My Home-Made Biomass Gasifier

My Home-Made Biomass Gasifier
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http://www.mdpub.com/gasifier/

Making your own gasifier is easy
I've built a lot of alternative energy
projects over the years. See my
home-built solar panel and wind turbine
pages. I've always wanted to build a
wood or biomass gasifier too. Why?
Well, the internal combustion engine is
really an important part of our society
and the basis of a lot of our
transportation and portable power
technology. It isn't going to be going
away any time soon. I've mastered
making my own electricity from the sun
and wind, but that doesn't help my truck
go down the road, power the lawn
mower, or run my generator on cloudy,
windless days. Those all have internal
combustion engines, and they all need
fuel to run. I finally decided it was time
to master making my own fuel. Why pay
the Arabs for it if I can make a working
substitute myself?
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So what is A biomass gasifier?

Basically is a chemical reactor that
converts wood, or other biomass substances, into a combustible gas that can be burned for
heating, cooking, or for running an internal combustion engine. This is achieved by partially
combusting the biomass in the reactor, and using the heat generated to pyrolyse or thermally
break down the rest of the material into volatile gasses.
A well built reactor will also convert combustion byproducts like CO2 and water vapor into
flammable CO and H2 by passing them over a bed of hot charcoal where they will get reduced.
Thus the gasifier converts most of the mass of the wood (or other biomass feedstock) into
flammable gasses with only some ash and unburned charcoal residue. That is the theory
anyway. This is an extreme over-simplification of how the gasifier really works. Wood and other
biomass is made of incredibly complex macro-molecules like Cellulose and Lignin that break
down into hundreds or thousands of different smaller molecules as the reaction proceeds.
There are thousands of different complex chemical reactions going on inside the reactor. The
overall result though, if the gasifier is working well, is represented in the simple formulas above.
Ideally, the gasifier would break down biomass into nothing but Methane (and other simple
gaseous hydrocarbons), Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide. Here in the real world though, things
rarely work ideally. The dirty (literally) little secret about biomass gasification is tar production.
Above I said that the macro-molecules that make up biomass get broken down into smaller
molecules. Some of those smaller molecules are still pretty big though. If the gasifier is working
well, these big breakdown by-products will be further "cracked" into smaller molecules. If the
gasifier isn't working so well, these big molecules will wind up in the gas being produced. They
will condense out of the gas as a thick, sticky, black, semi-liquid that very closely resembles
roofing or road tar, but is even stinkier. Even a well-built gasifier produces a small amount of tar.
Most real-world applications can't handle much, or even any, tar. This story of my struggle to
design and build a working biomass gasifier could actually be accurately described as a battle
to reduce tar production. So below is the most important of all chemical reactions a novice
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gasifier builder needs to know.

Biomass + Poorly Designed Gasifier = Tar!
A word of warning here. This project is dangerous. Metal working and welding are involved in
the construction, so all the usual dangers of laceration, burns and electrocution that go along
with them are present. Use all necessary precautions. Also, the operation of a biomass
gasifier produces lots of heat, flammable and poisonous gasses. Never operate the gasifier
indoors. The gasses produced are flammable and potentially explosive if allowed to
accumulate in an enclosed space, like a building. Also, the Carbon Monoxide the gasifier
produces is lethal! Only operate the gasifier outdoors and try to stay up wind of the unit when
it is running. Treat the gas coming out of the gasifier with the same respect as you would for
the natural gas that you may have piped into your house. It is just as potentially explosive and
deadly.
My original goals with this gasifier project, were to build a compact and simple gasifier, that
used inexpensive feedstock (like wood chips or mulch that is available very inexpensively, or
even free), and produced high-quality gas. Little did I know in the beginning that these goals
appear to be largely incompatible. Simple gasifiers don't produce good gas, and inexpensive
fuel is the most difficult to work with. Only after working away at the project for a while, and
going through several major redesigns of the gasifier and changes of fuels, did I achieve a
system that works reasonably well. So this web site will chronicle the evolution of the gasifier,
from early failure, to ultimate success. I will point out the mistakes I made and blind alleys I
went down, so that you won't have to make those same mistakes.
As I said above, my original goals were
to produce high quality gas from a
compact, simple and easy to fabricate
design. My research showed that the
downdraft gasifier design generally
produced the best quality gas.
However, there are a bewildering
number of variations on the downdraft
design. Some quite complex and
difficult to fabricate, others much
simpler. So naturally I gravitated toward
the simpler designs. I originally aimed
for a simple open core design, like the
one on the far left of the bottom row of
the diagram.
I found out through experience that the
simple designs just don't seem to work
very well. At least I couldn't get them to
work very well. The reason there are so
many complicated designs is that they
work so much better. So I started out
building a simple open core design. But
by the time I had a reasonably well
working gasifier, the design had
morphed into something that looks a lot
more like the complex J-Tube design on the far right of the middle row. Fortunately I was able
to incrementally modify the original design to get to the final design, and didn't have to
completely start over again.
I chose the open core stratified
downdraft gasifier design because it
was by far the simplest of all the
designs I could find. Everything I read
about it (at the time) said it should work
great. I saw vague references to people
in India having great success with this
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design. So I thought I couldn't fail.

