Charcoal Gasifier

Paul_H · February 11, 2015, 06:50:54 PM

I've been wanting to putter with another gasifier in the winter but work has been steady enough that I can't build another full size woodgas system so I've been looking into a smaller charcoal system.
On www.driveonwood.com there is a section for charcoal gas systems and there are a few pretty neat systems.

A fellow named Gary Gilmore has built a few that he call's Simplefire and they are made out of a metal 5 gal pail and other cheap and accessible parts.

http://youtu.be/EbI6r7hPmHA

Gary has a few vids out but this is a good introduction.

I scrounged some parts together over winter to build a small gasifier from a small 5 gal hotwater tank and other parts and pipes from here at the saw shop and the plumbing shop across the alley.
The lid is built from a garden tractor rim and a pulley from a mower deck and all the rest is out of the scrap metal bin out back.

This cooling rack on the back has a cyclone and if you look close you can see arrows showing the direction of flow on the cooler. The ABS pipe will contain the foam filter

Next is the 6" nipple and stainless steel sleeve(consumable) that will screw on inside the tank for a nozzle. The SS came from an old serving tray in the trash that I cut out and hammered over a pipe to form a sleeve.

The last pic is a view looking down through the lid to the nozzle in the bottom center.

By watching Gary Gilmore's videos you can see that the T at the bottom of the gasifier in the first pic will be to introduce exhaust from the engine back to the nozzle to cool and burn any waste from the combustion.
I'll post the progress as time allows.

Joe Hillmann · February 13, 2015, 02:06:45 PM

I have built two wood gasifiers for small engines that probably produced more tar than gas. After just about every run I would have to pull the head from the engines and clean the top of the piston, the head and valves.

I am collecting scrap metal to build a simplefire based on the design the video you posted shows. I plan to use it to run a two wheel tractor I have. I had originally planned to use a 5 gallon jerry can to build it out of. But I want to restore the sheet metal on the tractor this summer so I am now looking for a more stylish container to build the gasifire out of.

Paul_H · February 13, 2015, 06:28:25 PM

Joe,

what type of gasifier did you build for the small engines? They can be trickier that the ones for larger engines and apparently "pulse" with the one cylinder engines.
The charcoal gasifiers make sense for the smaller engines but I know that heat recycling on the wood gasifiers has made a difference.
Please post pics of your progress when you build,I'd love to see it come together.

Joe Hillmann · February 13, 2015, 08:13:38 PM

I built them similar to the fema design. One was made out of a propane cylinder. The other one was made from a 5"x5" piece of square tubing and was pretty compact. The one made out of tubing got much hotter and had made slightly less tar.

Paul_H · February 13, 2015, 10:55:27 PM

This book by Ben Peterson is well worth the few buck it costs to buy it.Lots of photos and instructions as well as a detailed material list and even a list of sources for the materials if need be. I heard of the book through Steve Unruh,a man who's opinion I trust on woodgas related issues so I bought it and have read and re read the book.
Ben shows how to squeeze every bit of heat from the gasifier to preheat the wood in the bunker zone, intake air and reduction zone to crack the tars and get more out of your fuel.
When I build the next gasifier,it will be for a small engine and will use Ben's design.

http://www.woodgasifierplans.com/

In the mean time it will be a charcoal gasifier but I have an ever increasing stock pile of 45 gal drums,hotwater tanks and propane tanks for the next builds.

magicmikey · February 14, 2015, 10:41:17 PM

I will be watching the build Paul tho it does add a new dimension to the term "yardwork".

I know where is some available charcoal as well. 8)
mike

Paul_H · February 14, 2015, 11:06:05 PM

Hi Mike,
I was hoping you were still saving me some charcoal ;D
Today after work I cut a couple 45 gal drums up and stuffed a bunch of pallets from work into it and lit it from the top then placed the drum with both ends cut out on top as an after burner. It smoked quite a bit and I realized the retort should have been full past the top to burn the smoke off. The smoke cleaned up when I threw some paper down the afterburner.
Let it burn awhile then sealed the drum and let it cool til morning.Hopefully there will be some good charcoal.

