[Gasification] Lister on Gasoline, ingition control device?

[Alex English]

Ken,
The paper from India states that there is  some de-rating for producer 
gas compared to diesel with their engine. They didn't see the same sweet 
spot for spark advance theorizing a need for retarding spark because of 
high hydrogen flame speed. Different engine, different PG?  In their 
case NOxide  emissions  increase 2 to 10 fold with increased spark 
advance. Is this a concern with Mr.Lister? After CR, what accounts for 
all the extra power with your test rig?

Thanks,
Alex





On 14/10/2012 4:26 AM, Ken Boak wrote:
> Hi Peter, List
>
> Just for explanation, the Lister conversion project took place over 
> three consecutive Workshops at All Power Labs, Berkeley, California. 
> Between Feb 2010 and April 2012, the team slowly picked away at the 
> project.
>
> The original spark ignition circuit was based on an Arduino, with a 
> Hall effect sensor being triggered by a tiny neodynium magnet taped to 
> the flywheel rim.   A darlington transistor drove the low tension side 
> of a car ignition coil.
>
> https://files.pbworks.com/download/Mk7b7ymPda/gekgasifier/30638003/Lister_spark.pdf
>
> I used a variable resistor on one of the analogue input pins as a 
> "timing control".  The idea was to fit the magnet very well in advance 
> of the optimum position, and then adjust the timingcontrol to add a 
> given delay, to allow the firing point to be adjusted to the position 
> that gave the best running.
>
> This is what we used in the February 2010 workshop, when the engine 
> first ran on woodgas.  However a later discovered bug in my code meant 
> that the timing control was not really working as intended.
>
> For the Fall workshop of 2010, I remade the ignition circuit on 
> stripboard and shipped it out to California, and Ron Ohler, Mike La 
> Rosa, Marcus Hardwick worked on the project. I could not attend that 
> workshop.
>
> The team fitted the newly positioned spark plug in the side port and 
> proved that the engine would run.
>
> Marcus and I revisited the Lister project in March 2012 in the run up 
> to the April workshop. The Lister was converted back to stock 17:1 
> compression ratio and given a new head gasket and more permanent 
> arrangement with gasifier, cooling and exhaust systems.
>
> The electronic ignition (my department) was our Achilles heel this 
> year, and after a couple of microcontroller and transistor burn-outs, 
> we eventually replaced it with a commercial MSD spark ignition unit 
> and coil.  Ron Ohler and Andy Schofield went on to get the engine 
> running sweetly, after a lot of fiddling looking for the best ignition 
> point.
>
> I have now returned to the UK, and I am keen to maintain interest 
> going in the spark conversion of diesel engines.  The developing 
> countries are littered with small hp diesels such as Lister, Petter, 
> Changfa clones performing pumping, generation and agricultural 
> processing tasks. To come up with a cost effective spark conversion 
> for these generic engines so that they can be economically run on 
> producer gas from biomass, would be a major step towards petroleum 
> independence.
>
> The original IISc paper describing the performance testing of a 3 
> cylinder spark converted Indian diesel engine at 17:1 CR  is here:
>
> http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/site/Portals/0/Publications/ReferedJournal/Biomass%20derived%20producer%20gas%20as%20a%20reciprocating.pdf
>
>
>
> regards
>
>
>
> Ken Boak
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gasification mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> Gasification at bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> for more Gasifiers,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20121014/5c41e00d/attachment.html>