International WoodGas Forum

Hi Wood Gassers,

I have been entertaining my neighbors again. Some people have asked me how I would start a gasifier without compressed air, grid power, or gasoline. Here is my answer:



Four car batteries in series or two smaller solar panels in series(68V) would have worked much better. The fan pressure/ejector suction increases more than linearly with voltage:

Stephen

Hey Stephen
why don´t you try a direkt blower. Like the marine bilk blowers. using 12 or 24V directly connected to an Battery.
And forget about the ejector which is everytime lowering your gas output.

I love the ejector for testing gasifiers with bad gas or without a cooler/filter.
But after cooling and filtering it must be removed to see whats really going on with the gasflame i think ?!

regards Pascal

Hi Pascal,

The marine bilge blowers don't work for me because I run chips. They make about 13mm of water column so I would need 6-8 of them in series to get the performance I saw yesterday. Those low pressures are fine for block users, however.

I also have a rule that anything that touches the gas should be something that I can take apart and clean. A dirty ejector I can throw in my woodstove, cool, brush, paint and it is like new again. The blower wouldn't like that treatment.

The low pressure ejector I showed would never make a flare because the ratio would be too lean. It is strictly a low energy system for getting an engine running. I would always use a high pressure ejector for experimenting because they move far more gas for the amount of air introduced.

Stephen

Did you burn a vacume cleaner yet? those motors use air to cool themselves, which they get from whatever you are sucking into them..
And they are universal motors (ac/dc) so they are using sparking brushes...

I once tested pedal power to start the gsifier. Worked fine and you save on fitness bills.



luk