Wood Powered Tractor

[Ianab]

Another question is, rather than have the heavy, bulky wood burner mounted on the truck or tractor, what about possibly burning the wood in a stationary unit and collecting and compressing the gas into a pressurized tank, like those used for propane? Then you would just have to fill the vehicle's "gas" tank, and not have to carry the burner around. Just thinking out loud.

Cost of the compressor.

Some local guys were investigating using methane from animal waste, compressing that and running vehicles. But compressed nat gas need to be really high pressure, meaning an expensive compressor, and that made the whole thing impractical.

If you are burning the gas at only a little more than atmospheric pressure then it's practical.

You can store the gas in a large upside down tank, using water as a seal, but it's at low pressure, means it needs to be a BIG tank. Useful for heating a building, but not exactly portable.

Ian

[Ron57]

 The diesel engine would be more efficient with a higher compression, but you have to add spark plugs for ignition or run a small amount of fuel to ignite the woodgas. I had an old detroit 6-71 I ran for a short time just to see if it would work, I started the engine on diesel and set it to idle, then added the woodgas through the intake and used a 4" dust collection gate to regulate the woodgas adding more it would speed up to pto speed. it was on a scragg sawmill ,. the gasifier wasnt sized right I knew it but it ran smoothly and sawed about a dozen logs.
I know the newer more efficient diesels are not as forgiving, and over an extended time may be negatively affected by the soot but this ran well when it I only ran it for a little over an hour.
   The gasifier wasnt sized right it was the one off my pickup I thought it might work but at the time wasnt thinking engine was a two cycle so the gasifier was only half the size it needed to be  >:( Later I sold the detroit to a sawmiller and he is still running it tioday

[Ron57]

 

 
  This is the diesel I ran on woodgas the power was wimpy but the gasifier was way undersized.

[Paul_H]

Another question is, rather than have the heavy, bulky wood burner mounted on the truck or tractor, what about possibly burning the wood in a stationary unit and collecting and compressing the gas into a pressurized tank, like those used for propane?

This question is anwered on the FAQ page of woodgas.net along with other questions.

http://www.woodgas.net/faq.html

As Ron stated,diesels will run on woodgas but needs some diesel fuel as well.

Johan Linnel converted a perkins diesel over to 100% woodgas by adding a spark ignition and farmed a crop of potatoes with the tractor.

http://www.vedbil.se/dagbok/mera/19e.shtml

[Ron57]

  Ronda took a couple of pictures of my tractor plowing snow. I had it running between1-2 hrs this is the coldest I have ran a gasifier for any amount of time and it worked pretty good. I was concerned with the condensate freezing and causing problems in the cooler and condensate traps. The temp was still in the lower 20s for some of you this is  still warm this time of the year. It ran well and make the job a lot more comfortable with the heat coming off the gasifier .

  

  

 

[Paul_H]

Looking good Ron!
Is that a condensate collection tank from a monorator I see in the bottom pic?

[Ron57]

  Yes, it was an old fire extinguisher, it sticks out too far I keep bumping things when I drive past.

[Paul_H]

I was reading this thread on the drivingonwood site of a woodgas gathering hosted by Ron57 back in 2012.I wish I could have been there and it looked like a good bunch of woodgassers and their families.

Woodgas gathering

Good job Ron 

[Ron57]

  Well it is winter again and we just got hammered with a quick snow storm. The power went out so I pulled the woodgas tractor out of the barn I have been wanting to give the pto generator a try any way.
The electric was out for 7 hours and I ran the woodgas tractor for 5 hours continuous and added wood chunks once , only 20 gal but it wasn't full when I started.The tractor will run 3.5 hours on a fillup of wood, I am glad I didn't have to burn gasoline
  It ran well except for a couple of hiccups, probably some bridging of the wood chunks.
  Thanks and Keep on Burning Wood!!!   Ron

  

  

 

[Paul_H]

Thanks Ron,that is really cool.

[OneWithWood]

I like it!  8)

[r.man]

Ron, you mentioned Napanee, is that the one in Ontario?

[Paul_H]

Ron is in Indiana

http://www.nappaneeapplefestival.org/

This link below is to a post in a thread on Driveonwood that features a large woodgas event that Ron and his family have hosted the last couple years.A lot of woodgassers attend with their tractors and vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

http://driveonwood.com/comment/13556#comment-13556

[r.man]

Thanks Paul, I should have remembered that, I have read one of those threads in the past. Got a bit excited when I thought that tractor might be within easy driving distance of me.