# Burn wood to generate electricity?  (Wood Gas/Producer Gas generators)



## Melensdad

I've dabbled around with trying to go "off grid" with my house.  

I'm not a hippie looking to 'rough it' in a cabin, but I really like the idea of energy independence and want to try to see if it can be done . . . without a lot of compromises.  Basically I want to continue to live as I live, but do so without paying the electric bill to a utility company.

What I believe makes sense is a HYBRID energy system.  One that uses SOLAR PANELS and a WIND GENERATOR to charge up a large battery bank. Then power the house from the batteries through an inverter.  The problem is that during bad weather, no wind, low sunshine its very possible to drain down the batteries too far.  That leaves the option of adding more SOLAR panels, using a larger or secondary Wind Generator, or adding some other sort of generator into the mix to top off the batteries.

I like the idea of adding in another type of component and stumbled across these "wood gas" or "producer gas" generators.  Anyone know anything about them?  Or this technology?  Apparently during WWII about a million cars/trucks were running on this gas because of fuel shortages.  Seems like old technology that has been forgotten?

Basically its a system where you burn wood or similar items in a chamber, channel the fumes from the burn into a Kubota engine, and use that to power a generator.

LINK to VICTORY gasifier => http://victorygasifier.com/

LINK to GEK gasifier =>http://gekgasifier.com/gasification-store/gasifier-genset-skids/


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## loboloco

Basically it works like an old coal gas generator.  Creates a burnable gas.  
Silly question, but do you have a stream or run off area on your land?  It seems you are worried about cloudy, or bad weather days.  A water turbine in a run off pipe can generate quite respectable wattages.


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## Melensdad

There is a stream along the back of the property but the farm field is between me and that stream so I can't really access it for electricity purposes.


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## pixie

Sounds interesting. What do they cost ?


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## Melensdad

I don't know about the Victory unit.  The GEK is $16,995 with the generator so its essentially a 10KW power station on a pallet.  There are plenty of plans to build your own, and all sorts of YouTube videos about these things.  Looks like the gasifier unit could easily be made out of a couple drums, some duct, some pipes and other bits and pieces.  The GEK unit appears to be very "high end" with power auger for cleaning out the ash, electronic controls, etc.

FEMA offers plans for making your own:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/45621902/FEMA-Woodgas-plans


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## Snowtrac Nome

the germans built vw's that used that technoligy it worked but was a labor intence system with manny cleanings of the systems because the  dirty gas fouled up carbs and such. here is a better idea sink a deep well run a loop into the well have a condensor on one side and set up a turban on the other side fill the system with refrigeration gas the earth will heat the gas push it through the turbin than re condence it as it drops to the bottom of the well and the cycle will start over again . this system is being used at chena hotsprings with great success in what is described as low temp hot springs they are now marketing systems to oil companye large enough to run production facilitys using ground heat


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## Melensdad

Don, from what I understand these systems have been in use in remote areas for 75+ years and now are making a comeback.  Your example is just more proof that its viable.

The GEK system above, while very expensive for homeowners, is actually being used in 3rd world nations to provide power for primitive villages.

My concern is on the small scale of a homeowner would it provide the needed power without being overly complex or overly labor intensive.  Obviously given that I'm already on "The Grid" the easiest thing would be for me to continue to pay my monthly bill.  So looking at alternatives means I'm willing to spend some amount of time and effort, not to mention up-front-money, to eliminate total dependency upon the utility company.

BY THE WAY, one added benefit of this thing is that I can use its byproduct of heat to heat the water in my water heater, potentially even to heat my swimming pool.


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## Snowtrac Nome

news flash Bob i want some way to get off the grid my 1500 foot home is costing me 200 bucks a month during the summer when the sun is up all the time


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## bczoom

Bob,

The one pictured says it burns 140Kg's of biomass every 6 hours.  If they're calling firewood "biomass", that doesn't seem very efficient.  That's over 300 pounds of wood every 6 hours.  If you burn it 24/7, that's almost a face cord every day.


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## Melensdad

Typically you would burn for 4 hours, but do that twice a day and use the generator to charge your battery bank.  Typically you'd also do your burn during your high demand hours.  And that would ONLY occur during sunless/windless days when your solar/wind generation are too low to keep your batteries topped up, or if you have very high demand due to excessive heat or cold.   One burn in the morning to recharge the batteries from overnight demand, also to give you the power to heat or cool your house, heat your water, etc.  Then another burn in the late afternoon to do the same.

While these can be used as 'stand alone' electrical generators they are typically part of a hybrid system that includes a battery bank, and either an array of solar PV panels or a wind generator, or both solar/wind.

For an emergency system when the power is out this could easily be used as a standby generator and run during the outage just like any other generator if you chose to feed it.

HOWEVER, while I need a 20KW unit to directly power my house, the reality is that I could easily use a 5KW model to charge a battery bank.  So if this was a SUPPLEMENT to a hybrid power system, then I could very easily get buy with a small unit because Solar and/o Wind power would be connected into the system too.  Ideally the generator ONLY runs to heat your water and top off your batteries.


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## 300 H and H

Sounds good to me...

I have some 1940's automotive journals that speak at length about coal gas or wood gas. It was used quite succesfully from the artical. For stand bye use I think you are on the right track. It would take magor work to use it exclusively, from the specs. I wonder how corn stalks would work, I have alot of them....

Best regards, Kirk


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## Melensdad

I know they will run on corn COBS but I don't know about corn STALKS.


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