Here is a peak at the 2010 Off Gridder next to the 2009 model. Lots of cool improvements. Here are some.
- Larger hopper standard
- 3/16″ thick wide flanges
- Chunk agitator
- Easy bolt in hearth reducers
- Tri-configurable grate
- Optional: hot air heat exchanger for chip drying
- Optional: new control panel
- New cooling tubes
- Optional: blower motor
- Larger gas tubes
etc.

The roadmap that the Off Gridder will be following is:
Engine package, automation and storeable fuel. With the beefier platform we can now begin Fischer Tropsch research. Workday automation, external hoppers, steam injection and liquid heat exchangers will be available options later in the year, though they will push the price beyond reach of many homeowners.

The best blend of both fuel economy and ease of operation and maintenance is still batch feeding. To get electricity and heat over 12 hour cycles the solution would really be the gas storage membranes we blogged about earlier in the year. Then run smaller water cooled engines from the stored gas and derive heat from the engines waste heat much like the Honda micro CHP. Our new blower motor makes it possible to run independent of an engine. This opens up opportunities to run much smaller engines on stored gas.

With the addition of the heated air exchanger option it now makes it possible for us to use forced air drying of the large amount of wood chips needed for workday (8-12) runs. People with no gasification experience often get caught up in the idea that they need to run all day but never account for the shear volume of wood or the ever larger task of drying that wood most of the year. While I can’t grow wood for people, a relatively inexpensive chipper is in the works and the heat exchanger will handle the drying.

I have a few more things in the works. We will see if we can get them in the release at the end of the month. Thanks for being apart of the journey.

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.

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.