Open Source Ecology Charcoal Gasifier + Workshop

Hi Friends,

We are currently working on the conversion of our 27 hp open source Power Cube - https://vimeo.com/55341689 - to a simple charcoal gasifier system so we can run our machines (http://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski) from locally-harvested, pelletized biomass.. We have recently come across Gary Gilmore's Simple-Fire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJXdaCQ6uQ. Does anyone in the group have experience with this or other open source charcoal gasifiers? We are looking at putting on a workshop at our facility in the Kansas City Area - Factor e Farm - for July 16-17.

We would like to develop this to the point that it's a highly functional, automated system with pellets as a flowable fuel. The goal is to make a replicable system that is a practical alternative to gasoline.

Any suggestions and insights welcome.

Marcin

I know nothing!
Well at least I can't answer your question but I am very interested in what you're doing.
Charcoal gasifying and Gary's gas fire in particular seem like the way to go to me they are a very simple as compared to other gasifiers.
If the heat from producing the charcoal in the first place can be captured and use either industrial process or 4 space heating, then you have a very practical system, with little waste.
I will be watching this space and following your links.
I see at the very least a charcoal powered generator in my future.

I want to know!

The one I have been eying is the Gasifier Experimentation Kit open source gasifier from All Power Labs.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-the-GEK-Gasifier-in-seven-parts/

they have a Run a Honda Accord modification, that should instead of running a 1800cc car, run a 1800cc engine with a decent sized generator on it to run a small cohousing village or small farmlet.

If your using charcoal its far more efficient turning it into a charcoal slurry and use instead of diesel in a diesel engine.

GEK is good, but they run on wood, not charcoal, so their system is more complex. Their advanced system is not open source, and we like to keep everything in the open.

We are working on it - we'd like to run this nice new mircro-tractor design on gas - we just announced the MicroTrac Workshop, which is a crash course on metal fabrication with a useful product on the other side - http://opensourceecology.org/microtractor-workshop/
. We are pushing the limits of public participation in technology.

Hi Marcin,
You may want to ping Marcos Buenijo on this forum https://permies.com/t/19954/energy/Charcoal-Gasification He wrote a fair amount here on permies on the subject and may be well along on his own project by now. Also this http://www.driveonwood.com/ is an excellent resource, many people who convert their vehicles end up going the route of charcoal gasification for the simplicity and energy densification (less volume of fuel to carry) that approach provides.

Oh yeah i stumbled across this kit charcoal gasifier a while ago that looked interest too http://www.offgridpro.com/

Nick and others, Driveonwood discussion is active on this. We are currently considering a rectangular solid gasifier and working with Dan Hartman (http://www.dansworkshop.com/2014/10/charcoal-powered-chevy-lumina-apv/) on the gasifier for our microtractor. The goal is to make a flat pancake shape charcoal gasifier that is not obtrusive and thus makes MicroTrac charcoal operation completely practical as opposed to experimental. See thread there at http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/feasibility-of-rectangular-charcoal-gasifiers/1680 - lots of hands on experience feeding in. - Marcin

What technics and tools and type of wood do you use to produce a coal of predictable quality?