What have you burned in a gassifier

[Rugar]

Tell things, items and fuel sources that have been burned in a gassifier and how it worked.

 

[Piker]

Mostly just using a mix of decent ash, soft maple, and some hickory for the long cold nights.

Expiramented with some pine... short, hot burns.

Slab wood shortens burn times drastically... all sapwood.

Tried some switchgrass briquettes... does not create a coal bed, and makes about 7 times as much ash as firewood. Gasifies absolutely great when placed on top of a coalbed however.

Also tried some hardwood sawdust briquettes... would recommend them to anyone. Low moisture content, clean, lots of heat, little ash. Don't put too many in at once though... could cause some overheating and backpuffing.

cheers

 

[pybyr]

Woods used so far, in terms of my preference for how well they seem to work in the gasifier:

Eastern hophornbeam
hard (sugar) maple
yellow birch
white ash
beech
cherry
red oak (lots of heat but heck does this take a long time to season- still hisses 2 years after cutting & splitting)
red maple
white birch
red pine
poplar
hemlock (burns fast, spits like mad)
scrap softwood (bits of 2x4 lumber) not much heat value or duration- but _wonderful_ to start fires with in small chunks placed in a bed over the nozzle and lit with a blowtorch through the nozzle from below

shredded office paper (burns fast and hot but leaves too much ash)
corrugated brown cardboard- thought it'd be good, in strips, for lighting, but the reality barely justifies the bother.
grey boxboard- burns poorly, too much ash

 

[leaddog]

I burned dry wood chips last year and they burned real well as long as you had a good coal bedand put some larger pieces in first. I then just shoveled in 3-4 shovel full. I burnt a large gravity box full. I just chipped up a bunch of brush from some wolf trees that had dried all summer. good way to clear the brush and good heat. I'm hoping to get a couple semiloads of peach pits this summer and see how that goes.
leaddog

 

[ihookem]

Are you sure you can burn things like peach pits? I thought gassifiers were finicky. I can get wood chips like crazy but thought it was a bad idea. I hope I'm wrong though.

 

[wrench340]

Hi Guys, I've been burning Ash,Maple,Cherry,and Hickory.I tried mixing in nut coal but that seemed to plug the nozzle not sure about it being hard or soft coal.I gave up on it when it plugged the nozzle on the coldest night this winter.

 

[Duetech]

ihookem,
some of the tests conducted for gasifier efficiencies were done using wood chips. The wood chips actually came out on top for efficiency though I would not think they would be great for volume storage compared to stick wood and handling could be messy but you are already going to have a shovel in your hand so it might not be a problem.

Otherwise I have burned mixed hardwoods and some cob corn. The corn burned well but I want to do some cob corn "only" fires so I can get a real feel of how it performs with output and length of burn time.

 

[radarblip]

I have been burning peach pits for three years now, as well as pine, oak, apple, etc. Pleas see my gasification nozzle modification below:

 

[pybyr]

I burned dry wood chips last year and they burned real well as long as you had a good coal bedand put some larger pieces in first. I then just shoveled in 3-4 shovel full. I burnt a large gravity box full. I just chipped up a bunch of brush from some wolf trees that had dried all summer. good way to clear the brush and good heat. I'm hoping to get a couple semiloads of peach pits this summer and see how that goes.
leaddog

How did you get the chips dry and keep them dry? Maybe it's on account of being in the rainy Northeast, but chips almost seem to ferment if kept around in bulk for extended periods- maybe that's because I've never seen them properly dried and stored?

 

[leaddog]

they were tops that I had cut from sone BIG wolf beech trees that layed out in the sun all summer. I chipped them in late aug into a gravity box and covered them with a tarp. The brush has to be out in the sun to dry.
leaddog

 

[leaddog]

I have been burning peach pits for three years now, as well as pine, oak, apple, etc. Pleas see my gasification nozzle modification below:

How did it go? What problems and did you have to use log wood with them. Could you fill the uper chamber up?
Thanks. The mod spacer looks like somthing I was thinking of trying. How did it work>
leaddog

 

[Duetech]

leaddog,
What does a semi load of peach pits cost if you don't mind my asking? How do you store something like that?
The nozzle mod that radarblip made looks like a pretty good design. (Hope he answers soon)

 

[JMann]

Anyone burn sweet gum fruit (ankle rollers)? I get about large bags per season.