Turns out this design sucks. It is really
good at producing tar, but not so great
at making high quality gas.
Unfortunately I had to build it before I
figured it out.
So here is my original design for a
stratified downdraft gasifier. It didn't
work very well, but it provided a good
base to build on. I have lots of photos
from this phase of the construction, and Click on a lady
to learn how
most of what is shown below wound up
to meet her.
in the final design.
I did make a few really good decisions at this point. I decided I wanted to make the flame tube
easily removable, since I figured some tinkering would be necessary. This made later
modifications much easier. I also decided to make a big access door in the side of the drum for
cleaning out ashes. The door also came in handy to give me access for making modifications.
The one big unknown at this point was what I was going to use for a grate and how I was going
to make it shake. So that part of the plan is a little vague. I just forged ahead with the
construction and decided to solve that problem later.
As I said above, I made a lot of early
mistakes with this project. I was
fortunate though in starting with an
good foundation that I was able to
modify and build on to ultimately make
a working gasifier. In building another
unit, even knowing what I know now, I
would start out exactly the same way.
The basic structure of the gasifier is
built around a 5 gallon steel drum, and
a stainless steel tube 4 1/4 inches in
inside diameter, and 14 inches long.
These dimensions are not really critical.
The tube could be a little longer or
shorter, and a little wider or narrower in
diameter. I got the drum at work. We use a variety of chemicals that come in small metal drums
like these, and always have a lot of empties around. The stainless steel tube came from a scrap
yard. It was a little pricey. I have since discovered that many fire extinguishers have stainless
steel bodies that are about the right size for use in a gasifier. Old fire extinguishers are easy to
find and cheap.
The purpose of the drum is to be the main body of the gasifier unit. It contains everything and
collects all the gas, ash and char the unit will produce. The smaller of the two bungs on the
drum will be the gas outlet. The stainless steel tube serves several purposes. The bottom of the
tube will be the reactor where the gasification takes place. The remainder of the tube is a
hopper for holding un reacted fuel. The tube will be subjected to very high temperatures and
corrosive gasses. Stainless steel is the obvious choice here.
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I started by cutting a large hole in the

top of the drum so the stainless steel
flame tube can be inserted. The hole
was made very oversize, a fortuitous
decision as it turned out. The hole is
offset to the side of the drum opposite
the small bung. The large bung was
sacrificed, since I wasn't planning on
using it.
Next I cut a flange from a piece of 1/8 in

steel for mounting the flame tube into
the drum.
I installed clip nuts on the corners of the

hole in the top of the drum, and drilled
mating holes in the above flange. This
would allow me to bolt the flange down
to the top of the drum. My idea here
was to make the core of the gasifier
easily removable for service and
modification.
Next, I made some angle brackets out

of aluminum and bolted the flame tube
to the flange. I left 6 1/2 inches of the
flame tube sticking up above the flange.
The rest protrudes down into the drum.
At this point in the project I did not yet
have access to a welder. Even if I had
one, I'm not sure I could have welded
the mild steel flange to the stainless
steel flame tube anyway. Here the unit
is being test fit on top of the drum. The
holes in the ends of the angle brackets
are over the clip nuts in the top of the
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drum.
This is my new best friend. I went
through several tubes of this high
temperature silicone gasket material. I
used it to seal every crack, crevasse,
joint, seam and bolt hole in the gasifier.
It works great.
Here I have used the gasket material to

seal the gap between the flange and
the flame tube.
Another test fit to make sure all the bolt

