Hey people, haven't been around for a while but I had a question I wanted to pose. Does anyone else remember from some really old JW yearbooks -I'm thinking 1920's to 1940's- stories from the Australian outback of the full time traveling pioneers using trucks and cars that ran off of charcoal or wood chips? I know that the idea of burning the gasses from "destructive distillation" can work, either as a flame or to power an engine. I know there are a handful of chemists who could explain that better on here, but I'm also interested in hearing from car people. What would need to be done to get this to work? Thanks.
Cars that run on charcoal?
by darkuncle29 3 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
John Doe
You sure they weren't steam powered?
-
BFD
What did you just buy a coal mine or something?
Nice to see ya.
BFD
-
darkuncle29
Hi JD, no they were not steam. The cars had a canister that the exhaust heated. In the cannister was coal, charcoal or sawdust, and that was heated in a sealed atmosphere to the temperature that it would normally burn. The gasses released were put into the carberateur and burned in the pistons. So with charcoal I think you'd end up with Carbon Monoxide gas, but with wood you'd have some hydrocarbons too.
Hey BFD, no I didn't buy a mine, but I've got sawdust on the brain from helping a friend cut down some trees last weekend. How you doing? Did you use up that soap yet?
For the car, I was thinking that in the canister or distillation chamber, I'd start it by first having an electric element heat the stuff untill it can support engine combustion, and after that, the exhaust can heat the cannister and keep the cycle going, maybe supplemented by the electric element heater in cold weather. I remember reading a news story a couple of years ago about a guy in California who runs his stretch hummer on gas supplemented with dry matter -wood, charcoal, dog food (any dry organic matter really)-
My problem is that I am not naturally talented with mechanical stuff, and most gear heads (that I know of anyway) are more into hot rodding than altering their cars to run on "Mad Max" methods.