This Wood-Powered Pickup Works Great

This Wood-Powered Pickup Works Great ENERGY Wood Gas 4-5-34 "Certainly we could never run our transportation system in this country on wood. But there's enough forest waste to supply 10 to 15% of our total energy needs." Kay Eoff, University of Florida physics professor, was talking with FARM SHOW about wood-gas and the wood-gas-powered pickup he and Don Post, professor of forestry, built. They modified a 1967 Chevy 6-cylinder pickup to operate by burning wood "on the go" in a generator located behind the cab in the truck box. "We're also about to get a saw mill going on wood gasification," says Eoff. "An alternative to burning wood to make a gas is to burn it to make steam to run turbines. That's the way a big installation, such as a pulp mill, should operate. Steam is more efficient than wood-gas if the power need is large. For small installation - up to about 1,000 hp - wood gasification is more efficient than burning wood to make steam." Eoff explains that dry, small blocks of scrub oak were placed in the sealed wood gasification cylinder in the back of the converted pickup, and burned from the bottom up. When the temperature within the cylinder reaches approximately 2,000? F, large amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and other gases are released. "The gasifier can get about 70% of the chemical energy out of the wood and into a flammable gas form that goes into the vehicle engine," explains Eoff. "Then, the engine is about 20 to 25% efficient in converting any fuel to mechanical power. The other aspect of wood-gas is that the chemical energy content of the gas and air mixture that goes into the engine is only about 70% of that of the normal gasoline and air mixture that goes in. So you're limited to about 70% of the power out of the engine, comparing wood-gas to gasoline. A 100 hp engine (gasoline) is a 70 hp engine with wood-gas - if you're lucky." No modifications on the engine itself were necessary, except for building a special carburetor. "We had both kinds of carburetors on the truck, and could easily switch from one fuel to the other," says Eoff. "On 100 lbs. of wood, the truck could be driven about 80 miles at 50 mph. A cord would take it about 2,500 miles. Several hundred miles worth of wood could be carried on the truck, and it takes only a minute to lift the hopper lid and put in some more wood," explains Eoff. "You don't even have to kill the engine-just let it idle." Wood chips, or small blocks of wood about the size of a 2x4 rut into 4-in. lengths, make excellent fuel for the wood-burner. Cost of building the wood-gas generator on the pickup was about $500, using scrap metal and not counting labor. "Buying new materials and building one yourself might cost less than $1,000," Eoff told FARM SHOW. "Or, you can buy a Volvo gasifier in Sweden, ready to hook right onto your Volvo car, for $5,000 FOB Goteborg, Sweden." For a copy of Energy Report No. 1, "How To Power A Gasoline Engine With Wood," contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ag Engineering Dept., University of Florida, Gainsville, Fla. 32611 (ph 904 392-1864).

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