Day 54: Renewable Energy V—Wood Gasifiers

Dear Student,

A time may come when petroleum becomes too costly to buy or may not be available at all. Being able to produce your own on farm fuel has many advantages to it and is the last step on being truly self-sufficient…

Wood gasification technologies have existed for over 150 years, and homemade gasification systems have proven reliable and efficient for the last 80 years.

In Denmark during World War II, 95% of all farm machinery, tractors, trucks, engines, and fishing and ferry boats ran on biomass gasification. Across Europe, Asia, and Australia, gasification prevented entire segments of populations from starving.

Throughout Europe during WWII, when fuel supplies were all diverted to the war effort, a large proportion of civilian and farm vehicles and machinery were run off simple wood gasification reactors that could be fixed to fuel engines and even attached to vehicles to power them on the go. This enabled ordinary people to run their cars and tractors on the resultant wood gas.