Turning wood into off grid electrical power might be the ultimate level of self-sufficiency. We struggle to run a off-the-shelf generator on wood gas and then power our house!
If you haven't already, be sure to see how it all started in part 1:
• WOOD POWER! Off Grid E...
Off-Grid Micro Hydro - Too Much Power:
• Off Grid Micro Hydro -...
Biogas - Endless Energy on the off grid homestead
• Endless Off-Grid Fuel ...
Off-Grid Solar Energy:
• SUPERCHARGED Off-Grid ...
Do YOU have gas? Wood gas!? Let us know, leave a comment, subscribe and join the adventure!
Check out the gassifier build in Part 1: kzhead.info/sun/e8ynoq-AfWp4io0/bejne.htmlsi=qTbET5bQFClhVyaU
Maybe try a couple inline water traps... Like used for air lines?!?!??🤷♂️🤷♂️
@@mikekleven8130 yup the moisture is from outside humidity and the start up( start with charcoal) the stop and refill with your dried wood . one of the big issue with gasification
Have you built a carburetor to automatically adjust the 02 being mixed in with the gas? They're very helpful when you're dealing with varying feedstocks.
Maybe try out wood pellets if it doesn't work with that you can rule out the water problems.
I wonder if it would help if you mulched your wood first then used that to create your fuel? It would most definitely be able to dry out much thoroughly.
The real hero of the video is the generator starter.
i think it's them girl's of is there on the ball LOL
Absolutely
Try fiberglass in your filter just a thought
😂😂😂
the Real hero's are then girl's building it by gum . real St' Trimeans tips them
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!
Sad how family values are fading *over the world*
@@the44thcosmic_galaxy25 Thank the jews.
It's intentional
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
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.
If you go on Drive On Wood I did a tutorial on our 02 mixer. This mixer is 8 years devleped now and is a solid controller. NHhbbylogger built it you can look him up for his videos on it.
I also have a 3 D printed servo valve. If you have or know someone with a printer I can sent you the file on DOW.
Wow yall are smart👍
@@Thrive-Off-Grid It's been a long time since I've been on DOW. I'll check it out.
so in the go kart world you can buy a cut keyway that you use on the flywheel and crack shaft to change the timing or you just remove the keyway and set the timing to what ever you want it to be and your good to go
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
It’s nice to see father and daughter taking on a project like this!
"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 🇭🇲🦘🦘🙏🦘🦘🇭🇲
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.
Nope bad design; there shouldnt be any water. This just means the unit has a poor water shift or the fuel is too wet.
Or the application is too small and is not capable to drive the unit. This is the case here I think. But where there is water there is tar.
I agree and that was my first thought seeing this setup. It needs a big secondary heat exchanger to condense
Their setup is plenty big enough to run that generator. Smaller size gasifiers ran old 1930's big displacement very inefficient engines. It's filter/condenser design and generator function/carb mechanics that are the problem. Imho
@@patri0t1776agreed needs to learn how to set the air to fuel ratio on the gene . It clearly runs . Quit closing the fuel to half . The gene needs more fuel when it powers up. The fuel should be wide open and tbe gene suck however much it needs.
Your daughter is an awesome welder
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
Maybe building a small scale sun kiln for your gassifier wood could be an option? Love your videos and your family!
I have a solar retort for making charcoal (or flash steam). The off-gas from the retort is flammable and would likely run an IC engine if mixed properly. Personally, I would just make steam. Of course, my tracking solar retort works only on sunny days. JEFF'S rig works anytime, I get that. I build wind turbines and compressed-air engines and generators that operate on air as a hobby.
What a great mom and dad!
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.
it was Norway my dad got his gasifier. Back from in the War, we had it for years until, it rotted out . we had cork as part of the filter siystom . of an old meat freezer. yes they worked , well .
Yeah, a Swedish guy invented the wood gas carburetor thats why we had it here in finland
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 KZhead 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.
that was a blast to watch
Love how you all team up and just figure it out! Looking forward to the update! Another great video!
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
If you build this external filter. Move your mixer assembly to it. I can tell those that have actually put hours on a machine verses those who have not. Because eventually the mixer assembly will break right off the engine. Your situation you will just break the air box housing. But if you were to mount direct to the face of the carburetor, the bolts that thread into the head will stress harden and shear off that the face of the head. That is a real PITA to get those out as they are lock tighted. LOL
that is a truth in what this chap is spiking of f i ues bras gat valves.,
A water separator is cheap at the parts store. For paint shops they can pull a lot of moisture for after the big separator. Because every drop in line size creates another dew point to extract water again.
