Bio Fuel Storage: Building A Gasometer

So what is wood gas good for? A lot of you have asked that question. The main point of wood gas is to turn a renewable fuel like wood/plant matter into a form that is compatible to be burned by modern technology like cars, generators, stoves, etc.. Wood gas is a fuel that can be made by anyone with simple equipment, and can run a gasoline engine with only minor modifications. The process I use in this video to make it produces a very clean result, but is not the most efficient way to make large quantities of gas for immediate burning. I'll be demonstrating other methods of wood gas production in future videos.

Thanks for watching!

[Cazzputer]

The look of pride on your face was so genuine in the intro :D

[gabrielschoene]

I like how you keep people from clicking away on your sponsored outro with your adorable bird

[AussieChemist]

Instead worrying about what type of tube you use, you could use a condenser to cool the gas before it reaches the tube

[jacobopstad]

That's so cool that you read all of the comments! I love how meticulous you are in your projects and how you're always showing where things didn't go as expected so we can learn from that too.

[lord_kinbote]

I like how pretty much every by-product of this process is a useful material. The charcoal has lots of uses, the tar can be used to make wood rot-resistant, the wood gas is a decent fuel. There's really no waste.

[jacke]

We had three massive gasometers in my town, a few minutes walk away from where I live, they were a sort of landmark you could see for miles. I miss them oddly enough.

[davidfuller]

Why oh why on earth would I watch any other YouTube! 2 years it took to find you.. a $20 wood gasified camp stove brung me here. Thanks

[uknowngamer]

His smile when he turned it on and it worked, priceless :)

[jamesfarmer]

I don't know about anyone else, but this kind of stuff fascinates me. I can't wait to build one of my own. People like you need to be running this country. Take Care.

[markfryer]

I am enjoying this video series. My late Grandpa and his late brother converted their car to run on wood gas here in Melbourne Australia during WW II to get around the petrol rationing problem. Back in the late 70's I can recall a couple of gasometer tanks near Heidelberg being dismantled as the town gas supply system matured.

[sgibbons]

I love how you are able to make simple, easy to reproduce designs in your projects. You are my favorite YouTube content provider!

[victoryfirst]

My goodness, you are really clever using the gas pipe. And using the epoxy to seal the bottom and the seam seal. Great job fella too.

[dougalexander]

Beautiful build. Many years ago, I played at my cousin’s house that was close to a coke plant. It was alway fascinating watching the gas storage tanks rise and lower, and I always wondered what was going on. At 70 years old, now I know. Thank you.

[Kineth]

I really liked this video!
You can get around the flexible tube by having your inlet and outlet pipes enter the BOTTOM of the water chamber, and then rise through the water into the headspace of the floating chamber. Gas will come in the bottom, rise through the tube in the water (or you could have it bubble through the water, but your gas generator would have to be above the water line) then it would either float the upper chamber, or pass out through the outlet pipe (depending on gas demand).

This is the first wood gassifier that i have seen with any type of accumulator, and I must say, it has given me a lot of ideas!

[ravelkoff]

The smile in your face when lighting the torch - priceless :)

[CreatorCade]

I love the wood gas content it's fascinating how something so simple could be used for just about anything.

[SianaGearz]

Silicone tubing is good to have around. It's short term temperature resistant to well over 300°C, long term to about 200. It won't melt ever, and if it starts to discolour, it's degrading or basically slowly burning up.

Vinyl has a fairly high melting temperature... i forget... but it's a very hard plastic, so tubing must contain plastifier, which potentially has little effect on melting temperature but gets glass transition temperature way down. Incidentally this is why it's becoming softer when it heats up. At the start of the video i guessed that it would survive and hey happy that it did.

[GadgetPonyGal]

It's really awesome seeing you doing so much experimenting with wood gas. Like I said last time, try using ordinary trash, like paper, cardboard, cereal boxes, old rags, etc. as production fuel at some point. It may be a bit harder to use with your current setup, but I think it would be worth it to see how much gas you could produce from it compared to regular wood.
And on that subject, it might be interesting to see how much you get from fresh wood compared to dead and dry wood.


Also, bringing your adorable bird in to give us incentive to watch the sponsor bit of your videos is really clever, and I don't regret watching it one bit. I'd love to see an off-topic video just about your bird at some point. It's super cute, and it looks like you take very good care of it. ♥

[kawalpine]

A suggestion. The condensate is called wood vinegar and has many agricultural applications. Thanks for the work you've done to explain this process so well!

[pa]

That was the best design and explanation I have seen about gasifiers and a gasometer. Very well done! Thank you!