I thought I would bring this up . I don't know who all knows how or knows of the system

http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/support-files/wood_gas_generator.pdf

has anyone built one and would like to share their experience?  

I hear of old timers from the 40s doing this from time to time.

Some folks would take wood alcohol and use it in their gas tanks when the filling station was closed on Sundays. (gas and wood alcohol would burn and not knock too bad, if at all)

Problem is, this only really works like the manual says during WARM weather.

Trying to do this in -20F winter weather up here in MN is an act of futility.

Are you talking about liquid or a gas (like Hydrogen, Methane and CO)?

Could you please clarify if you've actually tried to run a gassification process in -20 weather? Where in the document does it refer to it only really working in WARM weather.


That's news to me. Please explain your findings in more detail. I'd really appreciate it.

This gassification system has nothing to do with alcohol. It's a process of using a continuous column of wood chips, burning at the bottom that  super heats a region of chips just above the burning chips,  to release the gas contained in the wood(Hydrogen, Methane and CO) under a suction. The suction is either via a blower fan, or from an internal combustion engine drawing a vacuum.

OST tag for info. Looks interesting.

I learned of this from reading of some old timers in Poland using it during WWII. there was no mention of cold temperature problems so i too am curious of how cold affects performance. That could be a big downside if so

I recently bought a house with more yard space and this is #2 on my project list, right after electric service in the garage for the welder.

The interesting thing is that the city gives away(2 yd/day/person) wood chips from their composting yard.

I've seen many videos of people building this design on YouTube. search for "gassifier" or "gassification". My favorite is the one where a guy converts his pickup and gets it working quite well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wvIzzHSJuM

My research project on this is to successfully convert an LP natural gas furnace boiler to run on this gas. The goal is to be able to build a covering with a wind break (closed shed would be a bad idea for CO and explosive gas collection) that houses the "plant", run 18 hours between re-loading wood, and connect insulated PEX pipe from the outdoor boiler to a heat-exchanger on my existing boiler system.

Could I use an outdoor wood boiler? Yes. But the benifit is much more complete conversion of energy to heat with less soot and smoke. If you've ever been near a smouldering wood boiler, you'll know what kind of a neighbor liability it is.