[Gasification] energy for villages

[Mark Ludlow]

Hi Ken,

Approximately how much spark advance are you finding works well in your
modified Listers?

Mark

 

From: gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Ken Boak
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 9:59 AM
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
Subject: Re: [Gasification] energy for villages

 

Dear A.D. Karve & Gasification Colleagues

Is there any documentation of this village scale electrification project?
Is the project currently running?

I have read the IISc Papers on the Hosahalli Village project - but that was
more than 20 years ago.

I have been working on an experimental spark ignition conversion of the
Lister type single cylinder engine - so that it can be run either on woodgas
or diesel/biodiesel.

The intention is a diesel start-up (for convenience) and then a rapid switch
over to woodgas, when the gasifier is up to temperature. This minimises the
amount of diesel needed over the whole run time - yet provides the
convenience of a quick start-up cycle.

We have retained the 17:1 compression ratio of the Lister engine - and are
currently re-tracing the work - initially done in India to prove that
woodgas can be used at these compression ratios - without pre-detonation
(knock). So far, the results look promising and we have achieved between
2500 and 3000 electrical watts from the 6HP Lister engine running in this
mode. 

The project has been ongoing for some time now  - and we hope that it will
result in a spark ignition kit being offered for owners of small diesels.
The Lister type engines are particularly suitable for conversion - but we
hope that other small diesels - such as Kirloskar are also fairly easily
converted - with the addition of the sparkplug.

This work is being undertaken at All Power Labs in Berkeley, California -
and was recently demonstrated at a Weekend Workshop earlier this month.



Ken Boak

Principal Electronic Engineer
All Power Labs
Berkeley 
CA 94710

510 684 2640



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