return to GEK wiki front page 

 

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Note: The new news section is now the blog on the main site.  We'll integrate the old news below and the new news in the blog soon.  Bear with us, we are currently in the shop welding and can't get to the computer at the moment.

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GEK News and Updates:

 

There’s so much happening at All Power Labs and the GEK these days we decided to create this single location on the site for news, and save you the wandering tour to find it separately.  This news is assembled by Tom Price of the ALL Power Labs group.  See pictures of everyone in the ALL Power Labs group, (but not Tom as he didn't join us for lunch that day) at the bottom of the page here.

 

Here's a map of where GEK are in the world, or currently on the way.

 

As of March 22, we've lauched a proper BBS Discussion Forum to support the GEK collaboration and community.  The topic structure of the wiki and BBS are organized in parallel, for easy info transfer and discussion between them.   We look forward to both filling with your activities and innovations in the coming months.

 

For less GEK specific news, see our collection of Gasification and Biochar news and reviews.  Watch the world rediscover the wonders of biomass thermal conversion.

 

GEK Updates

 

--GEK Videos--

First things first--check out these amazing videos from Bruce Chovnick in Florida. Taking a standard GEK and then customizing it, he runs a Westerbeke 5HP motor on shredded pine animal bedding and manure.  Not our preferred fuel, and frankly not one we would have expected to work, but it does demonstrate the flexible design of the GEK and its ability to be configured/elaborated for a diversity of end use situations. Videos from Bruce on fast-starting a GEK, adding an automating fuel stirring and grate shaking mechanism, and his Westerbeke motor: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Planet-Green-Solutions

 

This next video is of a tractor running on wood gas. Jim calls it "maybe the best use to date of a GEK fan.  This is curtis.  Start at

about 2 minutes to see happy guy driving around his tractor with strange contraption on front."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTqXYp28DDc

 

--New GEK add-ons--

We're proud to announce that the design and fabrication for the Horizontal Fuel Feeding system has been completed, and is now available for sale as an add on to all GEKs.  This feeding system integrates a heat exchange system for insitu fuel drying and partial preheating of the fuel on the way into the reactor. Check out the prototype photos and design here, and as always plans are available for download should you wish to fabricate one yourself: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Horizontal+fuel+feed+auger+add-on

 

--New GEK BBS discussion forum launched--

The new GEK Forum launched on March 22 and things are already happening.  The forum is proving deeply useful for GEK users to share ideas, run experiences, design elaborations, and general musings.  We look forward to this building into a well structured and searchable knowledge base over time.  We encourage you to post your questions, accomplishments, and/or failures to the board.  The response you'll get will likely stretch beyond what even Jim could write in email.  Also, it might even be more useful . . .

http://gekgasifier.com/forums/index.php

 

--User reports and feedback-- 

Lots of photos and comments up on Jay Martin's page: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Jay-Martin%3A-Spring-Mills%2C-Pennsylvania

 

And here's some nice comments we got in the mail:

"What will set the GEK apart is its value for money, superior research and development and the support an ethical company will receive." -Colin Bull

 

"Jim... this is Clay down in South Carolina. I wanted to briefly update the board on our GEK unit operation and success. After making some ridiculous beginner mistakes on our first attempt, our second attempt went exceptionally well. We used store bought wood-charcoal and wood pellets to ensure a stable fuel. This was done so that we could learn properly how to operate the unit, and MORE importantly, to gather data from operation.

It took <15min to a wonderful flame and at only 950F. We had 3lbs wood charcoal and 80lbs of wood pellets. The GEK operated perfectly. This second attempt produced good gas for nearly 7 hours. We even ran a 7500w Genset off the gas for around 20 minutes until fear of engine contamination forced our hand. Are there modifications to make? Sure. More filtration being of the utmost importance for us. Most of these filter mods can be made for less than $100 and little fabrication. I think it important for GEK owners and would-be owners to understand the purpose of the EXPERIMENTAL aspect of this "kit". We are most pleased and couldn't have asked for more. Simple setup. Simple operation. Great gas! All of the capabilities we are seeking for creating energy from our own waste feedstock = horse manure. I'll post photos, video and commentary once we get our GEK hooked to our diesel genset and operating successfully on horse manure."

