Wood power! The Alternative to $4 a Gallon Gas?

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, I am broke now, and so I got to thinking about a little experiment I could kill time with for under $10. I have an old lawnmower I use for parts. It has a good engine, but a bad carb. Now, while this may sound crazy, it is a proven fact that an internal combustion engine can be made to run on the smoke from burnt wood. It is galled "Wood Gas". So, I am now thinking about trying it with the good engine on the crappy mower with 3 wheels on it and the bad carb off my good mower ( I swapped them when I got the other one because it was in better shape but didn't run because of the clogged carb). The carb will turn into a valve to throttle the amount of wood gas burned by the engine. I will use an old coffee can, a tuna fish can, some galvanized pipe, a metal funnel, and a bit of sheet metal to fabricate all of it.
Anyone want to follow along? If this works, I may go full scale if I can get a cheap old pickup truck to build into a drivable wood powered driver! I am sick and tired of these gas prices!!!

Wood powered G body, anyone?

I found it Here: http://www.woodgas.com/history5.htm

Also, here's a site about driving across Sweden in a wood powered 1968 Volvo: http://www.vedbil.se/indexe.shtml Don't worry, it's in English.

Here's a pic:

 

[srercrcr]

Now if u can get your girlfriend to chop wood, you'll have something there!

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Sadly, I have never had a girlfriend. No girl I have ever had an attraction to has ever wanted to go out with me. 🙁 So, I gotta go it alone.

 

[Geesie]

Something tells me that the wood-burner won't pass emissions...

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, it is "Carbon Neutral", so it should. This is because burning wood emits the same amount of emissions as rotting wood, so there is no net gain of pollutants due to combustion. However, I imagine that if I did this, I would not get 2 miles before the local police state pulled me over for questioning ( we have LOTS of cops here!). We have no inspections of any kind here though, so I may be able to get out of it if I use a really old pickup truck as my guinea pig.

I am trying to get the stuff to see if the old mower engine will run on this (some old food cans from work, a computer fan from the garbage, etc.). It's just too interesting an idea not to try, sort of like Mentos in a 2 liter of Diet Coke. Maybe I will submit it to Mythbusters and see if they try it. At any rate, I will post pics here if I build it as I think some people may find it interesting or funny to see.

 

[Geesie]

The hydrocarbon emissions are only part of it. The aerosol cloud following you around may be a problem.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, that's the cool thing! It emits no smoke other than from the tailpipe. It is actually the partial combustion of wood that makes the gas, this gas then is piped into the engine, and engine demand regulates the speed of the reaction. Just like you do not have an aerosol of gasoline following you (unless you have a fuel leak...) as you drive on gasoline. You may laugh at me now, but when there is no more gas, and I am driving my wood powered 1968 Chevy C-10 pickup, I'll have the last "evil mad-scientist laugh"....:lol:

BTW, you should read the FEMA paper on doing this as it is a lot of fun!

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

There are uses for the wood-gas other than just running a car. For example, say you wanted to live in a small, 400 sq ft Unabomber shack, but really didn't want to go without electricity or heat while writing your manifesto. This way, you could still live a carbon-neutral existence and look down upon the rest of the world in superiority. The excess heat from the reactor could be used to heat your shack by simply using a copper coil around the reactor. Wood gas is the modern solution for the kook who doesn't want to live a completely primitive existence, while still loving the earth. This way, the trees, animals and Al Gore will still sing with him in rapturous harmony as he saves the planet. Maybe the presence of modern conveniences could make life better, keeping you happy enough that you don't want to indiscriminately kill people--but maybe that's going too far...