Best way to get wood gas generator electricity into an all in one power system?

[4115steve]

I was wanting to build a wood gas generator to power a gas electric generator like in tactical woodgas video below. I might use a car alternator or I'll use a regular gas generator converted to run on wood gas. I don't know if its better to use dc from the car alternator or to use AC from the gas generators non pure sine wave inverter. I was wanting to use an all in one power system

here is an oversimplified wood gas powered gasoline motor explaining how wood gas works

tactical woodgas video

here is a great woodgas generator mounted to a lawn tractor. the design of this gasifier is small. I would also like to mention that you could scale this up and put it on a ford 8n tractor. A wood gas tractor would be great for the farm. there are many useful PTO and hydrolic implemints that would compliment a wood gas generator, to name a few; wood chiper, log splitter, pallet jack, pto generator, trailer ball


simple woodgasifier design mounted to lawn tractor

ford 8n tractor running on wood gas

I love the idea of a wood gasifier on a ford tractor because you could run it in a shop for heat and electricity using a PTO generator. you just need route the smoke outside.

 

[time2roll]

Standard gas rotating generator does produce a sine wave. Although depending on the load reactance and changes to the wattage the waveform can be distorted and the frequency may shift a bit as the regulator adjusts. If the all-in-one does not like the power... certainly the generator can power a common charger separately and feed the battery with regulated voltage. Alternator is fine too if the output voltage can be regulated properly.

 

[4115steve]

Standard gas rotating generator does produce a sine wave. Although depending on the load reactance and changes to the wattage the waveform can be distorted and the frequency may shift a bit as the regulator adjusts. If the all-in-one does not like the power... certainly the generator can power a common charger separately and feed the battery with regulated voltage. Alternator is fine too if the output voltage can be regulated properly.

what kind of common charger ?

 

[OzSolar]

So I've bumped into a few folks that actually tried to make electricity with wood gas and it was a complete failure. I'm not saying it's a hoax but everything I've seen is indicates it's way harder than the YouTube videos make it out to be.

 

[4115steve]

yeah, i agree, a working wood gasifier is difficult design and build. you need a lot of air flow, an air path that doesn't get clogged, a tar trap, and a good filter to clean the gas so the motor doesn't seize up. that john deere lawn tractor gasifier shows the best design I've seen.

 

[time2roll]

what kind of common charger ?

Assuming the generator is 120vac output and the charger meets the battery specifications it will work fine. Amazon, Walmart, local auto parts store all have something.
Not sure what battery is getting charged.

Getting the wood-gas thing working reliably is a far bigger issue.

 

[OzSolar]

yeah, i agree, a working wood gasifier is difficult design and build. you need a lot of air flow, an air path that doesn't get clogged, a tar trap, and a good filter to clean the gas so the motor doesn't seize up. that john deere lawn tractor gasifier shows the best design I've seen.

Good deal. It sounds like you've got a reasonable balance of expectations vs how much you should invest in it.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Good deal. It sounds like you've got a reasonable balance of expectations vs how much you should invest in it.

Only one I have seen work at all is a specialty built one from Victory Gas Works( now defunct).

It did a good job of running an old Ford straight 6 genset.

 

[schmism]

I suspect if your handy enough to get the wood gasifer to work reliably, the makeing electrical power part of you question will be the easy part.

 

[Risky Rob]

There are inexpensive ways to condition power from a generator.

 

[32 volt boater]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133197156460

I often use Google Images for shopping so I can see pictures of products before clicking links www.google.com/search?q=wind+turbine+generator+motor&tbm=isch

Now use a wind turbine charge controller to do the battery charging. The generator has no idea what's turning it and doesn't care.

 

[32 volt boater]

Now if you really want to kick butt spinning up a wind turbine generator with a wood gas engine I am thinking using a scooter CVT transmission

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cKbzUgFdS0


Pulley calculator finds all parameters of a belt drive system: the RPM, speed, belt length, belt tension, and torque.

 

[32 volt boater]

A scooter CVT is like a MPPT, turns motor power into max RPM possible for the load, wind generators like high wind speeds.

I don't knw enough about wind generator charge controllers but I think they have circuity to pull max power from any given RPM.

 

[32 volt boater]

More pulley calculators https://www.pic-design.com/calculators/belts-and-pulleys/calculator.htm https://www.calcunation.com/calculator/belt-pulley-ratio.php

I found out about pully calculators way back when I was messing with a riding mower trying to make it it faster and searched lawnmower racing.

 

[LywWyr]

During WWII the U.S. govt. put out manuals on how to convert combustion engines to wood gas. I have one that details building one for a good sized farm tractor. They are very detailed and do not require a lathe.

 

[32 volt boater]

Just read that people make wood gas from cardboard and paper too.

All I would have to do is sign up for as much junk mail as possible and free fuel would be delivered constantly.

 

[SilverbackMP]

They converted a pre WWII delivery vehicle to wood gas on War Time Farm (BBC). Assembly wasn't all that detailed though.

 

[32 volt boater]

Maybe just build a steam engine if your burning wood anyway.

Put a bigger flywheel on it.

 

[SilverbackMP]

Maybe just build a steam engine if your burning wood anyway.

Put a bigger flywheel on it.

There’s also leather belt to PTO adapters…probably rather scarce as they would have been only made for a decade or two.

Many of the old timers that where into steam are gone or will be gone soon. And old steam stuff could get cheaper. I don’t see millennials and zoomers being into flywheel stuff.

 

[32 volt boater]

There’s also leather belt to PTO adapters…probably rather scarce as they would have been only made for a decade or two.

Many of the old timers that where into steam are gone or will be gone soon. And old steam stuff could get cheaper. I don’t see millennials and zoomers being into flywheel stuff.

They might work well with the wood gas, probably not as finnicky like a modern engine.