 

--In the news--

From Worldchanging.com, here's reporting on our still attempted 'entry' into the Automotive X Prize competition:  Hacking the X-Prize with Biochar http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009700.html

Here's one from CNN, the headline says it all really: Can Biochar save the planet?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/03/30/biochar.warming.energy/index.html

 

--New science and reports--

It can be hard to keep up with our wiki site ( http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/FrontPage) , as pages get added quickly. Here's a few recent ones of note:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Wood-pellets-as-downdraft-gasifier-fuel

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Simplified-straight-reduction-tube-tar-recirculating-hearth

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/GEK-Fan-Curve

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Stoichiometric-Combustion-Ratios

 

--New Users--

We're happy to report an order of four GEKs to support the upcoming University of Minnesota Morris gasification course in May.  You can read about the class here on Ben's blog:  http://victorygasworks.ning.com/profiles/blogs/minnesota-3-week-gasification

 

Other new orders in the last couple weeks are heading to Singapore, Italy, Washington, Texas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, New York, and Pennsylvania. Thanks, and welcome.

 

That's all for now. Thanks again for your continued interest and support, and please don't hesitate to be in touch.

-Tom Price

ALL Power Labs

 

March 18 update: 

It's been another breakthrough week for ALL Power Labs and our work on open-source gasification, as we grew our community of users by shipping GEKs to Colorado, Vermont, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Australia and India.  We're also getting a lot of participation from researchers, with GEKs now in at least five universities around the world, including: Lambton College, Ontario; University of Alaska; Aston University, Birmingham, England; University of California, Merced; Maharashtra Institute of Technology, India.

 

But that's not the neat part. What's really great is what's coming out of the shop, thanks to everyone's contributions.

 

First, we've just posted several GEK upgrades either in the works or already available from the skunkworks, including:

 

• automated fuel feed systems, with integrated fuel drying/heating
• an electronic control unit for full sensing, data logging, and automated control of augers, fans, motors, mixture, etc.
• an internal tar recycling system based on ejector venturis at the nozzles.
• stainless steel reduction cones and full Imbert hearths that bolt into the standard GEK
• automated starting system using glow plugs and nichrome wire

 

See the wiki in "GEK Gasifier Upgrades, Add-ons and Customizations, for the specifics:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/GEK+Improvements%2C+Add-ons%2C+and+Customizations

 

Second, WIRED magazine just wrote about our planned entry into the $10 million Automotive X Prize race.  The proposal is to run on the trash generated by the race itself: rule books, promotional materials, cocktail napkins, wine cups, etc.  The premise is of course comedy, but the engineering will be serious.  You can see the article here: http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/03/new-x-prize-ent.html

 

Third, we've elaborated the instructions for how you can also make a GEK for near free out of junk.  Remember that all GEK vessels are based on scrap tanks commonly found in North America.  Thus you can make the GEK from free obtainium, or our purpose made kits.  The end product is the same, though the hassle encountered in the process is quite different.

 

Here's the new scrap tank instructions:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Cutting-your-own-scrap-tanks-and-sheetmetal

 

Here are the newly published v2.0 CAD drawings for all vessel tubes, flange rings and end plates.

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/v2-0+CAD+drawings+for+all+sheet+metal+parts

 

Here's the detailed step-by-step instructions

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Fabrication+Instructions

 

 

Errata:

Also this week, a fellow named Ben Peterson in Oregon started selling his own small scale modular gasifier.  After watching our web site and message boards carefully for months, and then coming to visit our shop for a thorough look around last fall, we were somewhat surprised to see him start selling a gasifier that looks...well....a lot like ours, both in concept, method and particulars.  Called the Woody, it's a nice enough looking unit.  And we're sure it will work reasonably, as its a bone stock Imbert design, with all the benefits and ultimate use limitations we all know from their history.   You can see the specifics on the Woody here: www.woodygasifier.com

 

We're, umm, flattered, I guess. I mean, what's that they say about imitation and flattery?

