Wood powered automobiles?

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I was perusing the interwebs tonight and came across "wood gas" generators, which apparently generate a combustible gas from burning wood that can be routed through a carburetor to run various equipment. Really interesting technology. When wood burns at 1300-1400 degrees Fahrenheit, it breaks the wood down into Methanol, Hydrogen, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide among others. The methanol and hydrogen are then drawn through the carb and used as fuel.

Powering a generator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6e3CprVTi8

Powering a Dodge truck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyVT_dlDNEA

Wood gas wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas
 
Originally Posted By: bvance554
Cool stuff. Germany almost won WWII on wood gas.


Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure they did.
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The Wiki article says that North Korea and parts of rural Russia and China still use this technology, probably due to shortage of real fuel in the area.
 
If I had the skills, I'd build a steam-powered vehicle that runs off a wood pellet fired boiler. I burn enough of those anyway, and I thought it would be neat to burn a bag of wood pellets to get to work rather than a gallon of gas.
 
Wood gas was big in the WWII era Australia, as the liquid fuels were all a part of the war effort.

My Grandad ran heaps of wood gas, and after the war converted local's heaters to run on wood gas.

Here's my efforts at gasification, making a little gasifying camp stove, that partially pyrolises the wood, the combusts it with over air. You can see the gas burning.



Would prefer that it burned a little more blue, but haven't tuned it really.

11 cu/in of hardwood will boil a litre of water (2.2lb)



or cook breakfast



FEMA have plans for running engines on wood gas, using reasonably simple ingredients

http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/fema.woodgas.pdf
 
I know there must be 1000's of women calling in wanting one of these..........................imagine that.
 
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Originally Posted By: bvance554
Cool stuff. Germany almost won WWII on wood gas.


If you happen to watch the movie "Downfall" (it deals with Germany's last days during WW2 - mainly Hitler in the bunker), there are fleeting glimpses of vehicles that run on wood gas.

I can remember reading an article some years back about a group of American POW's that were being transported on a truck powered by wood gas from one camp to another. According to the author, (one of the POW's) they stopped to add more wood, something went wrong and the truck caught on fire and burned up. No one was hurt but they had to walk the rest of the way.
 
You see, there are days like this I have to start drinking or I will go crazy. If you or anyone else feels this way, I'm starting around 8pm eastern. byob , if you can't , one will be provided for you. You will not have to remain silent. the end.....
 
and remember hydrogen as a fuel has a very wide A / F raito range. but cant remember how much. but it is very wider that any other fuel. EDIT: i found it. flammable AFR limits 345---5. should make to easy to tune it.
 
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Originally Posted By: DuckRyder
One of the guys on the TV show "Mountain Men" has a Toyota using this...



If they are using it, then I want to do it as well.
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As I've said in other threads, Grandad was the town expert on running stuff on wood gas (then using wood gas genertors for people to run gas heaters post WWII).

Know people doing this stuff... FEMA plans mark 2
 
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