I remember folks telling me that after the war, and maybe even during, the
buses were equipped with a wood burning thing that produced wood gas.  So,
the municipality buses were driven by such way in Germany and other
countries.  It did last for awhile.
Zoltan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Mcneely" <mcneely4@COX.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 5:15 PM
Subject: Re: Is Wood/Gas Possible for For Vanagons

> On the other hand, one can produce a kind of gasoline by destructive
> distillation of biomass, initiating with very high temps, in a backyard
> contraption.  The stuff does work.  I'll do some googling around and
> probably find info online.  David Mc
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 5:48 PM, David Beierl wrote:
>
>> At 11:23 AM 1/20/2010, John Rodgers wrote:
>>> adaptable to my van. Then I stumbled across this. Pretty interesting
>>> stuff.
>>
>> Of course it's possible.  But I promise you wouldn't like it.  With
>> the existing engine I sincerely doubt that a Vanagon could get up to
>> the minimum speed (45 mph) to run on highways, although if you filled
>> the entire interior with wood pellets and a stoking mechanism you
>> could probably get decent range.
>>
>> Producer gas is 20-30% carbon monoxide which is ninety-five times
>> more attractive to hemoglobin than oxygen is; small concentrations
>> will sneak up and kill you because the oxygen can't compete, and high
>> concentrations IIRC cause abrupt and total respiratory failure.  Your
>> relatives will have the consolation that your corpse will be a nice
>> healthy pink, since carboxyhemoglobin is a much brighter red than
>> oxyhemoglobin -- that's one of the diagnostic signs, in
>> fact.  Producer gas (made from coal, normally) used to be used as
>> city gas, which is why suicide by oven was in favor at the time --
>> quick, quiet, reliable, not too painful.  It's rumored that in some
>> Eastern European countries under Communism, the police would turn off
>> the gas to an entire street before they made their raid, so you can
>> imagine how fast the stuff must have acted.
>>
>> Until our cities are bombed out and/or some other terrific disaster
>> strikes and we have to suddenly convert an existing fleet of
>> IC-engine vehicles to direct-biomass fuel without replacing the
>> engines, I officially suggest that using producer gas for vehicles is
>> a Friday subject.
>>
>> The Stanley Steamer OTOH had a very nice flash boiler and I believe
>> it could get up steam in about a minute from a standing start (using
>> liquid fuel presumably).  Twenty-five years ago or so Saab was
>> thinking about a steam-powered vehicle and I believe they followed at
>> least somewhat along the lines of the Stanley.  I suggest not
>> considering steam turbines -- they are extremely successful in large
>> ships, but had an utterly disastrous history in railroads because of
>> vibration and shock.
>>
>> Yours,
>> David
>> [/hat]

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