Here's a hypothetical question for those of you more knowledgable than myself. How does the timing of the intake/exhaust change to take maximum advantage of any particular fuel? Reason I ask is as follows:
With the high price of fuel I've been looking at various alternative fuels. One way of powering a spark-ignition motor that has caught my eye is gasification of biomass. In short, you can run your car on wood chips if you have a well designed, properly functioning gasifier to supply the gas to the motor. The gas is mainly made up of CO and H2. The wood (or any other biomass you use) is partially burnt with limited air, which acts to gasify the fuel. (and before anyone says anything, yes, I know the dangers of CO poisoning and the appropriate precautions) Thing is, wood gas (as it is known as) does not supply the same power as does petrol. This can be alleviated by increasing compression, often past the 12:1 mark, and by optimising the spark timing. But you still, at best will only ever get 50-70% of the same performance out of a spark ignition motor on wood gas as opposed to petrol. From what I've read, wood gas burns quite slowly, and is better at supplying slow steady torque rather than instant power. How would you then go about adjusting valve timing to take better advantage of a slower burning fuel like wood gas?? This is more like a intellectual learning exercise for me at the moment rather than a project I'm about to undertake.
Out of interest the following link shows a motor that's being run on reformed biodiesel. Similar to gasification of solids, but done with liquid fuel instead. Click on the link, then select "Ongoing H2 Projects" on the left ahnd side of the screen.
http://www.biomassenergyfoundation.org
Regards,
Teddy
With the high price of fuel I've been looking at various alternative fuels. One way of powering a spark-ignition motor that has caught my eye is gasification of biomass. In short, you can run your car on wood chips if you have a well designed, properly functioning gasifier to supply the gas to the motor. The gas is mainly made up of CO and H2. The wood (or any other biomass you use) is partially burnt with limited air, which acts to gasify the fuel. (and before anyone says anything, yes, I know the dangers of CO poisoning and the appropriate precautions) Thing is, wood gas (as it is known as) does not supply the same power as does petrol. This can be alleviated by increasing compression, often past the 12:1 mark, and by optimising the spark timing. But you still, at best will only ever get 50-70% of the same performance out of a spark ignition motor on wood gas as opposed to petrol. From what I've read, wood gas burns quite slowly, and is better at supplying slow steady torque rather than instant power. How would you then go about adjusting valve timing to take better advantage of a slower burning fuel like wood gas?? This is more like a intellectual learning exercise for me at the moment rather than a project I'm about to undertake.
Out of interest the following link shows a motor that's being run on reformed biodiesel. Similar to gasification of solids, but done with liquid fuel instead. Click on the link, then select "Ongoing H2 Projects" on the left ahnd side of the screen.
http://www.biomassenergyfoundation.org
Regards,
Teddy
