It would be nice.

[Kansas]

This is probably the wrong board for this, but wasn't sure where to put it. Its about a military vehicle that chews up vegetation and powers itself on that. First thing I thought of, was wouldn't it be nice to have a skidder that could chew its way through the timber and power itself? Probably never see it in my lifetime. Here is the article.

http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/05/19/darpa-rti-cyclone-developing-fuel-foraging-biomass-processing-military-vehicle/

[Woodsrover]

It's been done for a long time.  Wood gas.  My father ran wood gas trucks and tractors in Nazi occupied Norway when he was young.  I've always been interested in building a truck or a generator that ran on wood gas.  With all the scrap we've got left over from milling we'd be perfect candidates.  Hmmmmm......

Here's a picture of an old example from a little past that time.

[Magicman]

A large group of FF members got a first hand look at a wood gas powered truck at last year's Pig Roast.    

It is owned by our own Ron57.


 
It's a nice looking rig.


 
Ron starts it on gasoline and then after the "generator" in the back reaches it's operating point, he switches it over to wood gas.


 
The next fillup is in the plastic bags.


 
Ron checking the "generator" to verify that it is up to operating temperature and producing wood gas.


 
Ron explaining how it works.


 
Everyone understands perfectly, even burlkraft.   

[Kansas]

That is a really neat pictorial, Magicman. Thanks for posting that.

I still haven't given up the idea of taking wood waste grindings and powering an engine and generator and getting our electric costs at the plant back. We bought a hammermill from Cedarman and have been tweaking it for the last month. This weekend, we will retip the hammers. Try to get a little finer product. We are getting really close to where we want to be with it.

[Woodsrover]

I've cleared a lot of trees on my land and burn firewood for heat in the winter....I can't tell you the yards and yards of chips from my chipper that I've just blown in the woods over the years....  I've always wanted to build a wood gas plant and run something with it.