Charcoalers and charcoaling

[exurbia]

I have a request that may seem odd to the younger generations (that's me).

Many years ago back in the dark days of WW2 my grandad had a car that ran with fuel gas, mixed with petrol it kept the home front going. The fuel gas was derived from a charcoaler, some of the gas was used to maintain the combustion in the charcoaler.

My question, are there any older poms that remember how to build one and maintain them ? Ideally I would be looking for a set of workable plans to eventually build one.

I don't want to run my Austin 7 or big Healey on the stuff, just make fuel for my Hibachi and Tandoori oven. Commercial charcoal is far too dear, and we have an excess of green tropical hardwoods suitable for charcoaling (African Mahogany).

[SY]

Charcoal making

[exurbia]

Sy, that is the general idea. The ones used in the UK used green timber as well and were indirect reduction. What I am after is the high pressure cooking system that the uk used during the war. I remember my grandad telling me that they were inefficient and quite dangerous. But, they did produce excellent charcoal.

[infinia]

Googled "producer gas"
Interesting
Apparently used to run autos by towing the generator on back, because the gas vapors produced had too much water in it and when cooled the fuel was trapped in liquid water again. Best used by high compression engines (again water injection) can get 50% of the power compared to higher octane fossil fuels tho. source How to Run Your Own Car on Wood
Might be useful to set up to run a modified modern gas electricty generator me thinks

[brianco]

My earliest memories of cars was from the time as a child, in Ireland, every car had two vertical cylinders fitted in front of the radiator; they must have been about 30" tall by about 18" dia. It must still be possible to find some info. from an Irish motoring forum as they were so common. The Irish never throw anything away so you may well find a full set of paperwork etc........including even a complete unit in the back of a farm building!!!

[ashok]

Then I must be Irish !
Are there brown Irishmen , apart from semi burnt ones ? I guess not !

Seriously , what happened to all the 'water' run cars that many Aussies have been working on for so many years. Looks like there are plenty of backyard experimenters doing this in Australia.

Sorry for this digression from the core topic. If there are enough interested replies we could split off the thread .
Cheers.

[brianco]

Not sure about "semi-done" ones, but there used to be plenty of "well done" ones back in the days when a criminal conviction was obligatory for a visit to Australia!

Just joking...honestly!

[ashok]

Brianco:

We get "well done" if we stray out in the sun often in summer ! Just a few months away.

Skin colour is a funny thing. My mom's dad was 'midnight black' . My mom ( her mother and her siblings) and many of her ilk are quite light brown.
So what happened to the midnight black DNA dye ? Go lost somewhere along the line I guess. Strange !

[scott wurcer]

Originally Posted by exurbia

Commercial charcoal is far too dear, and we have an excess of green tropical hardwoods suitable for charcoaling (African Mahogany).

African Mahogany by the Piece, 3/4'' x 3-3/4'' x 36''
In
Stock $13.99 Each

You can buy a lot of charcoal for that.

[Ron E]

Wood gas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia