A number of people have asked me about alternative fuels for generators and other equipment so I thought I would post some information about wood gas. Wood gas is one of the better alternative fuels. While solar power is probably the best solution and you can get small generators sufficient to operate laptops, tablets,
and for recharging cell phones and small battery packs rather
inexpensively solar generators can be very expensive if your goal is to produce enough power to keep critical devices such as refrigerators and freezers operating or powering lights and necessary appliances for any length of time and they have other drawbacks that make them limited.
The goal of this entry is not list the pros and cons of alternative fuel or power systems (we can do this at a later time) but to introduce you to Wood Gas.
When wood burns it produces a number of different gases and some of those gases are highly flammable, highly combustible. The gases produced by burning wood can be collected and vented into devices that can use those combustible gasses. Unlike other types of alternative fuels this is a system that can be built very inexpensively by someone with some basic skills. A major drawback to wood gas is that it burns dirty. Wood gas will cause serious buildup of carbon compounds in an engine that is burning it and unusual efforts have to be made to keep the engine clean and free of tar and other corrosives. On the upside if you can keep the engine clean you can operate a generator (of any size) for as long as you have wood.
There are some plans for "Wood Gasifiers" available online free of charge and one of the simplest is available from FEMA and is available in PDF format here Wood Gasifier Plans and Important Information and A Diagram of the finished Gasifier
If you want proof this works as well as claimed check out the following video on youtube Wood Gasifier running a Generator
This can be a huge subject and I won't really go into it in depth here but I would suggest you research the subject in full and find a design that best suits your own needs. If you would like me to do a more comprehensive article about the subject let me know.
The goal of this entry is not list the pros and cons of alternative fuel or power systems (we can do this at a later time) but to introduce you to Wood Gas.
When wood burns it produces a number of different gases and some of those gases are highly flammable, highly combustible. The gases produced by burning wood can be collected and vented into devices that can use those combustible gasses. Unlike other types of alternative fuels this is a system that can be built very inexpensively by someone with some basic skills. A major drawback to wood gas is that it burns dirty. Wood gas will cause serious buildup of carbon compounds in an engine that is burning it and unusual efforts have to be made to keep the engine clean and free of tar and other corrosives. On the upside if you can keep the engine clean you can operate a generator (of any size) for as long as you have wood.
There are some plans for "Wood Gasifiers" available online free of charge and one of the simplest is available from FEMA and is available in PDF format here Wood Gasifier Plans and Important Information and A Diagram of the finished Gasifier
If you want proof this works as well as claimed check out the following video on youtube Wood Gasifier running a Generator
This can be a huge subject and I won't really go into it in depth here but I would suggest you research the subject in full and find a design that best suits your own needs. If you would like me to do a more comprehensive article about the subject let me know.
