Observations after Maker Faire after a total of 12 hours in operation.
The auger/heat exchanger mechanism was set up with IR detection to top off the reactor with fuel introduced on one side of the reactor.
We observed clean burning wood gas and had little difficulty keeping the flame lit in a variable breeze.
Below are pictures of the filter housing after a total of 12 hours of running the GEK during Makers Faire.
Top of filter housing and top grate. No tar build-up.
From top of filter housing. Loose charcoal filter media, and dry steel wool characteristic of low percentage of tars exiting the filter housing.
Underneath the reactor lid.
Bottom of filter housing. Little build-up observed.
Inside of GEK after burn. Set-up: 1/4th inch nozzle size outlet, 3x6x6 reduction cone, tar fence. Two thermocouples pictured here located at the top of the reduction cone and the other right beside the air inlet (temperatures near the combustion zone but not entirely representative of zone due to placement). Clean surface of the nozzles from tar indicate that tars were not able to adhere to surface of nozzles due to cracking in combustion zone. Walls of reactor are free of sticky residues.