My dad was telling me that back in Germany after the war, he remembered seeing cars that ran on wood. This site tells about it, and there is a link to a site with instructions on how to do it. He said it smelled realy bad! Some great engineering went on back then...
http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog/2004/10/a_car_that_runs.html
This is cool tech. I heard about it a while ago, though I did not know how it worked until now.
it is an interesting concept though. Think about it this way.
Wood pellets (pellet stove fuel) cost $3-$5 for a 40 pound bag. It is kiln dried, and is made of hardwood sawdust (manufacturing byproduct). My pellet stove also burns dried cherry pits and corn kernels. Makes you think...
According to that site, 20 pounds of wood with 20%water content is about the same as 1 gallon of gas. Kiln dried pellets have less then 8% water content, with less then 1% ash. My pellet stove uses a glorified dryer vent, it burns so clean that it does not need a chimney.
So, 1 bag of pellets is equal to 2 gallons of gas. So as long as gas stays above $2.50 a gallon, its cheaper to burn wood pellets.
It is still not at all as convenient as a gas solution. You'd have to lug around 200 pounds of pellets every time you filled up a 10 "gallon" tank. It takes about 10 minutes to start your car, and 10 minutes to fully turn it off.
But it is still a neat, relatively clean, alternative.
Zach
How do you think the Germans kept running towards the end of WWII?
The made gas from coal and ran cars on wood...
Nah... we invented that recently....
Ken
Yeah, I think we got that. The pictures of the beetle and kublewagon were cues.
Zach
There was a show on Discovery that had a guy with a converted truck that ran on wood.....
here's a link to one: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Homesteading-and-Self-Reliance/1981-05-01/Mothers-Woodburning-Truck.aspx
There is a hummer H1 limo that was converted to run with a gasifier. They usually fuel the truck up with food leftovers.
There is a hummer H1 limo that was converted to run with a gasifier. They usually fuel the truck up with food leftovers.
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