Wood gas generator
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Wood gas generator schematic |
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Wood gasifier on a Ford truck converted to a tractor (an EPA tractor). |
A
wood gas generator is a wood-fueled
gasification reactor mounted on an
internal combustion engine, to provide a
wood gas, a form of
syngas.
Shortages of
petroleum-based fuels during
World War II resulted in very large numbers of such generators, often improvised. Commercial generators were in production before and after the war, for use in special circumstances or in distressed economies: production skyrocketed during the war.
Gasification was an important & familiar
19th century technology, and its potential and practical applicability to
internal combustion engines was well-understood, from the earliest days of their development.
Town gas was produced as a local business, and experience in the trade was very widespread: most practicing technical people would know a good deal about it. When stationary internal combustion engines became available, they were commonly fueled by town gas during the early 20th century.
By the time
World War II arrived, town gas production had been displaced by petroleum gas, but older people remembered both town gas and gas-fueled engines, and wood gas generators were in active production.
World War II era wood gas generators were of the "Imbert" type.
FEMA has published a book,
"Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines in a Petroleum Emergency", in March 1989, describing a different design called the "stratified downdraft gasifier". It solves several drawbacks of earlier types, and should be used to guide contemporary projects instead of the earlier designs.
Usually, wood gas generators burn wood, but improvements to efficiency and energy-density are possible, by using
charcoal instead.
The disadvantages of wood gas generators are: large size, slow to start (build a fire), and the batch-burn operation (of some designs).
Saab 99 running on wood gas. Gas generator on trailer.With raising oil price, wood gas generators come back. A project about the energy future of Europe was held in 2005 in
Güssing,
Austria with contribution of
European Union resarch furtherance. The project consisted of a power plant with a wood gas generator and a gas engine to convert the wood gas into 2
MW electric power and 4.5 MW heat.
At the wood gas power plant are also 2 containers for experiments with wood gas. One container is an experiment to convert wood gas, using the
Fischer-Tropsch process, to a
diesel fuel like liquid. By October 2005, it was possible to convert 5 kg wood into 1 litre fuel.
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Wood gas generator power plant in Güssing Austria*
Experiment to make a Diesel like liquid fuel out of wood gas