holes line up with the clip nuts in the top
of the drum. I have also installed a ball
valve on the small bung.
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Here is the access door in the side of

the drum. I cut a rectangular hole in the
side of the drum just big enough for me
to get my hands inside to clean out the
ash and char. then I cut a larger
rectangular piece out of another drum
to serve as the door. The door is held in
place with six more clip nuts and bolts
and sealed with lots of silicone gasket
material.
It was time to tackle the problem of

what to do for a grate at the bottom of
the flame tube. At a total loss for ideas,
I spotted a stainless steel vegetable
steamer at a yard sale. Inspiration
struck. I decided to try using the
steamer as a grate. I wired the petals
together with stainless steel wire to
keep the steamer in this bowl shape.
Here the steamer is suspended on

chains a little bit below the bottom of
the flame tube. The steamer has been
formed into a bowl shape a little larger
than the diameter of the flame tube. I
suspended the steamer from the
bottom of the flange with chains so that
it could move back and forth a little. I
next tied a length of stainless steel wire
(not shown) to the steamer and ran the
wire outside the drum through a tiny
hole drilled in the drum. Tugging on the
wire made the steamer shake and
twist. I wasn't thrilled with the result, but
I figured it would work well enough for
a test run or two of the gasifier.
Eventually I came up with a much better grate design. It appears further down the page.
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This photo shows how the other ends

of the chains are attached to the bolts
on the bottom of the flange. I used ring
terminals crimped onto the ends of the
chains.
With the internal parts all sorted out, it

was time to button up the gasifier. Here
I have mounted to central core
assembly (flame tube, flange and
grate) and used liberal amounts of the
high-temp silicone gasket material to
seal up the unit. I could hardly wait for
the silicone to cure so I could start the
test runs.
Here is the air blower I used to pull air

through the gasifier. This blower last
saw use in my home-built jet engine
project. Most gasifier projects I have
seen use a blower to pull air through
the unit. It is usually used to start the
gasifier, then once running, the vacuum
from the intake of the engine the
gasifier is meant to power keeps the
gas flowing. This blower is a little under
powered. However, it is the only all
metal blower I could find. Most blowers
these days are full of plastic parts. The
plastic would melt at the temperatures
the gasifier operates at. So I made do
with my undersized blower. I actually
had some success with it, after I modified the design of the gasifier.
I used a flexible metal natural gas line like the ones used on gas ranges and dryers to connect
the gasifier to the blower. The gas line is a little undersized, and probably contributed to the
poor performance of the pump.
My dream fuel for the gasifier is free
wood chips and mulch available from
lots of places nearby. I know of at least
three places I pass on a regular basis
that have signs offering free mulch to
anyone who would come and haul it
away. There are probably dozens of
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other sources I could find with a little

research. So I got myself a bag of wood
chips. The chips were very wet. So here
I am drying them with a fan. After 2
weeks under the fan, they were bone
dry and ready to burn in the gasifier. I
realized that if this worked, I'd have to
find a less energy intensive way of
drying the wood chips in the future.
Now it was time to give some thought to
how to start up the gasifier. A lot of
people build in a port in the side of their
gasifier so they can stick a blowtorch
inside and start the fire. I decided to
take a different approach. I decided to
pre-load the reduction section of the
gasifier with hot charcoal, and then I'd
fill the hopper up the rest of the way
with whatever fuel I was going to burn.
This starting procedure actually works
quite well, and I have continued to use
it, even through all the redesigns and
fuel changes the gasifier has gone
through. With the reduction section full
of hot charcoal, the reaction starts
almost immediately, and the gasifier (in its final design below) is producing good gas in only a
couple of minutes.
I use hard wood lump charcoal, not briquettes, though they might work too. I pulverize the
charcoal down to pieces no larger than about 1/4 - 1/3 of an inch across.
Here I am lighting the charcoal with my
propane torch. The pulverized charcoal
is in yet another stainless steel
vegetable steamer. These things are
just so amazingly useful for so many
non-vegetable steaming tasks. The
small pieces of hardwood charcoal light
easily and burn very hot. Only a few
quick passes from the torch gets them
going. Once the charcoal is good and
hot, I dump it into the flame tube of the
gasifier, and fill it up to the top of the
reduction section. Then I fill the flame
tube up the rest of the way with fuel.
Here is a photo of the completed Mark I

