downdraft gasifier

[bd354]

  I 've reading a little about this gasifier and was wondering if anyone here knows anything about them, or has used one?   http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/  Been thinking about building a standby generator for my house. I have a small 4 cylinder car engine and enough junk lying around to build the gasifier. I would have to buy a 15 or 20  kw generator.

[maple flats]

I have studied them but have not built one yet. I plan to run a 5.5 KW to my inverter and couple it to my solar. This is likely 3-4 yrs away for me.
I have seen you tube video of units running but that is the extent of my experience at this point.

[Ron57]

  Hi I have built 2 down draft gasifiers, and have run engines with them a total of 4500 mto 5000 miles so far they seem to run pretty good. My question is how long will an engine last on producer gas compared to gasoline. If you run an engine on wood you will need a really good supply of fairly dry wood also.
Red I dont know if you are going to Jeffs hogroast next week but I am planning to drive my gasifier run truck up to the event and would me glad to show and describe it to you.

[martyinmi]

Ron-
   I thoroughly enjoyed our visit at the pig roast last weekend. I plan to build a much smaller scale gasifier this winter. I bought a Lehr 4 stroke weed wacker  that is propane powered and I would like to see if I can get the engine to run on producers gas. I'll probably make lots of mistakes along the way, and I'm holing you might be able to talk me through some of the harder parts of the build. Thanks so much for letting me pick your brain as long as you did.

   Marty

[Ron57]

  Hi Marty I enjoyed meeting you and all the other FF members. Jeff put a lot of work into the hog roast and it was a lot of fun. Maybe next year I will be able to talk my kids into coming, they enjoyed the free stuff anyway.
   I would be glad to help in any way I can but it would take a lot smaller producer than I have made , but it would be fun working on it, the smaller the gasifier the harder it is to get it sized to the motor to make engine grade fuel.There are people running lawn mowers and small electric generators on wood. I am pretty sure if I ran a line from my cooler to your weed wacker it would run after it was warmed up.
   Have a good Day    Ron L