I think this video shows charcoal system on the car

http://youtu.be/cbCiMFF1YSE

Paul_H · February 14, 2015, 11:18:28 PM

These next three vids are Gary Gilmore with a simple but effective method of making batches of charcoal. You can see how he sets up his reactor and afterburner.

http://youtu.be/XiFHXg9o2wo

http://youtu.be/LyzY9D_rgeg

http://youtu.be/tyJO8mKvKsM

Puffergas · February 15, 2015, 11:28:21 AM

Nice! Charcoal and single cylinder engines work well together. I've been using a charcoal gas producer with my Wheel Horse garden tractor repowered with a Honda clone 6.5 HP engine and love it.

Jeff

Paul_H · February 15, 2015, 11:52:55 AM

I was thinking about you this morning,Jeff. You had your charcoal tractor at the Indiana Woodgas meet didn't you?

Puffergas · February 15, 2015, 01:08:47 PM

I'm learning how to use a smart phone so let's see if I can post a pic.

The gas producer is on the front.

Jeff

Puffergas · February 15, 2015, 01:12:26 PM

Quote from: Paul_H on February 15, 2015, 11:52:55 AM
I was thinking about you this morning,Jeff. You had your charcoal tractor at the Indiana Woodgas meet didn't you?

I just got it running the week before Indiana Woodgas meet. I missed last year but will be there this year. I hope it's on for this year..!!

Jeff

Puffergas · February 15, 2015, 01:22:18 PM

Looking from the drivers view.

Spraying for tree seedlings.

Jeff

Paul_H · February 15, 2015, 04:44:13 PM

I like the looks of the gasifier with the spiral cooler,almost Jetson-ish 8)
The first picture is interesting to see it has the power to haul small logs and by the looks of the backgound,you have a great fuel potential in the slash from logging.

mad murdock · February 15, 2015, 05:03:21 PM

That Gilmore gasifier and his methods for makingn charcoal are very cool. Really makes it look simple. Thanks for posting up those videos!!

Paul_H · February 15, 2015, 05:53:54 PM

MM,

You're right,he makes it simple.

I followed his instructions yesterday and began cutting the barrels around 3:30 pm and by 5:30 had capped the reactor and blocked the air holes.

I filled the reactor with old pallets and some dry birch then top lit as instructions suggest. There was a lot of smoke initially and that was in part because of the hydraulic oil that was left in the barrels.Once the fire got going and the afterburner was in place there was a good roar coming out the top and no smoke.

I opened up the barrel this morning and saw that I was hasty in capping the reactor yesterday,it could have gone another hour for the larger pieces but there is still a good jag of charcoal.
I'll either run the "brands" again or cut them up for the woodgas truck.

mad murdock · February 15, 2015, 06:26:26 PM

That is awesome!!

Puffergas · February 15, 2015, 06:50:32 PM

No logging slash just a poor job of pine planting by someone before me. Most are dieing because of spacing and the wrong soil. But great fuel source.

Jeff

r.man · February 15, 2015, 07:03:51 PM

That looks like a nice simple way to make charcoal but in an area that gets cold for part of the year I think charcoal production should have its waste heat harvested.

Al_Smith · February 15, 2015, 07:07:50 PM

Thanks for posting the vids .Although gasification holds very little interest to me ,lump charcoal does .

Gas grills are okay and "kingsford "charcoal is a step better , nothing beats lump charcoal .

I'm going to try that method .I've got scads of hickory scrap and that would be a better use than burning it on my slash pile .

Paul_H · February 15, 2015, 07:25:29 PM

Quote from: r.man on February 15, 2015, 07:03:51 PM
That looks like a nice simple way to make charcoal but in an area that gets cold for part of the year I think charcoal production should have its waste heat harvested.