@s2006 Not big enough for this. You would fill one of those things in two minutes.
kzhead.info/sun/m96wereskZ9_kqc/bejne.htmlsi=T7oXrvjOn28oOqYz This is how they work. This design is nothing new and you cannot possibly invent a better one. You're gonna either blow up your gas generator from water blockage or blow the water seperator because they are all low pressure. Think of this fact. Refineries do not operate on Pressure, they operate under vacuum induced from the conversion of gas to liquid. If you start producing pressure, it's going to become out of control very very fast.
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.
I know absolutely nothing about a gasifier, other than watching you build one, but I'm rooting for you 👍👏🙏
Is the water from the humidity in the air coming through the air intake?
This is what I'm thinking. It's so much water there's no other source than the air
You DO have to dehydrate the gas. VERY bad design as this was not taken into account. Look up FEMA gasification...many videos on youtube
Some but not a lot. Consider that in the winter total humidity in the air is rather low as cold air holds much less moisture than warm air. At 5% moisture level in the wood, that means that there'll be a 1 (pound or KG) of water in every 20 (pounds or KGs) of wood. They started off with like 15% moisture level... which means for every 20 KG of wood there's THREE LITRES of water. The condenser assembly is supposed to make this drop out but obviously isn't performing very efficiently - the filter stuffed with straw etc is supposed to be dry.
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.
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.
But, will that hedge be used to fire the gasifier or to produce gas? But, if used as the fuel to extract out of other wood the gases needed, then a local tree commonly called eastern red ceder but is really a juniper and due to it's high volatile oils would make a superior gas. But, as for me, I like to use hedge for smelting metals. BTW, I am in northern MO, Linn county.
@@sonofeloah not sure what it is best used for. Still dont completely understand the system. Johnson county
Don't forget ambient humidity.... you may need to filter both sides of your system....
Below 0C there will not be a lot of ambient moisture. Most of it is frozen.
i discovered the series about wood power yesterday and today i get to see the next episode already im thrilled
Good morning from Syracuse NY everyone thank you for sharing your adventures
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
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.
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.
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!
This is exactly what I thought, I hope he reads these comments
This was my thought but said probably
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.
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!
Exactly, some sort of radiator, make the gas come threw that, with a colecting metal container at the bottom.
That's what the stuff on the side is for - the bendy tubes are supposed to cool the gas down and encourage condensation, where it is supposed to collect in the cylinder on the bottom. The efficiency of that arrangement is clearly not working for these folks - the filter is supposed to be dry! Adding some fins and a fan might help
Yes, they definetly need a more intricate radiator with enough fin surface to cool that water vapor on that sub zero air, since they need this in winter when sun is low, there no reason they can't trap all that moisture before it reaches the generator. They could easely adapt a car or truck water radiator to that purpose. @@holysirsalad
Good job guys. Looking forward for the next video on this! 👍
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
Crazy how much moisture you're getting, even with dry wood. Good luck, hope you're able to get it dialed in!
wen i see all that damp i think fuel & it almost within extra burn chamber being built on to the side of that what i did . & i got Lod's of gas.
Isn't water one of the products of combustion?
ahh, so good to see these types of projects. Keep it up!
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.
So awesome. I love that your girls get to benefit from your mad scientist forays. I know that I benefit from them.
Good job guys!! Almost there!! A bit more tweaking and you got it! Thanks for sharing your time n talents with us today....!! Amazing!!👍 👍🧙♂️🐺🤙
Thankyou for sharing your learning curve. Gid bless.
Thanks for another great video guys
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!
Keep up the great work! Super interested in your generator/wood gasifier project. Keep it coming please!
Absolut legends !! you guys rock keep up the great work !!
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.
Love uou enginuity
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.
Whoa just watched the first part this morning and wondered when the next part would come out
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 😊
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...
what a great video thank you for all your efforts, i am an electrician so find this very intriguing!! keep up the good videos!!
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.
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!
that is an excellent idea.
Science + Technology Learning Centre extraordinary. Wow the family teamwork and learning ... no better schooling like hands on. Thanks so much.
There's ammonia in the wood and it's reacting to the manganese in the high strength steel of your unit. That's why you saw the purple 🟣💜 in the water drain valve.
Awww snap !!! Been curious on this ,waiting lol sooo close
Love your stuff keep it up!!!!
Congratulations on 220k .. I've been here for year's now..be safe.
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
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.
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.
really like the straw-cob-insulated walls :)
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. 😎
That's awesome!