 

[kgryder]

Any one else burning black locust in their gassifier? This was always the wood of choice for a regular wood stove, lots of heat and burns a long time. but I don't get the gassification jet I do with the dry oak or maple. The locust seems dry enough, moist measures between 15-18% with my 25 dollar meter.

 

[leaddog]

leaddog,
What does a semi load of peach pits cost if you don't mind my asking? How do you store something like that?
The nozzle mod that radarblip made looks like a pretty good design. (Hope he answers soon)

The chips are supposed to cost the price of trucking but they will be wet. I'm working on ideas to dry. I have a loader tractor to move them and have a 8in stainless augur to run them into my boiler room and hope to just beable to shovel them in. I haven't done to much with this yet as I don't have them and it will be aug until I do. Once I get them I'll start trying things. The cherry pits they burn they just let set out in the sun and they dry from the heat generated in side the pile and from the sun. You don't want to store them wet as they could spontanious combust. Lots of barns burnt from moist hay. I've seen chip piles steaming also so I'll have to experment when I get them. My dad said that once when they had loose hay back in the 20's he found a 2ft black hole in side the mow when they started to feed it that winter. There must have been a slug of wet hay and it burnt but since it was inside the middle there wasn't enough air so only burnt a 2ft hole and went out. Almost no barn. He was VERY carefull after that and impressed me enough that I'll make sure I don't have that problem.
leaddog

 

[Piker]

What about dried black walnuts? We own a few acres here, and a few years ago I cut down 16 black walnut trees simply because of the mess. One year I picked up a heaping 6.5x10 trailer full... the trailer had 2' sides. That's alot of walnuts. Never thought about heating with them. A little late now.

cheers

 

[leaddog]

What about dried black walnuts? We own a few acres here, and a few years ago I cut down 16 black walnut trees simply because of the mess. One year I picked up a heaping 6.5x10 trailer full... the trailer had 2' sides. That's alot of walnuts. Never thought about heating with them. A little late now.

cheers

I think they would burn fine. If I had a supply I'd love to try them. Any one want to donate, and no I don't want to pick them up. Acorns would work good also but the deer like them better and I think it would take alot of kids to get enough to make much fire.
I've heard they have burnt nut shells and had good luck with them. For walnut maybe one of those golf ball machines would work with out ruining your back!1
leaddog

 

[radarblip]

I have been burning peach pits for three years now, as well as pine, oak, apple, etc. Pleas see my gasification nozzle modification below:

How did it go? What problems and did you have to use log wood with them. Could you fill the uper chamber up?
Thanks. The mod spacer looks like somthing I was thinking of trying. How did it work>
leaddog

Leaddog:
Sorry I'm replying so late... Basically what I do is in addition to my metal fab, I place two splits side by side on each side of the nozzle. I then put one grain scoop of peach pits on the left on the left side, one grain scoop of peach pits on the right side, and a 1/4 scoop in the middle. I fill the fuel chamber level to the door because these pits burn extremely HOT, and gasify excellently. My ceramic space glows cherry red: I get about 4 hours burn time per fill this way. My fabrication is 1"x1/16" stainless tigged together, with 3/8" stainless smooth steel rod inserted in evenly spaced holes and the tigged as well. I usually use these pits in the summer for domestic hot water, as well as at the end of the heating season (Marginal wood, if you know what I mean ) ;-) I work for a fruit processor and I get about 14 tons (WET) delivered in August, a pile about 4 foot tall and 12 foot across. These are ready to burn at the end of October, leave very little ash, and I'm basically out of them by the following August. They are and excellent supplement to wood, and would recommend them to anyone
Bob

 

[leaddog]

Thanks, I was hoping for that good news. I'm planning to get a bunch this summer. I new a guy that used them with a stoker for his sugur bush and said that he had to watch as it would tent to burn out the grates.
leaddog