I agree and if you decide to make some,please share the different ways you utilize the heat.In this case there is around a two hour burn so the top heat could be used easily.

Al,

I just lit the second batch and there is very little smoke compared to yesterday,from a distance you can't see anything but heat waves.Yesterdays smoke was the hydraulic oil so it was a relief to see it clean today.

Puffergas · February 15, 2015, 07:39:36 PM

Quote from: r.man on February 15, 2015, 07:03:51 PM
That looks like a nice simple way to make charcoal but in an area that gets cold for part of the year I think charcoal production should have its waste heat harvested.

That's kind of easy to do with a barrel stove because of the lack of grates. The down side is screening out the extra ash. Some people place the wood in a container (retort) with a small hole and place this container in the stove along with their firewood. Some people make a large cook stove that makes charcoal as they cook or heat something.

Jeff

Al_Smith · February 15, 2015, 10:06:42 PM

You can make charcoal just like they did in medevil days for that matter .Set a huge pile of wood on fire and cover it with dirt .Then sit 3 or 4 days before it burns out .

The problem is who needs a ton of charcoal and can tend it for 3 days straight .A half a barrel full should certainly suffice for most people .

My father RIP showed me years ago how to burn coal into coke for forge use but my charcoal experiance is just raking the ashes from my slash pile.Might get a 5 gallon bucket full if lucky .

Paul_H · February 16, 2015, 12:06:20 PM

I paid more attention to the second batch but less time watching.Once lit and burning well I would glance over occasionally while doing other chores.One half of the barrell was glowing just above the air holes on the bottom so I covered the holes on that half and let it develop another half hour then capped the reactor and cut off the air.
This morning I popped the lid and had a 1/3 of a barrel of beautiful charcoal with a couple of small brands.I poured the 1st batch in with the 2nd and have 2/3s of a barrel which will be sealed and kept dry until the time comes to process.

Jeff D,
do you have a good method to break the charcoal down to size?

beenthere · February 16, 2015, 12:41:51 PM

The old hand-crank corn sheller seems would be a great way to break up the charcoal if one could be found to try.

Good to read of ways to easily make charcoal.

Puffergas · February 17, 2015, 01:26:26 AM

Quote from: Paul_H on February 16, 2015, 12:06:20 PM
Jeff D,
do you have a good method to break the charcoal down to size?

I made a version of Bruce Southerland's grinder made out of small circle saw blades. Dust is a problem but some suction/blower might help that. I did cut up an old sawmill band blade into 8 or 10 inch pieces and was going make a grid/screen out of them and hammer or push the charcoal through it. That is when I find the time. I need a rotory screen more. The list never ends......... Maybe this weekend I can come up with a picture.

Paul_H · February 17, 2015, 06:20:20 PM

The first run of the gasifier today would only let the 5 hp Honda engine idle but I had not filled the gasifier up to the top with charcoal so there wasn't enough gas being made.
I got more charcoal and filled it to the top and the engine ran 45 min full throttle but no load although it did rise to the occasion when load was applied. When the engine shutoff I looked in the gasifier and there was still a fair amount of charoal but it was along the sides of the tank so a good kick might have got another 5-10 minutes.

I was surprised how much air it needed at the carb so we removed the valve and pushed a stick in for the short term. ;)
Starting was a matter of starting the engine on gasoline and shutting the fuel valve off then lighting the charcoal and adjusting the air mix till the gasoline was gone.

The orange tractor at the very end of the vid is a old Simplicity 2010 Landlord from the mid 1960's and we are in the process of cleaning it up and painting it and hooking it to charcoal to take along with the woodgas truck to fairs and farm shows. The tractor has an old cast iron 10hp Briggs & Stratton and we plan to pull kids around on wagons.

http://youtu.be/qX5n0w3ybf0

sawguy21 · February 17, 2015, 09:53:34 PM

We talked today about freshening up the old Briggs. I will check some aftermarket sources for the rings which are nla from B&S.

