Wood Gasification, As Explained by Wayne Keith

Wayne Keith, "Mr. Wood Gas," talks with John Rockhold of MOTHER EARTH NEWS about the basics of wood gasification and how it can be used to power a vehicle. Sorry about the wind noise.

[tubefluid]

There must be some unwritten rule that says all the gasifier vids have to be made out in the wind.  :p

[slamshift]

Saw the article, very cool to see Wayne describe this in person. I very much like the heat-exchanger/ cooler integrated into the sideboards. THAT is slick. I read books that made mention of the syngas/ woodgas cars built and used in Europe during WWII, and have been wanting to see and build one. I have a couple of rigs that would be suitable for experiment. Thank you for the inspiration, Wayne and Mother Earth News.

[Wood-For-Power]

Hey Mr Wayne
I finally caught a good line and "only" ~1 hour dial-up time to view this. Great interview. Results encouragement inspiration: woodchunks in - 84 MPH and a smooth idle capability out.
Regards and BBB
Washington State SteveU.

[thelarch]

Those fellas are awful brave shooting the video during a tornado.

[LadyBeritanavatarius]

Apparently there are other ways to "gasify" then just using wood... I'll be looking into them. You should too. Maybe some of the household waste we throw out could be used, by ourselves, to power our own vehicles instead of relying on others to gather and process it into fuel. Freedom of energy. Self-reliance!

[aaronchapman]

Hi Keith I've been checking out your videos and I'm quite impressed a lot information and I'm actually been interested in wood gasification for quite a while I built a couple small gasifiers and I think I'm going to go ahead and put one in my truck I have three Ford pickups to F250s and F-150 I think I'm going to pumy F250 as far as those other people are concerned that they say gas station is not a viable way of making energy or gas they are off their rockers and don't know what they're talking

[johncgibson]

Yeah, the high school biology class mentioned some of these. Wood sap traps volatile chemicals for sure, heating releases the volatiles, and carbon monoxide is fuel by definition. But no one seems to come up with calculation about the cost-economy of this system. When oil runs out and if we still cant do fusion by then, we will have to do this gasification like the good old days of WWII for sure.

[needparalegal]

This is impossible. Steel melts at 700 F according to our beloved government, at least it did on 911....

[tony]

And there's another thing! What I cannot understand among all these wood gas enthusiasts is why nobody has tried turning the stuff into gasoline! Its actually not that difficult. The Fischer - Tropsch process need a pressure of around 5 atmospheres (car tyre pressure plus a bit), and a temperature of 300 degrees centigrade. As feedstock it needs carbon monoxide which is what woodgas is mostly composed of. Discuss please

[corduroy]

Wish they would upload a "HOW TO do this" video series ...

[patrickevans]

i live in a state that is 85% wooded
there is so much wood that goes to waste
a person could probably get it for free for the asking
our household waste what little we have goes to the chicken
they give is eggs in return & the extra cockerels that we hatch out head off to freezer camp once they get some size to them.

[Appleslaryer]

does it need a special motor to use the gas?

[robinofloxely]

No special motor required, the gasses go into the air intake of the truck

[FreemonSandlewould]

Audio people! Audio! My god a simple mike baffle fixes this does it not?

[ArnaudShanghai]

Problem would be that if all cars starts using wood, would we have enough wood supply?

[simonlinser]

forget your boom cover? audio quality is a joke.

[mb]

Looks like MrTeslonian copied Mr. Keith's design to power his truck.

[tunnelportterror]

Wood gasification technology is a loser.  More energy must be put into it, than comes out. A better approach would be a wood fired boiler, make steam, and turn a turbine generator.  The process of making wood gas, then burning the wood gas in an internal combustion engine, to then make power is less efficient. The wood gas is a very dirty fuel and the inside passages of any engine run on it, would become caked with buildup deposits of the wood smoke, just like a chimney in a wood burning stove or fireplace.  A LOT of wood had to be burned, to make wood gas.  Another issue is, the wood gas needs an exceedingly high temperature to ignite.  The high temp causes the liner in the burn compartment to wear out in 5 years or less.  These furnaces are very DANGEROUS.  The exhaust flue on them gets exceedingly hot, over 1000 degrees, and will burn your house down.  It's not something you'd want in or anywhere near your home or business.  This is a last ditch idea that would only make sense if all the oil, natural gas, and coal on the planet, were depleted.   Add to it, these wood gasifications units are exceedingly EXPENSIVE, costing well over $7, 000 for an entry level unit.  The liner has to be changed every 4-5 years at the cost of another $2000-$3000.  Not worth it IMHO.
If you want to see a truly viable form of alternative heating, take a look at Alex Johnson's videos, his youtube name is FLAIMDANCER.  HIs lava rock filter catalyst stoves, simply blow away these wood gasification furnaces.  He has perfected a stove and furnace, that will burn green wood, plastic, tires, trash, seasoned wood, whatever else you want to put in it, and with NO SMOKE once the catalyst heats up and ignites.  It only takes 5-10 minutes for the stove to get up to operatiing temperature.  He installed one in his living room, in his own house.  If you put a wood gasifier in your living room, it's eventually going to burn your house down. The flue pipe on the lava rock catalyst filter stove, is cold to the touch.  It keeps all the heat inside.  Check it out.

[johnbrzezinski]

You can barely understand the guy b/c of the wind noise.

[TranquilKao]

Capitalism my dear Watson But yes. Listen to the pirate, and check my channel.