I've recently become very interested in modding my '95 F-150 to become more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. I am trying to see if I can design a wood-gasifier to run it on wood.
Some Background info (skip if you don't like novels
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Naturally, the best way to do that is to shy away from fossil fuels completely, and use a free, carbon-neutral energy source. And I just so happen to have an effectively unlimited supply of naturally-deceased trees for free. I say naturally-deceased because I don't see any reason I would ever need to cut down a live tree (not that I would), because lightning alone kills more trees every year than I could use (and to make sure any tree-lovers won't get the wrong impression).
In general (and perhaps absolutely?), any vehicle that can run on gasoline or diesel can run on woodgas with minimal modification (which usually involves a manually operated air/fuel mix box in lieu of a carburetor). Unfortunately, my truck is fuel-injected, which apparently makes things a little more complicated, but I'll worry about that later.
/background info
I've found a couple sites before, but they've either been horribly out-dated, impossible to navigate, or full of nutcases (trying to create cold fusion reactors from match-stick boxes, according to plans they bought online-- you know the type). This place appears to have people with just the right combination of intelligence and rationality.
There are some serious hurdles to overcome, though. And I hope someone here might be able to offer some input or support. Has anyone here ever done this?
Some problems I'll need to solve are:
1. Fuel (wood block) size. This is the primary problem at the moment. It is cheap and easy to cut trees into 1-2' sections, then split (resulting in pieces like so: (http)://realneo.us/system/files/CordofWood.JPG. Unfortunately, gasifier plans I've found online (from the UN and US publications, mostly) are just as bureaucratic as you'd expect: they assume perfectly-shaped cubes of wood from .75" up to 2" (as if wood can be harvested naturally in such form), and make no mention of the effort and energy -- much less methodology -- of getting such perfectly formed fuel chunks out of trees. Since it would take an impractical investment in machinery and fossil fuel to get an otherwise carbon-neutral and free fuel into chuck form, the design must be modified. I want to use hand-split wood of typical length. And, quite frankly, I'm not sure that would be practical either. But, if I can modify the design to allow for that, the only investment would be in chainsaw fuel. A gallon can cut down a couple trees, and 1 cubic yard (of wood) is the equiv of 5 gals of gas. So, that would make my truck go from ~19 mpg to ~500-1000 mpg (fossil fuel/wallet/environmental impact, anyway). There must be a way...
2. general safety issues. Issues include keeping heat away from anything it could hurt, keeping explosive hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases from exploding, keeping poisonous gases safe. There may be more I can't think of atm.
3. Fuel composition. I want to break down as much of the more complex hydrocarbons as possible to reduce harmful tars and other chemicals (and to increase efficiency). I want it to be very clean-burning.
4. Modifying the gasifier to match the fuel consumption requirements of my engine.
5. Getting the gasifier to work with my fuel injection system.
6. There probably is something I've forgotten
I probably have (or have access to) any kind of tool needed for anything that could come up, and I also probably have many of the parts necessary (scrap metal, mostly). The gasifier is basically sitting there, waiting to be designed and built.
I currently spend about $250 per month in gasoline, so cutting that down to more like $5 per month would be veddy veddy nice!
Any thoughts/input/suggestions? Do you think this would be practical, or should I not even bother?
PS: Should I try my hand at building a small wood-gasifier first? I have a gasoline electric generator (to power a home) for which I could design one first. What do you think?
Thanks in advance!