 

(update:  Ben was not entertained by this note, and posted an interesting 12 point video critique of the GEK.  We've tried to post a sober and contentful response here: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Answers+to+Woody-GEK+questions )

 

This does seem like a good moment to point out a couple things--as an open source project, we're dedicated to sharing as much information with as many people as possible--right down to printing our plans and ideas online.   Our goal is to enable collaboration and additive work so we can get beyond the limitations of the traditional Imbert downdraft gasifier.  We publish and explain all the guts, so you can rework them or build on them, thus getting to further destinations, faster.   We also publish the deep science and engineering best practices so you can understand why the guts are as they are, as well as other ways they can be.   For this ecosystem of open collaboration and progress to work, there needs to be reciprocity amongst users and contributors.  There also needs to be protection of the commons from rank abuse, or the contributors will quickly feel abused and stop contributing.  All the fun then quickly stops.

 

Remember that open source and free are two commonly mixed concepts. Open source is a design philosophy that argues the greater power of a product if its guts are well documented, explained and open for elaboration.  Such open design systems vary greatly in how they define use rights of the results.  Our decision has been to allow any non-commercial use of the whole system without restriction, as well as taking smaller bits and pieces from the system's commons without restriction.  If one wants to reproduce the full system, or the majority value in the system for commercial purposes, there they are license obligations to pay back to the supporting organization.  This is an attempt at fair reciprocity between, and support of, all the contributors to this system.  It also helps to modestly support the core org so that it can better support and nourish the larger whole.

 

These are the challenges of an open source software license like the GPL, creative commons, or copyleft.  The goal is both to ensure clear use rights to the value in the commons, as well as clear responsibilities from those who take value from the commons.  We will soon be doing more work to better elaborate this type of collaborative license for energy work.  We have seen the writing on the wall.

 

But in the meantime, thanks goes to Ben for drawing all this attention to the juice in what we have done.  There is no greater affirmation of one's work than ambitious theft of nearly all of its particulars.  

 

GEK UPDATE 2/27/9

Here's the latest news from ALL Power Labs and our work on Gasification and Biochar.  This is your one stop place for what's new since the last update, so you don't have to go poking around for it--although poking around is also good.

 

*New Version 2.3: starts on the first try, and other user reports*

 

As many of you know, this endeavor of ours is a collective one, where all the users are constantly sharing ideas on improvements, which are then tested and, if they work, immediately put into the next GEK being built.  How well that's working was shown just this week. 

 

A few months ago we heard from a guy named Don in Minnesota who wanted a GEK. His schedule and ours finally synched up, and he just got it last week. A couple parts were missing, so we overnighted them, then called the next day around 5pm to check in. He said "we got the parts at noon, had it together an hour later, and it's been running smooth the whole time until we shut it down just a minute ago--worked great, perfect blue flame, just like we'd hoped!"  Mind you, this is someone with no previous gasification experience at all. Their plan was to try a tractor next, and we'll keep you posted on their progress.

 

Meanwhile, we've added to our user reports page, here's a couple worth pointing out:

 

Marcus Bryner and Steve Unruh in Grants Pass, Oregon--Steve's goal is to have a Lister and GEK "reliably turning wood into electricity no later than the end of May."

Here's a link to reports and photos: http://listerengine.com/smf/index.php?topic=3817.new#new  Says Steve "The real good news is the GEK did readily produce combustible gas and in a quantity sized for a single/twin Lister/iod of 6 to 12 horsepower."

 

Luc Gosselin from BC posted a beautiful video of a perfect blue flame and notes from his tests here: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Luc-Gosselin-in-BC%2C-Canada

 

Brian Guatreau shows how to build a GEK out of junk, using only stone tools and raw enthusiasm.  A sight to behold! The documentation is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_gautreau/

 

We've also just completed a newly updated section for starting up and first runs for your GEK: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/How-to-Build-and-Run-the-GEK-Gasifier

 

*Hands On Research Reports*

 

We created a bunch more pages with lots of drill-down information for those who want to get technical:

• Tests on the first ejector design: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Ejector-(v-1)-Performance-Test
• Here's a page on Practical Engineering: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Practical-Engineering
• Lots of comments and suggestions helping solve the Internal Tar Recirculating Ejector Nozzles: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Internal-Tar-Recirculating-Ejector-Nozzles
• Report on a Nichrome Burner Ignition Test: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Nichrome-Burner-Ignition-Test
• Sorting out Filter Pressure Drop vs. Char Diameter C http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Filter-Pressure-Drop-vs-Char-Diameter
• Proposal to integrate a deLacott recirculating tar burner:  http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/deLacott-recirculating-tar-burner-mod
• And finally a summary of suggested modifications to GEKs: http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/GEK+Improvements%2C+Add-ons%2C+and+Customizations 

 

GEK UPDATE 2/2

Dear friends of gasification—

Our little collaborative experiment in distributed participatory research continues to grow and bear fruit.

