I clocked about 2400 miles of driving with this gasifier. That was an estimate and no subtraction for gasoline assist for up hills and starting out. So I'm sure it is somewhat less than 2400 miles. It was built out of discarded hot water tanks, exhaust pipe, black pipe, fittings and some stainless steel parts. Wood cubes were used for the fuel. At the time of use, I didn't have a good supply of dry fuel (wood). The mileage was about 2 lbs. of wood to the mile, at best.

My apologies for the lack of quality pictures. This is because there was only one picture taken, which is the above picture. The below picture was of something else and the truck was in the background so I did my best to edit and enlarge it for this page. I often think back, with regret, and wished that digital cameras were popular back in 1981.

It was the Mother Earth NEWS design that was some what popular in the early 80's. It would not be my choice today. I would personally never use a water filter/scrubber, like this design did. Mother Earth claimed that it was easy to clean, just drain the water and replace with fresh water! Well for me it was prone to plugging up, which made for a real challenge to remove about ten gallons of tarry, soupy, stinky slop. Also, water likes to freeze in the winter. I also feel that it helped increase the total pressure drop of the gasifier and the lower the pressure drop the better. A lower pressure drop means the the engine/prime mover will have an easier time drawing the producer gas through the system. This means more power or in my case not much power!

I remember the globs of tarry goo that it would leave in the parking lot at work. I thought for sure someone was going to say something! I also remember the day my grand father came over to check it out. Dad and I had it running when he pulled into the driveway. For some reason dad opened the lid to look inside (maybe it quit or something) and I was on the back of the truck also. Well, that was my first experience of a mild explosion, as they call it! Dad hung on, peeking inside, I jumped out of the bed of the truck and gramps got into his truck and drove away. 

Although I never weighted the gasifier it was on the heavy side. Just too many ideas that could have been eliminated to help reduce weight and pressure drop. All kinds of pipes inside to help pre-heat the incoming air (this also would increase the pressure drop), water filter/scrubber, small tank on the outside that collected condensation and tar (that just plugged up and stayed plugged up). But the gasifier did work and a lot of the problems came from me trying to burn wood that was just too wet. I also have to admit that the carburetor design was a work of art and the distributor timing advance worked well!

At the time I was about 20 years old and this project is where I started to learn things like welding, cutting torch, brazing and general fabrication. But at the time it was the greatest feeling to finally roll this damn thing off the back of my truck and now 20 years later I'm starting all over again! Go figure.

The bottom line is this: If you are looking for a working set of plans for a gasifier and do not want to design it yourself then get this set of plans and build it. Just remember that DRY wood will be your friend!

The above diagram is typical of an Imbert suction gas plant.

Below are some of the many names of Suction Gas Generators.

• Suction Gas: Named because of the fact that an engine produces a vacuum thus drawing it's fuel from the gasifier.

• PEGASUS: Contracted from "Petroleum/Gasoline Substitute Systems".

• Wood-Coke-Air/Gas-Heater-Generators

• Wood-Gas: Gas produced from wood.

• Gasifier: Converts solid fuel to a gaseous fuel.

• Producer Gas: A gas that is produced in a gasifier/generator.

• Gengas: Contracted from "Generator Gas".

• Water Gas: A gasifier employing water injection.

• Illuminating Gas: In the past towns used this fuel for lighting.

Experimental Vehicle Newsletter #9
Show the updated gasifier with updated WET filter.

Quote from #9:
In issue 3 of the Experimental Vehicle Newsletter and issue 71 of MEN an updated version of our original wood-gas generator was introduced. The plans that were subsequently published were based on the version shown in those issues. Even though that unit proved to be reliable and easy to operate, intensive research was continued to perfect a high- performance generator for the competition in the Future Fuels Challenge Rally. Even in the hours before starting time for the cross-country run from California to New York, major modifications were being made on our vehicle (see MEN NO. 72, page 192) As predicted, the three-thousand-plus mile trip was completed with out a hitch....but the refinements on our design didn't stop there. MEN's researchers continued to fine tune the gasifier and the carburetion systems in an effort to reduce maintenance and to simplify their construction without sacrificing performance.

The following details are based on information gathered during research over the past 18 months. These discoveries probably represent the final chapter in Mother's investigation into the wood-fired operation of internal combustion engines.
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