gasifier in operation. Ignore the hopper
extension at the top of the flame tube.
It was an experiment I tried to increase
the fuel capacity of the gasifier. I no
longer use it. The aluminum foil is on
top of it because it was raining a little
bit, and I was trying to keep the fuel
dry.
I could never get the gasifier to work
well. It would produce some flammable
gas sometimes, but mainly it just
produced a lot of stinky tar and smoke.
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I was having a lot of trouble with zone

migration. That is where the flame zone
(and hence all the other zones too) moves up the fuel column, instead of the fuel moving down.
The result was that in short order, the flame would reach the top of the fuel hopper section and
there would be no more fuel for the gasifier to gasify. The fuel got converted mostly to charcoal,
with lots of tar and a little gas as byproducts. If I wanted a machine to make charcoal and tar,
this would be a great design. However, as a machine to make gas, it was a flop.
After doing some more research,

(research I probably should have done
up front), I came to realize that wood
chips are a difficult fuel. The non
uniform size and shape of the chips
makes them difficult to burn in a simple
gasifier. So I switched fuels. I wanted to
use wood pellets, but they are hard to
find here in Florida. So I settled on hay
pellets. I could get them from feed
stores, and they were reasonably
priced. They seemed like a reasonable
substitute for wood pellets.
The result with the hay pellets was only
marginally better than with the wood
chips. More gas was produced, but the zone migration problem didn't go away, and the tar
problem was just as bad, and if anything, even stinkier. The gasifier didn't seem to be getting
anywhere near as hot as it ought to be. I knew that low temperature operation would lead to
less gas and increased tar. I suspected that poor air flow through the fuel was part of the
problem. The uniform size, shape and composition of the pellets made them an ideal fuel, as
far as I could tell. So I had to face the fact that the problem was the design of the gasifier, not
the fuel. The final nail in the coffin of this design was when I found the blog of another gasifier
tinkerer who was complaining about the open core design. He was lamenting that he had built a
tar producing machine instead of a gasifier. It was time for a major re-think.
So I sat down and made a list of the problems I was having with the gasifier, in order of their
severity. My day job involves use of a lot of statistical analysis. One tool we use a lot at work is
Pareto Charting. With a Pareto Chart, you list the problems or defects in your process in order
from highest to lowest percentage. Then you start trying to fix the problems at the top of the list
because fixing them first will produce the biggest improvement in your product. I had a list of
defects with the gasifier, and so I listed them in what seemed like the most logical order.
Zone Migration
Poor Air Flow
Low Temperature Operation
Excessive Tar Production
Shaker Grate Not Working Well
Weak Air Pump
Looking at the list, it was obvious to me that the zone migration problem was the biggest
problem I was facing. The fuel was being mostly converted into charcoal, rather than being
properly gasified. Solving that problem would make a big improvement in the operation of the
gasifier. I also realized looking at the list that solving the poor air flow problem would also
probably improve or even eliminate other problems on the list like low temperature and tar
production. So I decided to tackle the top two problems first, and tackle the others as
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opportunities presented themselves.

So it was back to the drawing board. I
knew that the easiest way to solve the
zone migration problem was to cap the
top of the flame tube. The flame was
simply moving up-wind toward the
source of oxygen. Since the original
design required air to move through the
whole fuel column, the flame simply
went up the column toward the source
of air and created the zone migration
problem. Capping the tube meant I had
to find a new way to get the air into the
gasifier.
I studied the various gasifier designs. It
was clear to me I needed to install air
inlet tubes near the bottom of the flame
tube. It looked like the easiest way to do
it, and still allow the core section to be
removable was to install J-Tubes. The
J-Tubes would also have the added
benefit of pre-heating the air, since they would pass through the hot gas in the drum before
entering the flame tube. I also noticed (maybe a little late) that almost all gasifier designs have
a constriction or throat where the unit narrows below the flame zone. Further research
explained that the constriction helped reduce tar production by forcing the volatiles produced in
the pyrolysis zone to pass near or through the hot flame zone where the tars get cracked into
gas. I decided that while I had the gasifier apart I'd add a constrictor plate. Also, even though it
wasn't a super high priority on my Pareto Chart, I'd replace the shaker grate, since I saw a way
to make a new one easily.
So goodbye simple open core design, and hello complex J-Tube design. Even though this was
a major re-design, I could build on the already existing hardware. I wouldn't have to start all
over again from ground zero. This allowed the changes to happen fairly easily and quickly.
Here I have installed the six j-tubes.
They are made of 3/8 inch copper
tubing. They are called j-tubes because
they are shaped like the letter J. I used
a large hose clamp cinched down tight
to hold the tubes in place. The opening
in the top of the drum needed to have a
few notches cut in it to accommodate a
couple of the j-tubes that stuck out too
far.
This photo also shows the chains that
suspended the original vegetable
steamer shaker grate. They will be
reused with a new and improved grate
below.
Here is a look up the bottom of the
flame tube at the business ends of the
j-tubes. Copper is probably not the ideal
material to use here, since at least in
theory, the temperature at the point the
air is injected could be high enough to
melt them. So far my gasifier doesn't
seem to get anywhere near that hot,
and the copper is holding up well.
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However, in my next gasifier, I will

