Lister runs on pure Woodgas with spark ignition conversion!

Hot News.

All Power Labs, Berkeley, California, 21st Feb. 18:50 Pacific Time.

Following an intensive 2 day gasification workshop at All Power Labs, an Indian 6hp Listeroid has run successfully at full power on woodgas as the result of a simple spark ignition conversion.

Mike Anthony, Ken Boak, Jay Hasty, Jim Mason and William Steele, aided by GEK workshop attendees and the staff of All Power Labs, got the engine running on 100% woodgas after an 8 hour conversion process.

The conversion uses a Hall effect sensor detecting a magnet fitted to the flywheel. An Arduino microcontroller board detects the output of the Hall sensor as the magnet passes just before TDC. The Arduino initiates the firing of a spark plug with multiple spark burst and variable ignition timing.

The woodgas conversion utilised a custom manufactured woodgas carburettor made by Andy Schofield.

The woodgas was supplied by the newly launched V4 GEK, put together by Jay Hasty aided by Opalyn Brenger and Walt Patrick from the Windward Foundation.

The standard 6hp Listeroid engine was belt driving a 5kW ST alternator head. Electrical load tests revealed that 2.75kW power was easily obtainable from the alternator, suggesting very little de-rating of the engine output when run on woodgas.

The plans for this spark ignition conversion will be available soon as an open source resource through All Power Labs. A kit for the woodgas carburettor and spark conversion may be released independently. This will allow existing Listeroid users to benefit from wood gasification directly without the need to run a dual fuel system.

More video of the conversion process will be released shortly from All Power Labs via YouTube. .

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Woodgas
• Lister
• Listeroid
• Gasifier
• GEK
• AllPowerLabs
• Arduino
• spark-ignition
• homepower
• CHP

[kenboak]

Justin, had time allowed we would have used the exhaust heat from the Listeroid to heat the woodchips in the destructive distillation chamber. The 6hp Lister generates about 6kW of high grade waste heat through the exhaust, and it would seem very worthwhile to recuperate this and use it for drying/torrefying/pyrolising the woodchips. I'm now working towards reproducing this Lister/GEK combination in my UK workshop and I hope to develop the conversion further.

[kenboak]

We had just 2 days to complete this conversion, and half of that was spent making a new copper head gasket from sheet copper. I agree a magneto might have provided an easier conversion, but the electronic solution gave us something thta we could throw together quickly, and adjust the timing with a slider control, rather than moving the Hall sensor. The compression ratio was lowered using extra headgaskets to about 13.5:1. This engine ran entirely on woodgas - the diesel injector was removed.

[dadigitechman]

How'd you get the spark plug in there? I got a diesel I want to convert to methane.

[apples13able]

Music to the Ears! Nice work!

[bluemoondiadochi]

blend of two great technologies - priceless!

AN FREE, it don't cost a penny of fuel!:DDDDD

[mytickets]

Very nice job

Wood gas,HHO,WVO

Its all GOOD!

Lister will eat it All!!

[JustinJJHCS1]

have you tried running the exhaust back to the Destructive Distillation chamber.??

you will need less Heat to power it and when it heats up all you have to do is feed it wood;-)

[nthmost]

You need different spark timings throughout the process of using this machine. It kicks off on diesel and is then powered by woodgas. You don't want to combust woodgas at the same rate as diesel.

It's hard to change the position of a flywheel magnet when the engine is moving.

That's all if I'm remembering correctly from the workshop. It may be that variable ignition timing is necessary during the all-woodgas operation as well.

[KB8OOE]

Would be nice if it was that easy, wouldn't it? Can you show us an example?

[KB8OOE]

Ken,

Once again thanks for allowing me to be a part of this project . It was a great pleasure to have such decent leadership to work under . The cards were stacked against it ever happening and still it worked great !!!