Alternate fuels

[bandmiller2]

I think with the availibility of practical electric cars it opens doors.Steam and moreso wood gas can be used for over the road but are barely practical.I think boath steam and woodgas would be better used stationary to charge batteries.Solar is a safe bet also but hard to get "big power".

[bandmiller2]

For off or on grid a steam engine to generate electric and heat is practical.Not the cutesie boilers you see at shows they are like toddlers and require constant attention.A large boiler in a boiler house, masonry setting, with a dutch oven and well insulated is whats needed.Run the boiler well below its designed pressure with a large engine turning a generator.Keep the boiler on simmer for heat and when you need "big power" kick up the pressure.Charge car and home batteries run your sawmill or weld.Then shut down to simmer for heat.Woodgas could also be used stationary to charge auto and home batteries. Frank C.

[r.man]

Frank, I agree that charging seems more practical a use for wood gas. Yesterday a friend was showing me his prototype wood gas system that was built from scrap and a few bought fittings. The prototype will produce about 2600 watts for 45 minutes. The time limit is due to his hopper size so the next one is getting an oversized hopper and he expects an 8 hr run time with his present generator. He was trying to do wood to generating but ran into too many problems so now he makes charcoal from wood and then uses the charcoal to run the generator. His end plan is to produce house heat from wood with the charcoal as a byproduct and then use it in his simplified wood gas gen unit. He seems to be making decent progress and I am hoping he will work all the bugs out before I give it a try.

[Ron Wenrich]

Maybe its better to use chips or sawdust as a fuel.  Easier to handle, easier to dry, and easier to store.  Use your trash heat to dry before it goes into a hopper or bin.  It would be easier to self feed and require less tending. 

[bandmiller2]

Thats an option Ron,a dutch oven is very forgiving and could be solid fuel,sawdust,or chip fed even waste oil or better a combination.Think of it as an outside wood burning furnace with a high pressure option to charge batteries. Frank C.

[Hilltop366]

I was thinking about electric vehicles the other day as well as a way to store cheaply produced energy to recharge the batteries, one idea that is not a new one is to store the energy in a weight by having the energy lift a weight to use later in the day to recharge the battery in the car. One thing I have not figured out was a way to regulate the output of electricity if the weight was connected to a generator, I guess it would need a governor that would be able to keep a even output as the load changed.

[bandmiller2]

Hilly,I don't know that much about weight energy storage but what about the grandfather clock and pendlum system only larger.Seems battery storage is important for most systems. Frank C.