probably make at least the tips of the air
inlets out of steel. Copper is just so
darn easy to bend and work with
compared to steel tubing.
Here is a view of the constrictor plate I
made. By this point in the project I had
my own welder (Yahoo!) and was
getting proficient at using it. To make
the plate I cut a circle out of 1/8 inch
sheet steel that would fit in the bottom
of the flame tube. Then I cut a 2 1/2
inch diameter hole in the center of the
circle. To mount the constrictor in the
flame tube, I welded three 1/4-20 nuts
to the plate, and drilled passage holes
in the flame tube for three 1/4-20 bolts.
Here is a view of the constrictor plate

installed in the bottom of the flame tube.
Here I have installed the new shaker

grate. I made it by cutting the bottom
out of a stainless steel colander I
bought cheap at a yard sale. The
colander already had a lot of holes in it,
but I drilled quite a few more in it as
well. It is suspended under the flame
tube by the same four chains that held
the original steamer grate. I used the
same system of attaching a length of
stainless steel wire to one corner of the
grate and running it outside the drum.
Tugging on the wire makes the grate
shake and twist. It is not an ideal
system, but it seems to work. I put a
ring on the outside end of the wire to
make it easier to grip.
Here is a photo of the top of the
re-assembled gasifier showing the tops
of the j-tubes poking out of a sea of red
silicone gasket material. It's a little
messy, but to me it was a thing of
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beauty.
Here is a look down the flame tube of

the new and improved design.
Here is a video I shot down the flame tube of the re-assembled gasifier showing all the new
parts and the shaker grate in operation.
Here is a video I shot of the new and improved gasifier in operation. At last, glimmers of hope.
The unit is actually producing decent amounts of flammable gas, and somewhat less tar. The
gasifier is running a lot hotter than it had been too, but still not as hot as I expected. After the
run, looking under the cap showed that the fuel was moving down the tube into the flame
zone, as it was supposed to, and getting consumed. No more zone migration! I was very
happy about that. Still, the performance left a lot to be desired. There was still a lot of tar. Also,
I was convinced the wimpy blower and losses in my skinny outlet hose were really preventing
the gasifier from reaching higher temperatures and impairing its performance.
After a few runs in this configuration, and burning through a lot of hay pellets, I became
convinced that the next big problem that needed solving was further improving the air flow
through the unit. I had tried a few tests where I used a vacuum cleaner I had bought cheap at a
yard sale in series with the blower to increase the draw through the gasifier. I found that the
temperature of the gasifier shot up with the increased air flow, and the quality of the gas being
produced seemed to increase. I quickly tarred up the vacuum cleaner, but I didn't care. I only
paid a few bucks for it, and it served its purpose in confirming my suspicion that I needed better
air flow through the gasifier.
What to do? A more powerful blower was the obvious answer. Unfortunately, powerful, all metal
blowers are very expensive. A new one was way out of my price range for this project. I finally
found a used one at a scrap yard and got it for almost nothing. But when I tried it out, I
discovered the motor was burned out. Not such a bargain after all. A new motor for it would
cost over $100! Ouch. So scratch that idea.
Then it hit me. Why not blow compressed air through the gasifier, rather than use a blower to
pull air through. My workshop has a huge air compressor. I have essentially unlimited
compressed air. I could adjust the pressure and flow rate through the gassifier easily with just a
regulator and a valve. Brilliant, if I do say so myself. Just one little problem. The current design
had six air inlets. How would I join them together to connect them to the compressed air
supply?
Back to the drawing board again. While
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brainstorming on how to get

