Australian Gasifier

This week’s gangrene award goes to a couple of Australians who believe they are saving the planet by operating their automobile on wood. Yes this enterprising couple from down-under have developed a gasification trailer that they pull behind their large van . The gasifier housed in the trailer coverts wood and water to a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (syngas) by a process of partial combustion. The syngas is then fed into the fuel injection system of their van as a gasoline substitute. http://members.tripod.com/~highforest/woodgas/woodfired.html

On the surface this all seems wonderful and very green. Operating a vehicle on felled eucalyptus trees is something most would applaud as substituting fossil fuel for renewable fuel. Let’s now look at the efficiency of their Rube Goldberg vehicle with a caboose. They claim they can travel 2 kilometers for each kilogram of dried wood they “burn”. A kilogram of dried wood has an energy content of 16,500 BTUs so their contraption travels some 2 kilometers or 1.25 miles on 16,500 BTUs. The 16,500 BTUs is the energy content of 0.143 gallons of gasoline. Dividing the miles by the volume of gasoline equivalent we get an effective fuel efficiency of 8.74 miles per gallon. Not bad back in 1971 when most American cars weighed 5,000 pounds and had similar fuel efficiency. Now that we are in the 21st century even the Hummer H2 can beat this Aussie contraption by a mile. The good news for the world is GM is finally admitting that the Hummer is a Bummer and this gasification technology never made it out of Darwin.

As you know the Gangrene Award is like a Green Darwin Award so that this week’s winner from Darwin Australia is like killing two birds with one stone. I was a little scared making this week’s nomination as the couple is very religious and the signs on their van exclaim “righteousness exalts a nation” and “pray for our nation”. Now that they have their Gangrene Award hanging above their fireplace they can claim that GAS stands for Gigantic Australian Stupidity.