This is probably the greatest success story I have ever heard thanks for your time and hard work!!!!
The greatest success story you ever heard was a couple of people not failing completely at setting up their generator... You gotta up your standards more.
To ramp up the load from the charger gradually, put a PWM motor speed controller between the generator and the controller. Set the controller to full amps and have the PWM Turned down. Gradually turn up the PWM and give the generator more gas as it ramps up production. May take a few minutes but it will eliminate that zero to 100% hit as you will have a dial you can increase the load gradually and to whatever level you want.
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.
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
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.
The moisture in the wood combined with the moisture in the air could also be contributing to the moisture inside.
If the intake air is sub zero it should be dry… hopefully they crack that nut
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.
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.
to get the generator to stay running during abrupt load changes: weighted flywheel.
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.
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!
I'm going to guess that this gasifier does not actually work in any reasonable manner given the silence on it along with the massive lack of videos showing it actually working to run a generator for an extended period (to include a lack of such videos on the manufacturer's channel). I hope you will make a video that explains why this project failed although a video showing it working would be even better but I find that outcome unlikely.
You need a set of bubbler tanks to catch the moisture and cool the gas.
You may be limiting the available fuel to the Gen by having the air source in letter into the fuel stream. Might try an air source that is independent of the fuel flow. Good luck!
Gasifier doesn't produce constant mass flow of fuel (combustible gasses) rather it varies a bit. That is why you had problems with setting up your intake valve, it will work for a second or two and than mass flow will change and fuck up your air to fuel ratio soo much that it will stop the generator running. First solution I recommend would be to first store the combustible gases in container and than run the generator on stored gases that way you wont have fluctuations in mass flow. Second fancy way is it to try to use valve system that is actually used in steam engines that enables running steam engine at constant frequency at variable pressure.
Now about water issue. I am assuming because of snow I see that environment in which you are running gasifier is pretty humid, soo air that is going into the gasifier is pretty wet with high % of moisture so even if you have super dry wood you will still experience problems with moisture until you find a way of removing the moisture from air before the air enters the gasifier through air intake.
How to dry intake air?
Yeah he can just add a pressure tank and a pressure valve to level that out. Basically just base it near to the propane requirements for that generator then run it until the pressure valve is constantly open.
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.
Wishing you success in you new venture .
Consider sending your gas to a holding tank,great video good luck with it
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.
I doubt the stoichiometric ratio is the same for gasoline (14.7) and wood gas. ChatGPT says 25:1 air fuel ratio for wood gas, for whatever that's worth.
@@Screw_This Indeed the ratio isn't the same, but the lambda sensor doesn't measure how much air and fuel is mixed. It rather measures the remaining oxygen in the exhaust gases and deduces a value for the AFR (for gasoline). The same value would hold for the wood gas, because the remaining oxygen should be the same in both cases for optimal running.
good job brother
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.
Yea I think you will need to start adding electronics to automate the values.. it’s awesome you got it working.
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!!
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!!!
you got some smart kids there 👍👍
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....
After getting the gasifire itself sorted out, I’d switch to a small salvaged 4 cylinder and a custom genny. The reason is torque and it’ll be less fussy about “carborating” a load. A 2.0L 4 cylinder will make far more torque at idle than that Champion does wide open deafening everyone.
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 🤞🍀
Boy this one frustrating and rewarding at the same time !
check the spark plug. might require a different gap. Also to dry our fuel more make a condenser system. You already are basically doing that, which is why there's water in the line, hot at one end, cold at the other. You need a gravity trap and a reservoir to separate this and longer line, coiled. You could take a 5 gallon pail, put at male-male pipe fitting through the bottom. Suspend the bucket, put a bottle on the bottom side, and on the top side attach your fuel line with a T connector, coiled down the bucket walls and back up again and out to your generator. Fill the bucket with cold water, and now your separating tons of water from the gas. You can add a relief valve to your bottle as well that releases stored up water.
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!
Cool vids, impressive!
A good way to dry out wood semi-quickly you can route some of the hot and dry exhaust gas through a heated sand bed with the wood/wood chunks. The heated sand dries it out pretty quick
Good luck!
It may be worth trying a holding tank like from nighthawkinlight, a gasometer may help to settle the moisture content, possibly with a layer of mineral oil or other light oil to separate the gas from the water float
Also, I have seen a vehicle radiator be used to cool and condense the moisture from the final gas fumes. These condensed liquids are also flammable. So don't waste those condensates. Also,they are very acidic and can be caustic.