compressed air into the gasifier, I
noticed a steel air duct reduction fitting I
had previously used as an aborted
attempt at a fuel hopper extension
earlier in the project. I realized I could
cut it down and make it a manifold that
would cover the tops of all six j-tubes.
That would allow me to inject air into
the system at only one point on the
manifold and feed all six j-tubes.
Brilliant, again, and this time it looked
foolproof. The manifold came together
quickly.
I was sure that improving the air flow
through the gasifier would make a big
improvement in performance. However,
comparing my design to other gasifiers
had me fretting about the small size of my reduction zone. It was pretty short compared to all
other designs I had seen. I was worried that the quality of the gas may be suffering due to an
inadequate reduction zone. I decided that since I was once again reworking the gasifier, I would
lengthen the reduction zone. I figured it would be easy to do by simply welding a short length of
steel tubing to the bottom of the constrictor plate and lengthening the chains supporting the
shaker grate. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any photos of that particular modification. I
must have forgotten to take my camera to the workshop that day. I'll get a shot of the reduction
zone extension the next time I have the gasifier opened up. I believe I welded a 2 1/2 inch
length of 3 1/2 ID inch steel tubing to the bottom of the constrictor plate, then just lengthened
the chains suspending the shaker grate.
My early decision to make the core of the gasifier removable once again allowed for these
modifications to be made quickly and easily.
Here is the manifold I made to cover the
inlets of all six j-tubes. It was cut from a
6 in to 4 in steel AC duct reduction
fitting. It slips down over the flame tube
and gets siliconed to the top of the
flange. A single air inlet fitting will be
installed on the side of the manifold.
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Here is the new single air inlet on the

side of the manifold. I used a Tee fitting.
One leg of the Tee goes into the
manifold. One leg has a hose fitting
installed that I can use to inject
compressed air. The third leg of the tee
is plugged for now. My idea here was
that I could start the gasifier on
compressed air, then once it was
running, I could unscrew the plug, and
let engine vacuum pull air through the
gasifier (from whatever engine the
gasifier eventually gets connected to).
Here is the new and improved (again)

gasifier, all buttoned up and sealed with
yet more great gobs of red silicone
gasket material, ready for a test run. I
couldn't wait to try it. So even though it
was threatening rain, I set up the
gasifier outside and fired it up.
I finally found some wood pellets. On

one of my trips to Arizona, I bought two
40 pound bags of wood pellets. They
were dirt cheap too. Less than $6 per
bag. I couldn't find them to save my life
in Florida. Every hardware and
homecenter store in Arizona seems to
carry them though. Now I have plenty of
high quality fuel for testing out the new
and improved (again) gasifier.
Fortunately I drive out to Arizona twice
a year. So getting 80 pounds of wood
pellets back home in my big truck was
not a problem.
At last! The gasifier was working well. It

is making lots of gas and hardly any tar.
Everything was working great. The
gasifier was producing such a huge
volume of gas, I decided I needed a
better way of flaring it off. So I bodged
together a quick and dirty gas burner. I
just drilled a bunch of holes in the
bottom of an 18 ounce steel can, and
bolted it on top of the gas outlet pipe. I
then but the old stainless steel
vegetable steamer I originally used as a
shaker grate over the open top of the
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can. It works great as a burner. The

