Another Alternative
 

Ugly but workable.

All things old are new again. The Aussies used a lot of these during World War II.

It would go farther if you mixed in 20% tire crumbs.

Video: The Finnish-Built, Wood Burning El Camino – Gas 2.0

A-OK if you have a cheap source of biowaste.

I saw the "World's Fastest Wood Burning Car" at the Mother Earth Fair last September.

It was pretty cool.

Mercury Beaver XR7 – Worlds Fastest Wood Powered Car | Beaver Energy

Also, technically it's a dual-fuel vehicle. It was set up to be able to run on gasoline OR wood. (The wood-gas goes in to the AIR INTAKE!)

When I saw it fired up, it was started on gasoline, but run on wood-gas.

You might not be able to extinguish it, if you do that.

How long does it take to fire it up? Do you need to stoke the fire at 7 AM to get it moving by 10? :confused:

The vehicle that I saw took about a minute or so to fire up.

A gasifier is not a great design for a "lots of short little trips" car, but it is pretty cool to go cruising without any gasoline!

I think a gassifier would work ok for lots of little trips, but you'd have to have an alternate reason to keep the fire stoked so it wasnt wasteful, like heating your home, for instance. Especially so if you live in a motor home converted to wood gas. :rolleyes:

During the gas shortage of the 1970's, I can recall seeing a story about a car that ran on chicken manure. Methane is probably as efficient a fuel as propane, but the aroma of it is pronounced. Well, if you ever had a gas leak, you'd know it... :D

There was a lot of that stuff in the Mother Earth News at that time.

The gassifier idea is intriguing but if I'm not mistaken, doesn't the gas contain abrasives that do a number on engine life?

Why does the gassifier have to be installed on the car? Would it be possible to compress the wood gas and put it into a tank, leaving the weight of the wood and the gassifier at home?

You'd hardly smell methane / natural gas at all.

The smell you've noticed in household gas is an artificially introduced, very pungent mercaptane.

Technically you are correct.

However, methane that has animal manure as its source is highly odiferous.