you sooo remind me of Jack Black. Keep the awesome vids coming. 😎

The average "firewood" moisture level is between 15 and 20%. You'll have to dry all the wood. Pretty cool. You may need to build an entire building just to store and dry the wood for this contraption.

Glad to someone using the Sensata inverters I use. Would be interesting to see how some of the MorningStar's do with programmable options as far as ramp up. One could control them by computer and start minimal and then over the wire ramp them up PID style.

Thanks for putting out the journey. Had the same problem w moisture, flow, etc. when I tried. Personally think the answer is to separate the processes. Like make fuel then fuel the generator. You can pressurize co, meaning you can store it. Or save everything that comes out and distill that. The latter obviously loads more complexity. But the first, easier/quicker and then you can use the built in propane option. 😅

I was wondering when part 2 would come! 🎉

So so sad i feel your pain guys R,I,P BO

Great job. Keeping a big generator @ 1,800 rpm takes lots of electronics and is quite complicated on the 200kw+ generators I operate. Good luck 🤞🍀

Your vlogs and determination is awesome! From my observation, I would try a smaller 4k generator. The 9k is a hungry one too feed!

You need a set of bubbler tanks to catch the moisture and cool the gas.

Hi, you need a lambda sensor or AFR sensor (to measure the air to fuel ratio) in the exhaust pipe. The value should stay around 14,7. This gives you an idea of the direction in which you need to adjust the valves.

SOLVED!!! 1st this makes me so happy to see people who are not scared of the gov@#%! and are exercising their rights. 2nd I am an engine specialist, and your number one problem is that little engine is having to vacuum its air and fuel through this giant/25ft intake (IN COMPARISON TO IT'S FACTORY DESING BEING 3 INCHES) and it's not happy about it. Connect the carb to the fan exhaust and PUMP the air/fuel into the engine. Also, engines run on water all the time- (%100hummidity). In racing I inject water into the intake for cooling and to displace air effectively razing the compression where necessary. However, a dual valve catch canister, can be added just before the carb for additional water removal.

Heroic