Puffergas · February 18, 2015, 01:08:02 AM

Paul,

Looking good over there. Now you only have a year to get a patent on the air mixer control...

Jeff

mad murdock · February 18, 2015, 02:50:20 AM

Way cool!! That tractor is going to be nice.

Al_Smith · February 19, 2015, 05:06:32 AM

Quote from: sawguy21 on February 17, 2015, 09:53:34 PM
We talked today about freshening up the old Briggs. I will check some aftermarket sources for the rings which are nla from B&S.

You'd be surprised how much stuff like this you can find on E-bay .It's also possible to buy piston rings in generic sizes from several places .Google ;D

DanG · February 19, 2015, 12:25:08 PM

Is there a minimum recommended size for the wood used to make charcoal? It seems like smaller chunks would eliminate the need to break it up. Would I just wind up with ashes if I used 4/4 & 5/4 scrap lumber?

Paul_H · February 19, 2015, 02:25:56 PM

Al,
I had a gander at ebay and saw all kinds of parts for the 23D Briggs,some very reasonable.

DanG,
Gary recommends 3/4 down to 3/8 sizing in the charcoal. Smaller wood might work better but it would still most likely need to be sized and screened to remove dust.
I didn't screen and after the 45 min run had a 1/2 cup of fine charcoal dust in the bottom of the cyclone.

DanG · February 19, 2015, 03:48:58 PM

Mine would just be for cooking, so size wouldn't be much of an issue. I need to use that smaller wood because that's all I have that is dry enough. I'm going to eliminate a bunch of small oaks this spring but it will be a while before I can use them. It's just fortunate that I'm too much of a skinflint to have thrown all of the warped, twisted lumber on the burn pile, so I have a nice little bit of it in the shed.

Paul_H · February 19, 2015, 04:41:27 PM

Charcoal from twisty wood will curl yer steaks ;)

Al_Smith · February 19, 2015, 08:47:53 PM

Quote from: Paul_H on February 19, 2015, 02:25:56 PM
Al,
I had a gander at ebay and saw all kinds of parts for the 23D Briggs,some very reasonable.

.

Not to wander off topic too much ,if you know the Briggs part number a source could be MFG supply in Wisconsin .It addition to tinkering with chainsaws I also do small engines and have bought lots of stuff from this place .You should be able to go to B and S web site and find the part number .The only reference I have would be on IC engines from a factory sanctioned course I took on generators .The prices are less than OEM but then again no matter what it is the prices are always lower than OEM even if it's made by the same company .Just the way it is .

Paul_H · February 19, 2015, 09:56:44 PM

Thanks Al,it's good to have resources.

mad murdock · February 19, 2015, 10:10:03 PM

Information is power-Al is a pretty powerful fella! I have gleaned a lot of good info from him over the time here on the FF

Puffergas · March 14, 2015, 07:36:39 PM

Paul,

This is my charcoal reducer.

Sorry for the delay......

Jeff

Gearbox · March 14, 2015, 07:59:49 PM

I think anyone with an OWB will have a lot of charcoal if you screened the ashes . Most of it in my Crown Royal are smaller than 1 inch . Gearbox

r.man · March 29, 2015, 07:31:19 AM

I have a friend who built a charcoal gas rig for his Ferguson TO20 tractor. He produces small batches of charcoal in metal toolboxes placed in his woodstove but also uses the barrel method and breaks up the bigger pieces with a square mouth shovel. His uses a 12 volt bilge air pump for a boat to draw through the charcoal to light the gasifier. In about 3 minutes he has enough wood gas to start the motor. His rig could be easily modified so that it only connected to the tractor through a clamp on pipe at the tractors intake. That combined with the relative lightness of the setup would allow it to be moved from tractor to tractor or for stationary use by driving the tractor to the other motor and then swinging the intake hose over.

Joe Hillmann · April 05, 2015, 10:21:36 PM

It looks as though I won't be building a gasifier after all. I had planed to mount it on my two wheel tractor that I have as a toy but now it looks as though I will be putting it to work on a nearly daily biases throughout the summer and I would prefer the convince of gas over the novelty of wood.