flame doesn't blow out even in very
strong wind gusts. I'll need to increase the stack height since the heat from the burner is
starting to cook the rubber and silicone parts a little.
Here is a video I shot during the first test run of the new and improved gasifier. A short while
into the run, I bodged together an improvised burner assembly to flare off the gas produced by
the unit. It was windy and when I would light the gas coming out of the outlet tube, the flame
would get blown out every few seconds by a wind gust. The burner worked so well, that I plan
on making a lot less improvised version of it, and mounting higher up so the heat it produces
is away from the rubber parts on top of the gasifier.
You can see the dark black clouds reflected in the window behind the gasifier. A bad storm
was rolling in. I had planned on running the gasifier at a high flow rate, to see how long it took
to burn through a full load of wood pellets. Somewhere less than an hour into the run though,
the skies opened up with a real gully washer of a rain storm that brought everything to a halt. I
was drenched, then trapped inside for over an hour waiting for the torrential rain to stop. At
least the gasifier was nice and cool after that drenching when I cleaned it out and put it away.
I'll have to run that particular test another time.
Here is a video of another test run a week later. This time the weather was great, though very
hot. I increased the height of the stack under the burner. This time I managed to get in the
timed run I wanted to do. It took about 50 minutes to use up a full load of pellets in the gasifier.
I was just as pleased as could be with the performance of the gasifier. It was working great. The
volume of gas it could produce was amazing. As I cranked up the flow of compressed air to the
unit, the flow of flammable gas to the burner increased until I had a real flame thrower on my
hands. The heat from the burner was so bad that it became difficult to approach the unit to
make adjustments or shake the grate. I was frankly amazed and thrilled at the volume of gas
my little gasifier could produce. This small unit should be able to power even a huge engine. I
had succeeded far beyond my wildest dreams.
So now I had a working gasifier. Time to hook it up to an engine and start producing power,
right? Well, not yet. The bright yellow color of the burning gas tells me that there is still a lot of
tar in the gas. There is not nearly as much as in the beginning, with the older design, when tar
would just run out of the pump and puddle around it, but there is still some tar in the gas, and
tar is bad for engines. So I was determined to reduce the amount of tar being produced. Further
research led me to believe that reducing the size of the constriction in the hearth might reduce
the tar production. Most highly efficient gasifiers seem to have hearth constrictions that are on
the order of about 1/3 the diameter of the reactor. Mine was closer to 1/2 the diameter.
So I tore down the gasifier and welded
in a new constrictor plate. Now the
opening is only 1 1/2 inch in diameter.
The theory here is that by making the
restriction smaller, the tar has to pass
through the hottest part of the reaction
zone and gets cracked. My original
larger opening was allowing tar to
sneak out without passing through the
hottest zone.
Here is a video of a night test of the modified gasifier with the smaller constriction. I am very
happy with this run. There is much less tar. The modification is working great. Running at night
allowed me to see the true color of the flame, and see that there is much less tar now.
While I had the gasifier set up and hot, I decided to do a test I had been wanting to do for a
8/9/2016 9:20 AM
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long time. I ran the gasifier until the wood pellets were used up, then I loaded the hopper with
charcoal. I ran the gasifier for a little while on nothing but charcoal. The flame was very clean
and almost pure blue (see the video). The gasifier produces very clean gas on charcoal. There
are two problems with running on charcoal though. First, charcoal burns a lot hotter than the
wood pellets. The gasifier wasn't designed to handle such high temperatures. Something
would melt or break pretty quickly if I made a habit of running on charcoal. I'd have to redesign
and rebuild the gasifier to run on charcoal safely. Second, making charcoal throws away a lot
of the energy in the wood. I want to use that energy in my gasifier. So for now I will continue
experimenting with burning wood pellets and other biomass. It sure is nice to see what a
clean, tar-free flame looks like though.
There is still some tar in the gas when burning wood pellets. I also see some ash and the
occasional spark come out of the burner. A look at the burner after a run shows some (not a lot)
soot and coke-like material inside. All this stuff will need to be filtered out before the gas gets
piped into the intake of an engine, or the engine probably won't survive for long. The valves
would get gummed up and the cylinder walls would be scored. It would also be nice to cool the
gas before sending it to the engine. Cool gas is denser, and that means more gas could be
pulled into the cylinder on each intake stroke. So I need to build a scrubber and cooler for the
gas.
A lot of other people use cyclone separators and radiators to clean and cool the gas from their
gasifiers. I considered this option. However, My metal working skills are somewhat limited. I
also wanted to keep the unit as compact as possible. A cyclone and big radiators would make
the unit huge. I am hoping to make a unit that would eventually power a vehicle. Until I get all
the bugs worked out, it will only power stationary engines, but I don't want it to grow too big. I've
seen trucks running on wood gasifiers. They are gigantic things sticking high up out of the bed
of the truck, or following behind on trailers. I'm hoping to make something more compact than
