Comment on I have an idea.
Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com 2 years agoI've messed with them in a distant life. I think it was more watching other people do it. The REALLY big ones make it easy. The little ones are better than nothing. I've been looking into Biochar and all of it's various uses, also all of the ways to make it.
On the low end you dig a pit, burn wood, and put out the fire before it burns to ash. The high end runs a furnace off of wood gas. Biochar is very interesting stuff as it really improves the quality of your soil. With charcoal you need to be concerned with the quality of the wood you use. With bio char you can use any wood you're burying it anyway.
Maybe it is prep, maybe it's just daydreaming. IDK. It's good stuff to look into though.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
No, no, its good to talk about stuff like this. How do they store the stuff ? You have to get a compressor and put it into a steel bottle ?
I've seen someone run a methane powered scooter, but it only got like 6 or 7 miles for 10 liters of uncompressed swamp gas
Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
I saw a video where someone used an air compressor to fill a propane tank. The problem is that they used it right away. It can compress but I don't know how long it will store for. All I know about wood gas is that it is comprised of several gasses so do they separate? Do they turn into goo? More investigation is required.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
You can see wood gas if you make a fire.... fresh log on top starts giving off these whitish vapors. The 'fire' on the log starts when the vapor combusts. Vapour mix depends on humidity, O2 content etc and is different kinds of -thanes (methane, propane...) + volatile compounds like alcohols
And I'll be damned, turns out wood gas is way more useful today, than the shitty old ones from early 1900s that everyone thinks of. They still make and sell the wood gas converters that can be attached to a normal gas car without any change needed. Roughly 25 lb of wood per gallon of petrol in a car:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas
Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
This really becomes interesting when you apply it to SHTF scenarios where you're largely on your own.
Imagine a scenario like a real pandemic where you are one of the few people left. Wood gas is easy to make and with a little ingenuity can power lots of stuff.
Gas is always better, but I can't make that.