Quote from: Paul_H on February 13, 2015, 06:28:25 PM
Joe,

what type of gasifier did you build for the small engines? They can be trickier that the ones for larger engines and apparently "pulse" with the one cylinder engines.
The charcoal gasifiers make sense for the smaller engines but I know that heat recycling on the wood gasifiers has made a difference.
Please post pics of your progress when you build,I'd love to see it come together.

Paul_H · August 01, 2015, 11:43:59 PM

Magicmikey came over to a antique tractor and engine show in our small town last weekend and brought some goodies. A truckload of cookies to feed my woodgas truck and if you look closely toward the front of the box,you might spy a nifty little charcoal grinder. 8)

Run by an electric motor ,it crushes the charcoal fed through the hopper,slides past a magnet that catches any nails(I charcoaled pallets so there are too many) then runs through a trommel and drops a finished product between 3/4 and 3/8 of an inch. The fines are deposited into a bucket right under the hopper.

A view down the hopper and into the maw

Mikey doing some tweaking on the hopper

It works well except the nails causing a jam up below the hopper,acting as riffles that hold back the charcoal.I'll sift most through with a magnet befor loading the hopper but this produced 10 gallons of product in a short time.

Thanks Mike.

r.man · August 09, 2015, 11:08:16 PM

I spent Saturday at the local fair showing off my friends charcoal gasifier tractor. His next project is going to be a charcoal production system to cut down on labour and mess.

Paul_H · August 10, 2015, 10:00:00 AM

We'd appreciate any pics of the tractor and event you might have. What kind of tractor does he have?

r.man · August 11, 2015, 07:46:44 PM

The tractor is a 50s Ferguson TO, very similar to a Ford 8N. Not much of a looker, because of mounting location limitations he built a subframe where the hood and grill would normally be, put the hood on top of that and mounted his main hopper in front of where the grill would normally be on a vertical frame. Very simple unit, old water tank for a hopper, cyclone to remove heavy particles and an air filter for fines. Three valves, some piping and an inboard motor boat bilge air pump. I don't do uploading of pictures but Dave has a video on youtube of a walkaround while the tractor is running on the gasifier last year at our very small local fair.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQHN7lGI6ok

Paul_H · August 12, 2015, 11:05:40 AM

Looks good to me,thanks for posting the vid. 8)

r.man · August 21, 2015, 07:17:38 AM

It would be interesting to see a video of the charcoal sizing as well. What size raw material goes in?

Paul_H · August 21, 2015, 10:23:23 AM

Around 2" plus or minus as long as there are no brands. I'll get a video next batch we run.

r.man · August 21, 2015, 06:43:11 PM

For about 20 dollars a ton green I can get sawmill chips loaded on my trailer. No size processing required before the retort but they need to be dried. This might be a way to drastically cut down on the labour of making charcoal but I do prefer the idea of using free wood to begin with. As to utilizing the heat maybe an add on to the outdoor stove to harvest the heat into the storage water. For this year I am hoping to experiment with my oversized OWB and the metal container method. With my memory and poor time sense what I really need is a semi automatic set up that makes charcoal if you walk away from it after loading.

Paul_H · August 27, 2015, 04:27:46 PM

The tractor,a 1965 Simplicity is almost ready to go.The engine is rebuilt and the carb is being adapted for woodgas.

We are going to use this little gasifier until winter slowdown when a larger one will be built to replace it.

Shea,shown here is the one that stripped down the tractor and prepped and painted it. He started working for us when he was 14 and now is 18 and leaving for four years university to obtain his Bachelor of Science then on to dentistry.

Here is the base of the carb.I drilled a 1" hole between the throttle butterfly and the choke and inserted a small length of aluminum shaft from a Stihl trimmer for the gas intake.
The choke plate will function as a choke in gasoline mode and a air/fuel mixer while on charcoal gas.

