charcoal gasifier ?

[missourihick]

charcoal gasifier . This probably is'nt the right place to ask this question,but I know you folks are very intelligent and willing to answer my questions. I hope.
I was reading an article about a small pickup in Australia that ran on charcoal since 1981,It had a charcoal gasifier that supplied fuel for it's 4 cylinder previously gasoline engine. I also remember the Chinese had one cylinder boat engines that ran on charcoal fumes,you've seen them in movies the smoking chimney and the chug chug funny looking boats. Anyway I probably wont ever build a gasifier but I would like to know more about it and understand exactly how it works. Do any of you know anything about this thing?
Thank you, Chris Brown
northeast Missouri,U.S.A.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Chris my favorite history subject is WW2 and read about several conversions that european tractors and cars had the ran off smoke fumes. The gas that they use/mentions the most is Anthracite. And they mention that green wood aded to the fire also helped make more fuel. Ill try to find a few pictures in one of my tractor books of one such set up. Its funny to see a fire box on the front of an old iron wheeled tractor.

 

[Egon]

Anthracite is a very high quality coal. Produces the most BTU/Lb. of the different kinds of coal.

Egon

 

[missourihick]

build your own wood gasifier I got this link in an email today.

 

[enbloc]

There are a number of books on the subject. Lindsay books has several good ones. If you're eccentric enough to be interested in wood gassification, you ought to be getting the Lindsay catalog anyway.

 

[missourihick]

I ordered me a Lindsay catalog . Thanks

 

[Taylortractornut]

Thanks for setting me straight Egon, I reread the article in the tractor book and realized I had jumped a sentence.

 

[BXMMCC]

I grew up in Philadelphia (PA, not MS) - while not common, the coal fired generators were frequently seen on automobiles. They looked pretty neat on the big sedans that had a luggage rack on the back bumper.