New Direct Fuel Downdraft Gasifier Coming!!

Ok new in development is a new Downdraft Direct Fuel Input Gasifier / Charcoal Kiln Technology. Oh and you thought it was for running an engine didn't you? Haha Um no!! I will never ever use a downdraft gasifier for small engine running ever again. Charcoal is a far better solution for that; what we need to come up with, is a fast and viable way to produce that fuel for engine grade gas. So that is exactly what this new gasifier system is all about.

Most developers in this space are completely fascinated with running an engine on wood!! Myself included!! However, we have ignored appliance applications that can also run this gas directly!!. Lets think about this for a second. When we run an engine for electric production, we are losing 75% of gas energy potential in engine losses. Only 25% of that energy potential is being applied to your electrical demand. Now if we are making charcoal, we create pyrolysis gas and burn this gas off to create heat to reduce the raw wood fuel to charcoal. What if instead of burning this gas off we store it and scrub it? Is that possible?

The answer is YES!!

One thing a downdraft gasifier does very well is they produce charcoal and since this was the majority of our development and sales over the companies 10 year existence we are experts when it comes to the downdraft gasifier. The plan is to design and build a simplified downdraft gasifier optimized for charcoal production and the gas produced will be safely stored in an automated storage system. This stored gas can be scrubbed clean enough to run most appliances. Now the gas is being used directly without the losses from the conversion of ICE engine power to electric output. All while completely reclaiming all the gas that would otherwise be burned and vented out for charcoal production. Then add in these gas appliances are also taking the place of electrical counter parts reducing your electrical requirements. This system will be much more balanced and waaaaaaay more efficient!!

Now the storage system will be an automated gasometer system that are tried and true. However there are some limitations as there is only so much gas volume you can store practically at one time and that wont get you very far. So this will require two gasometers and some automation to make work as continuous supply. So while one gasometer is full and charged it will be the gas supply out to appliance while the other is accumulating new gas from the gasifier and then there will simply need to be a cooling and gas condensing cycle. Once the gas is cooled and settled it will be scrubbed clean!! NO TAR! NONE. So there will need to be a self ignition system for starting up the gasifier system, flaring off the gas and then detecting when good combustible gas is present for charging the gasometers and then a means to charge this gas into them. All of these things we have successfully already developed in the past. This may sound like an expensive and complex approach. However it will be no more expensive or complex as a raw direct fuel gasifier with complex filter systems that require a ton of daily maintenance and are hardly even marginally engine grade. If the carb is black it made tar and soot!! Yuck! you dont want any of that in your engine ever! Not to mention it will be at least 70 percent more efficient and FAR more viable for daily off grid operation.

So first things first, we need to build a gasifier and test it. So that is what I will be building next and it may even be open sourced here for DIY. Those that may want to build a simple gasifier for engine power you could simply add restriction plate and design a more restricted grate to this very gasifier. However you will need to automate a grate and hopper agitator no raw fuel stationary gasifier will run hands free or will be self sustaining without automation. At least not at the home small engine stationary scale it simply wont work.

Here the cross sections of what will be our first attempt. Note the air intake jet drops down from the top. However I have revised to mount from the side of the hopper with a 90* elbow. We will experiment with different jet nozzles, but I think a simple nozzle pointing straight down will more than likely work the best. KISS.

7 Comments

LowAndSlow

Feb 14, 2022

Could the gasometer water be used for water drip later in the process or would it have too many contaminates?

Thrivenrg

Replying to

Yes that is the plan, however Im not sure if it will work. If the tar is thick it would clog up the water drip system. But yes ideally we would want to use this to reclaim that energy.

jon

Jan 28, 2022

I've seen charcoal retort designs which reheat themselves using the the wood gas. Some also have optional heat exchanger where a fan-assisted dryer Is then used to kiln dry the feedstock wood

Besides all that most retorts are batch run systems. That dont work well with a gasifier system its too slow and cumbersome. You want something that is a continuous feed and continuous output with a fast production yield. That is what the CFK-10 was designed to do.. We are not new to any of this and have been developing this stuff for over a decade. We have weighed all the different methods to produce charcoal and have built most. The CFK-10 is the best performing of those methods. However this new system will be far more efficient and far less cumbersome to operate; it will run itself, you just put fuel in it like a typical raw fuel gasifier. It will return usable gas for gas appliances while producing a daily amount of charcoal as a by product for engine to electric power. It wont get any easier than this.

@Thrivenrg thanks for taking the time to explain this to me 👍

Feb 15, 2022

@Thrivenrg what is the make up of the pyrolysis gases? I'm guessing some similar modifications will be made to the gas appliances as for a biogas from an anaerobic digester?