This is the second layer of JB Weld and the next coat will finish over the aluminum screen for reinforcing.

Paul_H · August 29, 2015, 07:13:12 PM

I didn't like the looks or size of the other gasifier so I bit the bullet and put the torch to the 40 lb tank and built a new gasifier.We decided to mount it on the back of the machine and added a hitch to the mounting bracket for towing a trailer.

The carb has the third coat of JB weld and a couple coats of paint and is mounted back on the engine.
We expect to light it up this week if time permits.

r.man · August 30, 2015, 04:37:44 PM

Neat trick using the choke as the air mix, I wonder if the choke on gas will be a bit slow since the motor can pull air out of the gasifier until it achieves a quasi vacuum.

Paul_H · August 30, 2015, 05:44:44 PM

I wondered that too but the truck isn't bothered by it so it might not be an issue. I'll post on it as we go along.

Paul_H · September 02, 2015, 11:52:21 PM

Well,we ran the tractor on charcoal today! Easy starting,began on gasoline and lit the charcoal right away and shut the fuel switch off and within a minute it was all charcoal gas.
I added a youtube vid at the bottom.

The first pic shows the carb mod and also the exhaust tubing running back to the inlet on the gasifier.

the next one shows the throttle and choke setup.The choke lever controls the air mixture while on charcoal and runs best in an almost open position.

This next one shows the camlock connection for the hose that delivers the charcoal gas.I figured the camlock makes a good quick disconnect if we want to hook another engine to the gasifier.

http://youtu.be/MoB2wGu9DnU

Jeff · September 03, 2015, 07:56:16 AM

Why do you have to live so far away?

sawguy21 · September 03, 2015, 11:46:32 AM

;D That tractor is really cool, I have been watching it's creation.

Paul_H · September 03, 2015, 02:51:54 PM

Jeff,
we'll have to get you out here someday,you and Tammy both.

Roy,
come on over today and we'll fire it up again.It'll be at the Salmon Arm Fair next week too.

WmFritz · September 03, 2015, 05:22:36 PM

Impressive stuff.

Magicman · September 03, 2015, 08:15:42 PM

Yup, it is sad that we were having an "issue" with the camper when we were there last year. We would have loved to have taken it slower and visited more.

Puffergas · September 04, 2015, 10:01:44 PM

Extra nice tractor. I need to check in more often..! 😁

Ron57 · September 05, 2015, 03:58:25 PM

Hi Paul; nice job on the charcoal garden tractor . I have seen Gary Gilmores units and Jeffs tractor running on charcoal it is amazing how simple it is to produce gas and make conversion to burn it and the power is almost equal to woodgas but maybe I am partial.
Thanks for the video!! Ron L

Paul_H · September 05, 2015, 04:30:41 PM

Hi Ron,

yes it is simpler and easier,the gasifier itself took about an hour and a half to build. Starting the tractor is as easy as starting on gasoline,lighting the port and then shutting the gasoline switch off and adjusting air/fuel till the charcoal gas takes over. About a minute or so.
Great for the small engines

Paul_H · October 01, 2015, 12:23:27 AM

Sawguy21 (Roy) took these pics of the tractor pulling some kids around at the Steam threshers/ploughing show a couple of weeks ago.
The tractor used the charcoal up fairly fast under load,probably an hours run. There were occasionally adults onboard with the very young children.

The trailers tracked very well.

Tried to stop for a pee but more kids would pile on as soon as we stopped

r.man · October 01, 2015, 08:31:53 AM

That is a really neat idea, you can see the grin on the kids faces.

beenthere · October 01, 2015, 11:16:18 AM

Is each "tractor" re-fitted with a tongue to steer and the steering wheel disconnected?

Clever arrangement.

Our Lions Club has a built a train with engine built over an old lawn tractor (not wood fired but would be a good idea). The cars are trailer type made from plastic barrels laid on the trailer frame and topside cutout with a seat built in.
Only pic I seem to have is the caboose we built for the tail end.