There was a letter in the most recent Countryside about producer gas. I'd never heard of it. It sounds promising, but there weren't enough details given. The editor said they had a truck powered this way (powered on sawdust and other materials) but described it as "not quite ready for prime-time".

I'm not a prime-time kind of guy and I would love to have a vehicle than ran on sawdust and "other materials", especially as my neighbor has a steam-engine powered sawmill.

I would appreciate any information or link on the topic. Thanks!

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), August 22, 1999

Answers

I seem to remember learning about "producer gas "when I was 12...many years ago.It was generated by mixing air with steam & passing it over burning coke or coal.This yielded a combustible gas made of nitrogen,hydrogen & carbon monoxide...I think.

This mixture was also extremely unstable unless the conditions under which it was formed were tightly regulated.

The gas was used to fuel the early Bessemer smelting furnaces.

Instead of producer gas try looking at organic methods of producing methane..a by-product of composting chicken dung,toilet waste etc. Personally,I wouldn't bother as I would still like to keep my eyebrows!(Had them once blown off in a gas experiment that went slightly wrong)

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), August 22, 1999.

Breifly, the process consists of burning wood in a reduced an oxygen reduced atmosphere similar to the manufacture of charcoal except the wood is reduced to ashes. The resultant mixture of flammable gases is cooled and filtered to remove solids (fly ash etc.)

-- Lumber Jack (johnsellis@webtv.net), August 22, 1999.

"Producer Gas for Motor Vehicles", by John and Martin Cash, originally published in 1942 (2nd edition, 1st edition was 1940), republished and sold by Lindsay Publications (maybe Amazon would also have it, but it's probably faster to go directly to Lindsay. From the preface to the first edition:

"The modern gas producer is made up of three distinct elements, the efficient functioning of each being the deciding factor in the results achieved by the plant as a whole. these elements are:

1. The generator in which the fuel is burnt to produce the gas ultimately used in the engine. This is usually a cylindrical or rectangular metal container holding the fuel and into which air is admitted by means of either a grate or tuyere.

2. A scrubbing or cleaning element which removes from the gas any of the impurities it may contain. The means of achieving this result are either dry or liquid cleaners, or in some cases a filter through which the gas is drawn.

3. A cooler or radiator. As the gas is generated from the fuel by means of a fire, the temperature of which is very high, it will hav ea correspondingly high temperature which results in a lost of engine power if it is not first cooled down to a temperature of about 130 degrees F. This is done in the cooler, or radiator as it is often called, by passing the gas through a number of pipes which are air-cooled.

In addition to the units just mentioned there must be some apparatus in which the producer gas and air mix to form a combustible mixture.

That a gas producer is an inconvenient, bulky, and in many cases, unsightly, piece of apparatus must be admitted. But some of this prejudice must vanish when we consider the important task that it is performing.

Nature herself took untold thousands of years to produce petroleum, and it is indeed a blessing that man, with the aid of a very simple apparatus and some wood, can produce an efficient substitute. Giant hydrogenation plants capable of producing a satisfactory substitute fuel from coal have been built at enormous cost; but the producer gas plant is the only plasnt that can produce a satisfactory substitute for petrol and be built within the means of a private individual."

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), August 23, 1999.

I WAS IN THE US AIRFORCE DURING THE KOREAN WAR STATIONED IN NORHTERN JAPAN. I CAN REMEMBER THE JAPANEESE HAD A SMALL CAR ABOUT THE SIZE OF A VW. ON THE BACK BUMPER THERE WAS A BURNER ABOUT 18 INCHES IN DIAMETER AND ABOUT 3 FT TALL. THE MAN WOULD PUT ABOUT 2 #OF CHARCOAL IN IT TO DRIVE 15 MI TO WORK EACH DAY. SURE WISH I HAD ONE OF THESE.

-- BOB (RCROZIER@KOYOTE.COM), August 26, 1999.