First, some very exciting news: our design of a Honda Accord powered by a GEK was proposed as a finalist for the Instructables.com “Workshop of the future” contest, and we won!  First prize was $20,000 in tools from Craftsman, which we can really use in the shop. Check out the contest and other competitors here: http://www.instructables.com/contest/workshopofthefuture/ 

New user video, from Grant Shotwell in Tunkhannok, PA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcI3-AMmYWw

And a lot more detailed info from Ken Boak on his continued experiments in England:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Report-from-UK-GEK-experiments

As you may know, managing tars in the produced gas is one of the major challenges to be managed.   Here's some new work to check out on this front:

New section: pumping and managing tarry liquids:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Pumping-Tarry-Liquids

Information on metal alloys at high temps:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Metal-Alloys-for-High-Temp-Operation

Drawings showing Imbert hearth possibilities for the gek:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Imbert-hourglass-hearth-variations

Potential tar fence design:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Tar-fence

 

 

GEK Update 1/22

It was rewarding, and a little bit remarkable, to hear President Obama in his speech Tuesday refer specifically to his plans to “harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories,"  since the gasification technology at the heart of the GEK does exactly that. We're happy to be working with all of you to help bring this much needed carbon negative energy to wider understanding, awareness and adoption.

It continues to be a busy time at All Power Labs, with new orders in from Spain, Costa Rica, and Minnesota. Here's a summary of what's new in our shop and work:

GEK user reports:

Ken Boak has created an excellent page outlining his experimentations with his GEK and a Lister Diesel engine:

Here are some photos Ken put up on Flickr.

And his comments after his first firing on the First Run Start Up page.

"Having spent a day painting and

assembling the GEK, I must say that

I am very impressed with the kit and

the quality of the workmanship."

-Ken Boak

Surrey, England

GEK website updates:

Daniel Chisolm created a "Hints and Kinks" page, and pointed out an issue to be aware of with thermocouplers.

Daniel, Ken, and Jim all commented on the Assembly Instructions For Level IV Gek page.

GEK design and research:

The team at All Power Labs is working on design features and functionality for the GCU, or Gasifier Control Unit. Once completed, it will add significant improvements in user ability to manage and understand the internal workings of the gasification chamber.  The GCU will be an inexpensive add on to the basic GEK kit.

 

 

Updates as of January 12th, 2009:

Updates to the web site:

 

New gas equilibrium charts:

http://gekgasifier.pbwiki.com/Gas-Equilibrium-Charts

 

GEK meets the China Diesel:

http://allpowerlabs.org/gasification/gek/images/v2.0/v2.0gallerychinadiesel.html

 

Honda Accord on wood chips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JyazgRBtq8&e

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33844192@N04/sets/72157611845184353/

 

User reports:

From UK, experiments in running a GEK with a Lister Diesel engine.

http://powercubes.com/listers_12.html

 

From Washington State, first ignition reports—a success!

http://www.windward.org/notes/notes68/opalyn19.htm

 

 

News:

 

All Power Labs was in the media a lot this last week, thanks to our successful trip around Oakland in a Honda Accord running on wood gas. This was an experiment of an application for our GEK, and it worked great. Our efforts were also made into an entry on the very interesting site instructables.com

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert_your_Honda_Accord_to_run_on_trash/

 

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/diy_trash-power.php

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/11/howto-convert-your-c.html

 

http://i.gizmodo.com/5123944/build-your-own-mr-fusion-and-gasify-your-car-with-garbage

 

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/692164/Turn_Trash_Into_Fuel_for_Your_Car.html

 

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/01/add_a_mr_fusion.php

 

To really appreciate the Honda, you have to understand it’s part of our larger “Escape From Berkeley By Any Non-petroleum Means” race project, which you can read about in Mother Earth News, the New York Times, and other outlets.