This site is dedicated to all things wood-gas and some things that aren't. It began as a way for me to keep track of things in the wood gas world that I found interesting, but has evolved into my blog about living off-grid part-time. I hope you find it interesting!
moreMy Inverter Experience
I saw the GEK
up close and personal yesterday (05/30/2009) at the Maker Faire 2009:
This was my first time seeing a gasifier in person and a few things about
the experience were unexpected. First, the time from initial lighting to
a burnable flare was much shorter than I anticipated. Such a short time
is probably more attributable to the fine tuning Jim Mason and his team
have done over time than it might be to any gasifier's ability to create
burnable gas. Still, I thought it would take much longer than the few
minutes it actually took.
Conversely, the time from initial flaring to gas suitable for running an
engine was much longer than I expected. Though I wasn't looking at my
watch, I think it must have taken somewhere between 25 and 40 minutes for
the reactor temp to climb from 275 degrees when I first looked to ~600
degrees when Jim finally started the attached Listeroid. Since I don't know which
thermocouple was being monitored or where in the reactor it was positioned (not to mention
what the units were (Centigrade, I believe), I realize 275 and 600 degrees means
very little. I did find a post where Jim explains it here:
>GEK at Maker's Faire 2009 photos (and gasifier tuning diagnostic idea)
And speaking of Jim Mason, I cracked up when I read this in the Yahoo forum:
...an easy way to "get out of newbie jail for free".
build your first gasifier by removing a cigarette from your pocket. once
it is removed from your pocket, you have completed fabrication.
operating instructions.
1. light the end, put the other end in your mouth and suck hard. you now
have an updraft gasifier lit and operating. continue until fuel is
consumed. inspect your lungs to gauge tar production.
2. get another cigarette and light the end. but this time, put the lit
end in your mouth and suck. you are now operating a stratified downdraft.
inspect your lungs to gauge tar production. things should be much better,
but still not good.
3. get another cigarette and light the end. this time leave it sit there
and slowly smolder through the fuel. you are now running a direct
combustion pyrolysis reactor.
this completes your first gasifier build.
now rest easy knowing we already have a globally installed base of
gasification devices. we're just currently applying them to less than
ideal ends . . .
