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Is A Gasifier The Best Alternate Energy Source?
A gasifyer is a mechanical device for heating wood chips, or many other types of dry organic matter, to a temperature high enough to liberate the volatile gasses locked within them. These gasses when liberated can be burned for heating, or used in an internal combustion engine to make power. The fundamental construction of the gasifier may be a canister perhaps the size of an oil drum which needs to be well insulated to retain the heat.
A small bed of burning fuel is held within a container inside the drum. The bed of fuel is forced to combust under controlled conditions, by restricting the amount of air, and begins the gas production.
Being self contained has a lot of advantages.
Having a modest controlled fire burning with limited oxygen is not only efficient, but just setting fire to the whole mass of fuel is not. The heat produced is also used to dry out and heat up the wood chips, so that as they descend into the grate they are in the ideal condition to replace the burned-out mass. Temperatures of the order of 1200 degrees F should be aimed for. The red-hot unburned gasses are allowed to escape from the head of the container. They then require to be cooled and filtered, in part to cleanse the gas, in particular if it is to be used in an engine, and cooled to produce a denser mixture which is more thermally effective.
Some of the principal advantages of the gasifyer is it can be made small enough to be self contained and moveable, on a trailer or trolley. The rough size of an oil drum can be made to run a four cylinder engine, but if you are burning something which is basically a waste product, wood chips or saw dust, the gas made from that is just as effective as the gas from an expensive fuel.
Any combination of chipped wood and or branches, rice or maize husks, shells, pits, animal droppings, in fact any waste natural material, could be used. For example fast growing willow might be used in areas with good water but little commercial waste.
Using commercial agricultural waste as a fuel will not just save money, but also monumental amounts of landfill area. A further green benefit is that the residue or char from the gasifier could be used as a soil conditioner, meaning even less waste.
My specific interest is in reducing the expense of home energy production or yet off grid living.
The end result with household gasification is a clean burning fuel with little contamination. An added benefit.
20lbs of dry chipped wood is said by many to be equivalent to 1 gallon of gasolene. A gasifier of appropriate size will provide all the gas to run a selected engine, the bigger the gasifier the bigger the engine. A gasifyer does not necessarily call for any external power nevertheless this will help to start the machine, someone will nonetheless have to fuel the machine. With an internal combustion engine the induction will draw air through the hearth creating a self sustaining sequence.Check Out The Gasifyer.com
A gasolene engined generator plus a gasifer and a fuel supply makes an ideal alternate energy source.
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