How would you like to have all your electricity be generated by a simple stove that burns wood or really any organic material? That is what a Gasifier does, and with this project we will build one and share the details of how to do so with you.
If you’re already living in a rural area with access to plentiful organics to burn, then this project could be a real game changer for you. With the added benefit that the exhaust fumes released are minimal.
To help make this project happen, and be a part of it, receiving all the details of how to build your own gasifier, please go to this kickstarter campaign and contribute:
CLICK TO THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN HERE
THIS PROJECT WAS FULLY FUNDED SO THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED
During WWII, this simple, yet effective technology was used to run cars, boats, tractors, motorbikes with sidecars (see image above), generators and all sorts of machinery and production plants that normally ran on petrol. It was widely used technology and was operational in over 1,000,000 locations; yet today, almost no one is even aware of it.
Worse, most of the documentation to build a gasifier is now lost. No detailed building instructions from WWII can be found for the building of specific sizes of gasifiers, and don’t take my word for it, you can scour the internet, and you will not find a decent set of building plans that takes you from complete novice, that doesn’t even know what a gasifier is, to a working model that runs a generator.
See images at the end of this page for some examples of gasifiers in use.
The process is simple to explain. Basically a specialised stove that burns organic material in a controlled way (wood, leaves, or really anything similar, as long as it is dry to begin with), will produce gasses that, when purified, are combustible and can act as replacements for the petrol you would normally use to run the machine in question.
The aim of this project is to create a working prototype and create detailed, step-by-step instructions that can be easily replicated by others wishing to create a gasifier that runs a generator; from which, one can then run many appliances or even most of your home’s electricity requirements.
In order to do this, we will be crowdfunding the costs of building a gasifier, with the prospect of providing the investors with a video, and/or a detailed PDF manual for its construction and attachment to a suitable generator.
The project will have 4 stages or goals:
Main Goals of the fundraiser campaign:
We raised enough to build the Gasifier and achieve the 3 stretch Goals listed below.
Raise €1500 to build a gasifier and produce build videos for the supporters that donated €20 or more and a detailed PDF for those who supported with €40 or more.
Stretch Goal 1 and 2
At €2,000 raised we will add the details of how to connect the gasifier and generator to a normal household supply to power your home appliances and lights. This would make the connection be to a mains rather than individual tools or appliances via the generator. Also, we will send out the PDF to anyone that supported with at least €20.
Stretch Goal 3
At €5,000 raised we will also send SEO badges to anyone that supported us with €100 or more and include a document to show how to build Thomas Townsend Brown’s Gravitor in general terms to anyone that contributed at least €40. The Gravitor is real and worked, we know this because the Biefeld-Brown effect is in physics books, but what is less known is that it is the beginning of other technologies that Brown went on to demonstrate, like his famous flying discs, which flew better in vacuum than air. His work was classified by the US Navy in 1954 after he could not get private funding for it. It is our hope that tinkerers among you may re-discover some way to provide even cheaper and free-er energy to people and let the world know.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Delivery of the above benefits is contingent on this project actually working. I will, of course, do my best to make it work, but if I really screw something up terribly and discover we cannot build a gasifier at all, be it due to injury, death, utter incompetence or any other reason, well, then I should forever-after be ignored as a failure at adventure science. In keeping with the spirit of Adventure Science and the SOE, all SOE members should pride themselves on our directness and TRUE scientific spirit, which MUST contain a basic level of utter honesty.
Contributor Levels
There are 5 levels of contributors. Each higher level includes all the benefits of the lower levels. So, for example, a level 3 contributor will also get all the benefits of a level 1 and 2 contributor.
Level 1 (Supporter) – €20 – Gasifier Build videos will be supplied as a link or digital download. PDF will be supplied digitally or as a download link.
Level 2 (Investor) – €40 – As per level 1 but you also get the Gravitor Document.
Level 3 (Operative) – €100 – As level 2 but also gets an S.O.E. patch mailed to them with first class post to anywhere in the world and their name and up to 100 characters of (dignified) text to promote their website, email, or just to make a statement (keep it clean speech and polite please)
Level 4 (Special Operative) – €300 – As level 3 but also gets 1 hour of real time skype calls (split as they wish but minimum 30 min for each call) to discuss/trouble shoot their own gasifier build.
Level 5 (Agent) – €500 – As level 4 but gets 2 hours of skype time split as they wish in 30min slots and on any topic I am conversant with, not just the Gasifier.
Budgets and Details of Build Stages
In essence, the above is basically what the project is about. Below are a few more estimated details of budgets and so on, split into various stages. This estimate as well as the actual final costs will be presented in the PDF which should form the basis of a general guide for your build costs as well.
I will be posting real-costs in the PDF document and probably post a copy here too as the project progresses.
Build Stages
Stage 1: Purchase of generator and understanding the details of the attachment location of the gasifier to the generator.
Stage 2: Purchase of all the tools required to build a gasifier (already complete but a list with approximate costs will be provided).
Stage 3: Purchase of all the materials required for the assembly of the gasifier (many are simply scrap items that many farmers or people living in the countryside may already have lying around).
Stage 4: Production and assembly of the gasifier.
Stage 5: testing of the gasifier individually and with the generator from Step 1 above.
Stage 6: (if required) correction of any problem areas.
Stage 7: Description of the requirements to create a power inlet from the generator to the main house that feeds the main distribution board safely.
Stage 8: Purchase of the parts for Stage 7.
Stage 9: Installation and testing of the parts from stage 8.
Stage 10: Testing of completed gasifier to run the generator that can power the main house.
Budget Breakdown
Each stage has an estimated budget. We have assumed a cost of about €20 per hour for time investments.
Stage 1: Approx €400 to €500 for 2.3 to 2.5 kw generator. Approx €700 to €800 for 5.5 kw plus 1 to 2 hours of time to understand attachment point for gasifier. (€440 to €840)
Stage 2: Approx €600 (we already own all of these).
Stage 3: Approx €100 (we probably have all of these already).
Stage 4: Approx 8 hours of time (€160 if you need to pay yourself, we don’t)
Stage 5: Nil. Unless it explodes. Isn’t Adventure Science fun?!
Stage 6: We’ll assume nil. Because Adventure Scientists never make mistakes. They only optimise previous designs!
Stage 7: 2 hours of time with an electrician (€40 for you if you need to pay yourself, plus cost of electrician, assume $60 so €100 total)
Stage 8: Approx €200.
Stage 9: 2 to 4 hours done by a professional electrician to minimise the chances of you frying your home and/or various electrical appliances in your home and/or electrocuting yourself and/or setting your home on fire. See also Costs of Stage 5 above. (€120)
Stage 10: As 9 above. Assume 1 hour with no problems.(€20)
TOTAL COSTS: (assuming low values for ranges): €1,740 which includes 10 hours of your time (excluding shopping trips etc.) and 6 hours of a professional electrician’s time. Add in another 5 hours of your time for 1 hour each for 5 starts of burn and you have a total of:
€1,840 for the low-end generator, and
€2,240 for the high-end generator
This assumes you need to purchase all the tools etc, which we personally do not need to do as we already own them and similarly we have enough scrap parts to probably build several gasifiers. The electrician is also our friend and we don’t need to pay ourselves for our time, so your own costs could be, like ours, considerably lower. Similarly, if you already own a generator, that’s a big chunk of cash you don’t need to include, and you may well be able to build a gasifier for a couple of hundred dollars or maybe just your time spent building it.
Your biggest investment might end up being the money you send to our kickstarter campaign!
