[Gasification] gas quality and engine lifespan?

[Ken Calvert]

Mark, the story about taking out the oil control rings came from  an old 
friend during the war time in Australia.  His name was Cliff Peddrick, and 
his company built 10,000 gas producers in Perth up to 1946.  They had to 
show the Govt authorities that you could drive 10,000 miles more or less non 
stop with one of their machines to get the contract, and that was how they 
did it.  Their producers burnt hardwood charcoal in order to get the fuel 
density to the point where you could drive about 150 miles on as many bags 
of charcoal as you could tie on to the spare wheels and the running boards. 
However, it was also my experience  in the late 1970s, using charcoal as the 
fuel to drive a Toyota  Land cruiser engine which powered the electricity 
supply for a village technology workshop and training school in the pacific 
Islands. This meant an updraft producer with no tar at all and with bag 
filters and a fairly elementary gas cooler.
That engine was out of a wrecked truck and had a good milage already up. We 
ran for two years until we got a better setup.  It was still going when we 
stopped but the engine was burning quite a bit of oil and  wouldn't have 
gone more than a few months more.  Even though we cleaned the bag filteres 
very regularly there was still far too much fine ash getting into the enigne 
oil and  the bearings as well as the cylinder bores were far past the point 
of  good automotive wear and tear.   Cheers, Ken C.

 ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Ludlow" <mark at ludlow.com>
To: "'Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification'" 
<gasification at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 6:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Gasification] gas quality and engine lifespan?


> Great practical advice, Ken!
>
> Often times we overlook real-world considerations in our pursuit of 
> "trick"
> solutions that are really just armchair musings.
>
> Do you think the lubrication problems with clean wood gas are inherently
> worse than, say, the use of propane or NG as a fuel? While my gut feeling 
> is
> that you are making a valid observation, I'm trying to relate it to some
> physical characteristic of the gas that would actually result in less
> effective lubricity (assuming that it's purged of abrasive ash residues).
> Ever consider top-lubing with a co-current injection of funky oil, leaving
> the good stuff to lube the bearing surfaces?
>
> Mark
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org
> [mailto:gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Ken Calvert
> Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 10:18 PM
> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] gas quality and engine lifespan?
>
> Javier, take it from an old timer,  the biggest wear factor with good 
> clean
> dry producer/wood gas is not the tars but the fact that it is hot and dry
> and it will lick the oil off the cylinder walls.  The tars will impact and
> get stuck in the inlet manifold and not much gets onto the cylinder walls.
> To get any thing like a long life out of a PG motor you have to over
> lubricate.   And you can't use the usual kinds of upper cylinder 
> lubricants,
>
> because you haven't got any liquid fuel to dissolve them in.
> The usual thing in WW2 was to leave out the oil seal rings on the bottom
> flange of the pistons.  That means that you will use a lot more 
> lubricating
> oil, but your question is about longevity not about running costs or the
> costs of  lubrication.
>     For the purposes of  generation and experimentation,  by far the
> easiest way is to choose a very common automotive engine that sells for
> cheap at the local auto-wreckers  and keep yourself a supply of spares. 
> If
> they are already burning a bit of oil, then that is exactly what you want
> because they will last longer than a new motor with tight rings.  Derate 
> the
>
> load factor and they will laqst for years. The one thing that I can't 
> answer
>
> is whether the polarised metal additives and super duper things that you 
> can
>
> put in your lubricating oil nowdays will be of any help.  I would suspect
> that the amount of oil you loose would make their constant replacement
> rather expensive. I just hope that someone a mite younger than me can come
> up with the latest and greatest to improve the situation.   Sincerely, 
> Ken
>
> Calvert.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Javier Bonet" <jabonet at runbox.com>
> To: <gasification at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 6:30 AM
> Subject: [Gasification] gas quality and engine lifespan?
>
>
>> What is the life expectancy of a piston engine running on wood gas?
>> is there any chloride and sulfur gases being generated that will reduce
>> the life span of the engine, how do you cleans tars and avoid them from
>> getting into the engine?
>>
>> Thanks, Javier.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Gasification mailing list
>> Gasification at listserv.repp.org
>> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_listserv.repp.org
>> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org
>> http://info.bioenergylists.org
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gasification mailing list
> Gasification at listserv.repp.org
> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_listserv.repp.org
> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org
> http://info.bioenergylists.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gasification mailing list
> Gasification at listserv.repp.org
> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_listserv.repp.org
> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org
> http://info.bioenergylists.org
>