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Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

lowtechmagazine.com

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Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#61

Post by clord »

zamfi wrote: post #44
comicjk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're wrong about solar panels - they have an EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Invested) of between 4 and 15 times, depending on how you calculate it.

You’re definitely right about EROEI, but I interpreted the parent as saying that solar panels literally don’t recapture the CO2 required to make them, which is true (if not entirely meaningful). Solar doesn’t reduce atmospheric CO2, it just offsets other production of CO2.

It’s a CO2 emitter actually, since aluminum, glass and silicon all require high heat to make, and we presently do that with natural gas. It may offset its own production emissions by replacing dirtier methods of power but if we switch to all-solar they will be emitting CO2.

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#62

Post by sreidnw »

imbur wrote: post #29
mrfusion wrote: post #6

Would a steam engine make more sense? Then you could run it on anything.

You can run a gasifier out of almost any biomass, coffee grounds, wood, leaves, corn husks. Then with minor modification you can run most cars on the resulting syngas.

I knew an elderly chemist/inventor who told of how he once converted his wife's car to run on cocoa bean husks. He said you wouldn't know the difference except for the slight smell of chocolate as you drove around town.

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#63

Post by aphextron »

maxlybbert wrote: post #54

I’m not saying this is common knowledge, but it’s not a new idea: https://archive.org/details/FEMAEmergencyGassifer , https://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/old/3022.pdf . Then again, the fact that the article focuses on WWII cars says it’s not a new idea.

I think it's definitely common knowledge to Europeans who would have direct cultural awareness of this due to the impact of WWII, however this is mindblowing to a North American.

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#64

Post by outworlder »

lawlessone wrote: post #57
maxlybbert wrote: post #54

I’m not saying this is common knowledge, but it’s not a new idea: https://archive.org/details/FEMAEmergencyGassifer , https://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/old/3022.pdf . Then again, the fact that the article focuses on WWII cars says it’s not a new idea.

Could we make it better though? a lot of heat must be lost gassifying the wood? Perhaps we could use that for thermometric power generation too.

Possibly. But harvesting that heat directly to 'motion' would probably not be feasible. Storing that on batteries may be better, as they can be slowly trickle charged, but provide a lot of power when there is demand.

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#65

Post by TomMarius »

gambiting wrote: post #52
alkonaut wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in most Germanic/Scandinavian languages I believe. Carbon and Coal are synonymous. Coal as in coal power, coal barbecue, and the element carbon use the same word. That’s not a coincidence. Apart from some exotic forms like diamonds, trees or rabbits (less pure), coal is how we normally encounter carbon.

The same in Polish, which is a Slavic language - Carbon Monoxide is "Tlenek Węgla" - and "Węgiel" literally means coal.

Same in Czech. "Kyslicnik uhlicity", and "uhli" means coal (plural).

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#66

Post by walshemj »

gooseus wrote: post #7

There was a talk from the Royal Institution just uploaded yesterday (talk was in June), The Apocalypse and How to Avoid It [0], where Lewis Dartnell (author The Knowledge [1]) describes a gasifier stove you can make from a couple bean cans, and also brought up this gasifier engine technology and how it was used in London during the Blitz. This article has a ton of useful information that makes for a great followup. A…

As famously seen in dads army when they converted Jones the butchers lorry.

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#67

Post by walshemj »

maxerickson wrote: post #10
comicjk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order to be efficient and powerful, a steam engine needs high-pressure steam, which can only be safely contained by thick, heavy boilers and pipes. This makes miniaturization of steam engines for cars difficult. Gasification of wood allows you to keep the benefits of the internal combustion engine.

I think the bigger issue is adapt vs rebuild. The Doble steam cars are at least on the cusp of practical. (they are very high maintenance compared to modern cars)

An ICE car of the same era is also high maintenance as are say cars from the 60's

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#68

Post by perl4ever »

tzahola wrote: post #49
Synaesthesia wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last years of WW2 I think Japan chopped down the last of its trees to make a bit of aviation fuel.

I'm pretty sure there are pre-WW2 trees in Japan.

It appears that about 12.5% of Japan's land area is old-growth forest. [1] However, I believe it is also true that there was a fair amount of deforestation in the WWII period, and that today, the majority of the forest is modified or plantations.

[1] https://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/archive/Japan...

Re: Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank

#69

Post by Synaesthesia »

Flavius wrote: post #33
Synaesthesia wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last years of WW2 I think Japan chopped down the last of its trees to make a bit of aviation fuel.

Wait, what? There's absolutely no evidence that "Japan chopped down the last of its trees". Why would you say such a thing? You enjoy lying on the internet?

I saw it in the documentary series “The world at war”. I think the episode about Kamikaze fighters. Japan had virtually no oil supplies. Here’s an article about it. http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2006/05/the...

Ok they don’t chop down all of their trees. Of course they still have trees.

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