Producer Gas from Wood New German Development for Utilization of
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Cheap Fuel. Grunert Vehicle Plant which Generates Gas from Wood Direct AN accompanying illustration shows a Ford V-8 car, photographed last week in London, which has been equipped in Germany to run on producer gas obtained from wood. Dr. von Monroy and Dr. Grunert, who are responsible for the gas equipment, are seen beside the vehicle, the former in the act of dropping a piece of fuel into the generator.
The noteworthy feature of the producer-gas plant is that, in addition to generating gas from charcoal, it also performs the operation, usually carried out separately, of producing charcoal from wood.
Apparently the nature of the wood is of considerable importance. Beech and pine are suitable fuels, but must be dried before use until the water content is 15 per cent. to 20 per cent. We understand that 2i kilogs. of wood produce the gas equivalent of 1 litre of petrol, and that the respective prices in Germany of wood and petrol are 6-8 pfennige per 2i kilogs. and 39 pfennige per litre.
Dr. Monroy told us that the journey in the car from Berlin to London had been made at a fuel cost of only 3 reichmarks, about 5s. Much success, we are informed, has been encountered B29 in Germany with commercial-vehicle installations.
A feature of the device is that no water is required, the wood supplying the necessary hydrogen. Cooling is an important item of the subsequent treatment of the gas, the apparatus consisting of a chamber incorporating a large number of air tubes around which the gas from the generator passes on its way to the power unit.
In the goodsvehicle layout, the producer is mounted behind the cab on the near side, and the cooler opposite to it in a position where it is exposed to a current of air. The amount of space occupied by these units is very moderate.