Can a car really run on woodchips? This week on Car Talk, we got a call from a rather remarkable gentleman -- Hans, who escaped from Germany during World War II in car that ran on, yes, woodchips. His question: How does it work? Our humble hosts weren't exactly sure, but we bet someone out there…

[image] Wood Gas Truck: Road Power From Wood Gasification - Green Transportation -... Our wood gas truck has racked up 1,500 miles running on wood chips and wood scrap, and is still going strong.

The device Hans asked about is called a “digester”. It produced methane from the breakdown of the cellulose in the wood. Plans (albeilt old) are still available from Lindsey Publications - a cool place for old technical stuff. BTW, I have no affiliation with them - I just like their stuff. Joe

[image] World War II Cars: Producer Gas Vehicles - Green Transportation - MOTHER EARTH... One MOTHER EARTH NEWS reader shares his experience with using producer gas vehicles in Germany during World War II. I read about this many years ago in a history of Volkswag…

Thanks, JimAAtGaTech! I am surprised Click and Clack don’t keep a computer fired up and look up this kind of info, but I guess it’s because they’d rather let us have the fun. Here’s a link I found: http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/HOLZBRENNER%20VOLKSWAGENS.htm

yep, I’ve heard of this before, both in WWII and recently - look up “wood gas” in wikipedia.

Very simple! [image] Wood gas Wood gas is a syngas fuel which can be used as a fuel for furnaces, stoves and vehicles in place of gasoline, diesel or other fuels. During the production process biomass or other carbon-containing materials are gasified within the oxygen-limited environment …

I saw one of these at the Peterson Automotive museum in Los Angeles. It’s a beautiful truck. There’s a picture in the link below: [image] The Petersen Automotive Museum - Custom Classic Trucks Magazine The Petersen Automotive Museum is a great vacation destination in Southern California …

Wood gasification! Check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas Which also suggests the weekly emissions on Saturdays between 10:00 and 11:00 AM in “our fair city” would be even more highly combustible - no open flames in the studio, ok?

also check out for more current applications of this technology: http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2010/03/wood-burning-cars.html

A Woodchip-mobile?

The Show

JimAtGaTech January 7, 2012, 8:51pm 3

Lots of Google hits on this question. The one above had all the elements the called mentioned.

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A Woodchip-mobile?

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