Marcos Buenijo wrote:Addendum to previous post: It is also possible to use the same steam generator used for heating applications to generate high pressure steam for a small steam engine. In that case there would be less incentive to harvest charcoal. However, I don't recommend this due to the dangers involved with high pressure and superheated steam, and the general lack of availability of the hardware involved. Since gas engines are ubiquitous, then it makes sense to stick with gasification for fueling small internal combution engines vs. the steam engine. It's also possible in principle to use the hot top of the drum to power a Stirling engine that could make a small amount of electricity and possibly power a fan for a forced air heating system. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a useful Stirling engine that could be used for this purpose. I mentioned it only because people seem to love these things, but I say forget the Stirling. You can power a gas engine today at 15-20% thermal efficiency on charcoal or wood. You can go fractional hp up to hundreds of hp on charcoal, and 3-5 hp up to hundreds of hp on wood. Until proper and cost effective external combustion systems become available, I say stick to internal combustion.
hi thanks for input , was thinking of more of a gasifier like this to power things
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F258s13UxfY&feature=related
