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| Overview |
| Feasibility |
- Economic
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| Gasification |
| Project Journal |
| Conclusions |
"V" Draft Gasifier
This type of gasifier, to my knowledge has never been done before. It is the design we are currently working with; We have made 4 prototypes so far, the 4th of which is the design we are installing at our house right now. A 5th prototype is in the works as well.
Click on photo to enlarge. From gasifier prototypes The “V” draft gasifier combines the good aspects of the downdraft and updraft gasifiers into one. Take the continuous, gravity feed of the downdraft and combine it with the simplicity and natural draft of the updraft. When we started exploring the idea of a simple updraft gasifier we were limited by its “batch process” nature. We started exploring methods of making a continuous feed updraft.
From gasifier prototypes Our first discovery was that if we got a thin (~2-3” thick) layer of fuel burning really well we could simply sprinkle chips on top to maintain a bed of gasifying fuel. The next step was to make this automated (or able to be automated). At this point we added an arm that branched off the gasifier to allow us to feed fuel in from the side. Problems occurred with the method of pushing chips in. Pellets have an almost fluid nature and really like to flow through feed systems, whereas chips tend to jam feed systems, such as augers. We decided that a gravity feed would be the ultimate most desirable setup because it wouldn't require power, but the only way we would achieve it would be if the feed hopper was vertical. To test this we took our prototype with the side arm feed, and tilted it so the feed arm was almost vertical, and the gas and flames were sent off to the side, then up.
From gasifier prototypes More pictures of the evolution of this design are available | here |, or you can click on any of the picture above.
Contact: edreissigacker@gmail.com
Copyright Ethan Dreissigacker 2008