that. Maybe something small enough to fit in the trunk of a car with the trunk lid closed. That's
my dream anyway. So I wanted to try to make a compact scrubber cooler system to mate with
my compact gasifier.
So here is my initial rough sketch of of a
scrubber cooler system. My idea here is
to use a water spray to clean up and
cool the gas. The gas would move up a
column packed with either stones or
golf balls, against the flow of water. The
purpose of the packing material is to
increase the wet surface area the gas is
exposed to as it passes up the scrubber
column. The more surface area, the
easier the gas can give up its heat and
suspended particles to the water.
Near the top of the column would be a
spray nozzle that would spray out a
cone of water, creating a falling water
curtain that the gas would have to pass
up through. This would be the final
cooling and scrubbing step. The water
would then flow down the column,
through the packing material, and drain
into the drum. Clean, cool gas would
exit at the top of the column.
The whole thing would be built around
another 5 gallon steel drum, just like the
gasifier. The drum would hold a few
gallons of water, and collect all the
residue scrubbed out of the gas. A fountain pump would be used to pump water up to the spray
nozzle.
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This is my initial idea anyway. Will it work? I don't know. At the very least, it will probably need
some tweaking and reworking to get it running right, just like the gasifier did. I have only just
started building it, so it will be a while before I know if it works. I will post updates here as the
work progresses.
The results are in. And the answer is...
It didn't work :-(
Well, I should say it didn't work very
well. This is a photo of the completed
scrubber unit. It removed some tar, as I
could tell because the water turned
brown over time. However, there was
still plenty of tar in the gas that passed
through the scrubber. I was very
disappointed. One bright spot is the fact
that the scrubber did a great job of
cooling the gas, as I hoped it would. So
I had cool, tarry gas, instead of hot,
tarry gas.
So I did some more research. I found
some information that I somehow
missed earlier. It seems that this
method of water spray scrubbing just
doesn't work very well when it comes to
removing tar from gas. Well, I confirmed
that.
I'm not going to spend a lot more time describing the water spray scrubber since it seems to be
a dead end. Maybe it will come in handy for cooling the gas, but I am going to have to come up
with something else to take the tar out of the gas. Next I am going to look into ways of further
reducing the amount of tar produced by the gasifier, and more conventional methods of
removing what remains from the gas.
In order to try to get some idea why my gasifier is still producing so much tar, I installed a
thermocouple in it to measure the temperature at the throat (constrictor plate). The
temperature was higher than I expected. So the gasifier is getting hot enough to crack the
tars. Something else is wrong. Tar must be somehow be leaking out of the reaction tube
without passing through the throat. I have some ideas where it could be happening. I will be
making some more modifications and trying another run when time permits.
Another test run of the gasifier. This time I had taken the gasifier completely apart and plugged
every possible gap and joint where tar could leak out of the reaction tube without having to
pass through the hot zone and get cracked. The previous test run showed that the gasifier is
getting plenty hot enough to crack the tar. The only explanation I could see for the excess tar
was leaks. Sure enough, I saw where tar could sneak out around where the J-tubes entered
the reaction tube, and around the outside of the constrictor plate. I slathered on copious
amounts of the red high-temp RTV silicone in all those places. This is not a permanent fix,
since the heat will quickly breakdown the silicone, but I figured I should be able tell if the early
part of the run looked less tarry then usual. It does seem less tarry. I need to find a way to
permanently plug all those gaps. If not in this gasifier, then in my next one.
My future goals for the gasifier include of course getting it attached to and running an engine.
Preferably an engine that would do something useful like run a generator.
Other goals include automating the grate shaking so I don't have to do it myself every few
minutes. I have some ideas on how to do that. At some point I will probably redesign the whole
shaker system to make it more robust and more amenable to automation. I am also toying with
the idea of an automatic pellet feeder, to keep the pellet hopper topped off. An automatic feeder
would allow the unit to run for hours at a stretch, rather than the 45 minutes or so I can get out
of it on a single load of pellets. The limiting factor would then be the build-up of ash and char in
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the bottom of the gasifier. That of course would lead to a new goal of an automated char
removal system. Then there would be no real limit on how long the unit could run.
This gasifier is a prototype unit. It is rather bodged together, and not terribly robust. Another
goal I have is to eventually redesign the gasifier to be more robust and rugged so that it could
survive the rigors of years of hard use, and the banging around it would get being used to run a
vehicle. So I will probably be working on gasifier related projects for years to come.
I'll post updates here as the project progresses.
[Back to Mike's Homepage]
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Copyright 2010-2014 Michael Davis, All rights reserved.
8/9/2016 9:20 AM

My Home-Made Biomass Gasifier

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My Home-Made Biomass Gasifier

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My Home-Made Biomass Gasifier