Wood Power!

Well we've seen hydrogen cars, the recent water powered vehicles, and the recycled oil forms of transportation. This guy has a wood powered pickup.

cnn.com.../video/us/2011/06/02/dnt.wood.powered.truck.cnn

I think it's interesting if not really efficient. A way of thinking outside our usual forms of energy back to it's "roots" so to speak. The man in question really played to his strengths considering the field he works in and overall made a fairly wise decision in the long term. As I said there are drawbacks like travel speed and quantities but if the oil market collapses, he's set up to keep himself running as long as trees are growing, definitely an advantage.

That is almost as old as steam technology.

The first wood gasifier was apparently built by Bischof in 1839. The first vehicle powered by wood gas was built by Thomas Hugh Parker in 1901.[1]

Around 1900, many cities delivered wood gas (centrally produced, typically from coal) to residences. Natural gas began to be used only in 1930. Wood gas vehicles were used during World War II in countries such as Sweden and Finland.

Wood gasifiers are still manufactured in Singapore, China and Russia for automobiles and as power generators for industrial applications.

Link to Wood Gas on wiki

reply to post by j35us


In WW2, taxis in occupied France ran on gas generated from wood, paper, and coal. This type of gasifier makes carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and some methane, depending on the fuel, and, like all gasifiers, runs oxygen poor.
Google "Gasogene car" for more info.

Not much use if you live in a place without trees lol. But if you live in a forest . . . well! Its pretty neat, thats for sure. Im not too envious of all the chopping he has to do though.

Apologies if my wording made it seem like I thought it was something new, I thought the reemergence was interesting as most people wouldn't have done it, especially in the U.S. As I mentioned it seems like a good modification to make for future when tshtf. It puts the man in a very good position for maintaining his life that I haven't seen out of anyone else at this point. Merely commenting on the intelligence, economy, and sustainability of the move in the long run.

reply to post by j35us


It's indeed another sign the great depression can happen again soon...

Well if we could have slaves we could let them run around in a tredmill to power up our batteries for our electric cars. Cleaner then that isn't gonna happen.

Ever heard of Easter Island? They used to have trees, until these used them all up, mostly as fuel for fire. I doubt that any energy source that leads to increased deforestation will be the answer. It's already bad enough, what we do to our forest in the name of farming, cattle ranching and timber.

Didn't they eventually burn trash and food to power their cars in " Back to the Future 3 " ? We have to get away from fire and wood, or we will always be primitives. There is plenty of energy out there to use at the atomic level. Not the way we do now which is to use it to boil water for steam powered generators. But the setting free of electrons and ions through the manipulation of matter. We can do it today. But if we keep going back to fire and wood, we will not have changed much since the use of fire was discovered.

reply to post by j35us


My Grandfather first told me about this HolzVergasser in WW2 Germany which burnt wood gas as fuel.

Another simple example of basic hydrocarbon based fuels....with methane being the most fundamental organic hydrocarbon gas found in nature.

Ever see the person igniting their farts ?! This was the favorite activity of some drunken members of my college football team who resided in my college dormitory.



One can also use dung....for it too contains these organic combustibles.
And is widely used as fuel around the world, particularly in 3rd world countries.

We could even use our own waste to fuel our cars in all honesty.

As I've said in the past, what is actually burning in all of these sources is the Hydrogen stored within.

And Hence the term HydroCarbons.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element on Earth....

What a concept....toilet fueled cars !!
Simply Take your morning dump and drive to work on it ~~!

www.scribd.com...

Handbook of Biomass Downdraft Gasifier Engine Systems

Sri Oracle