Wood Gas: Alternative Energy From Wood

Woody Gasifier announces the release of the Off Gridder, the first multi-fuel gasifier for the home power generation market.  Using wood pellets, wood chunks, chips and certain types of agricultural waste, it is able to meet the power needs of an efficient home in as little as 2-4 hours a day.  Beneficial bi-products include heat for hot water and biochar for gardening.

The Off Gridder uses thermal decomposition to break the wood into it’s most basic elements including:  hydrogen, burnable carbon gases, methane and inert nitrogen.  These gases, created on site, act like natural gas to power engines and electric generators.

Plant waste called biomass, makes a compelling alternative energy source because it’s usually available on site or locally and allows plants to provide oxygen, clean water, habitat and carbon sinking before becoming a renewable energy fuel. Truly green energy.

“What most people don’t understand is that we don’t have to level mountains or go beneath the sands of Saudi Arabia to meet our personal electric needs. We have hydrocarbons right here growing all around us.  Trees and plant waste are renewable, carbon neutral fuels that we can grow and harness locally”, says the designer, inventor and CEO Ben Peterson, a winner of Popular Mechanic’s Backyard Genius Award 2009 and founder of Victorygasworks.com, the largest  social network on gasification in the world.

The Off Gridder will be available for sale on Sept. 28, 2009 at the product’s website www.woodygasifier.com.  The starting price is $4,995 and it goes up from there dependent on what options and features one picks to make the ideal configuration for their needs.

Ready to learn how to operate a gasifier the right way from start to finish? Good, because I would love to show you. It’s not obvious and while the videos help, nothing replaces real hands on experience. Along with making you a competent operator I want to answer your most common question “How do I hook this thing up to an engine?”

So, yesterday I went and bought an old pickup truck for its V-8 engine and during the workshop we are going to do a basic setup that will allow you to make some DC power with a purring small block as well as adding a governor that will allow you to meter your speed at 1800 rpm for ac power.

This class is mainly tailored for Off Gridder buyers, but anyone can attend. The maximum room I have is for 10 people. This is the last workshop of 2009! Here is what you are going to learn:

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• How to properly cut and size your fuel. What to look for in pellet and chip quality.
• Drying methods.
• How to make charcoal.
• How to assemble the Off Gridder. Configuration options.
• Methods of suction- Ejectors, fans, engines.
• Safety first.
• Start-up procedure.
• First firing- breaking in the char bed.
• Using sight, touch, smell, sound to diagnose performance.
• Using basic testing equipment to confirm diagnosis.
• What to do when something goes wrong- Quick troubleshooting tips.
• Daily maintenance.
• Gasifier design basics- Why is it this way and not some other way.
• Hearth configurations.
• Grates & agitators.
• Setting up an engine to run on woodgas.
• Intakes, governors, air mix.
• What can a gasifier realistically do? What cant it do?
• Q&A- Whats on your mind? I won’t have every answer, but I won’t B.S. you either.
• And much more.

Off Gridder buyers get $500 off this intensive workshop. Or if you attend at regular price, you can get $500 off your future Off Gridder purchase.

As someone that has built every free plan and struggled to figure this out through trial and error I can say that even if you are a junk yard builder and don’t have a budget for an Off Gridder, this class will save you time and money and aggravation. Nothing beats having a mentor. If you are serious about having a power solution and you aren’t too lazy or philosophical to cut some wood cubes or thick chips, then this is THE class you must attend.

We will see some of you on October 24th! Can’t wait to meet you.

Here is one of my projects that I have been working on this summer. I rescued this great old generator and restored it and converted it to run on woodgas.