INDEX

- WHAT IS WOOD-GAS?
- SUSTAINABLE LIVING
- STORING WOOD-GAS FOR USE LATER
- WHY YOU SHOULD SPONSOR ROB
- WHAT WILL YOU GET OUT OF IT?
- SPONSORSHIP OPTIONS


INTRODUCTION

A “Wood-gas Generator” is a device which takes dry wood in the form of sawdust, chips or small blocks and converts it to a flammable gas which can be used for cooking lighting and running internal combustion engines.

Such devices were is use in their thousands during the petroleum shortages of World War Two. Wood is a renewable resource and the burning of it is “carbon-neutral”. In other words the mount of carbon released to the atmosphere through combustion is the same as that taken out of the atmosphere during the growth of the tree.

In many parts of the world there are abundant sources of wood, and in some situations sawdust is a waste product which is dumped and in yet other places there are continually re-growing forests of alien species such as the wattle and gum trees in South Africa.

The Biomas Energy Foundation www.woodgas.com  in Colorado, USA publish several booklets on the production and use of wood gas, and a manual for the construction of such a device. This manual gives step by step instructions on how to build the gas-generator, the principles behind it and the method of operating it. http://www.woodgas.com/bookstore.htm
Useful as a guide it is not perhaps as clear a booklet as could be produced, and leaves out several important details such as gas cooling and cleaning and storage or use in a stationary engine. I have the manual and will use it as a basis for this project.


THE PROPOSAL PUT FORWARD HERE IS TO -

1. Construct and test such a wood-gas generator and to connect it to a stationary internal combustion engine driving an electric generator.

2. Modify and perfect the design so that it may be safely replicated and used by individuals and communities seeking to be ecologically sustainable and free from the electric power grid and petroleum industry.

3. To publish the design on the internet making it freely available and to liaise with the biomass foundation to ensure that the design and the publication in a new format meet with their approval.

 

BACKGROUND

The use of wood to provide heat is as old as mankind, but by burning the wood on an open fire only about one third of its energy is utilised; two thirds is lost to the environment in the form of smoke and wasted heat.

A wood-gasifier enables the smoke and combustible gasses to be burnt directly – for cooking, lighting or running an engine, or captured and stored for use later.

Between1940 and 1946 all over Europe, Asia and Australia, millions of wood-gas generators were in operation. In occupied Denmark 95% of all mobile farm machinery, tractors, trucks, stationary engines, fishing and ferry boats were powered by wood-gas generators. These were abandoned when oil became readily available again in 1945 largely because oil was cheap and much more convenient to use.


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