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[jthornton]

Has anyone built a gasification boiler based on the Richard Hill design?

John

[vpd66]

There is a guy on Hearth.com from Austrailia that built a version. There is also another guy that has manufactured one he is using. I've studied the plans up and down more then once. The biggest problem seems to be finding an internal lining that will hold up to the high tempertures and the impact of the coals/flyash (very abrasive). If you decide to go this route and build this style stove, make it so it can be disassembled so parts can be replaced.

[jthornton]

Thanks for the heads up on the lining. Is there another style that is better to build?

John

[vpd66]

Thanks for the heads up on the lining. Is there another style that is better to build?

John

A "Garn" style is much simpler, but requires more metal fabrication skills (welding, cutting,forming, of steel). Petemoss (on this forum) built a version that is impressive. I'm planning on building one, but I'm still searching for the perfect tank to start with.

[jthornton]

I've seen his impressive build. Those things are huge, I wonder if a guy could build a scaled down version?

John

[vpd66]

Scaling it down would lose the theory behind it. Burn a hot fire and have over a 1000 gallons of water absorb all the heat from the fire. Then draw off the heated tank for a couple days. When the water gets down to a certain temp, have another fire.

[satyen4uall]

the key to gassification seems to be a larger liquid storage capacity where the water is heated and stored firing is done in two hours very hot burn and then does'nt need to be fired again for about 12 hours.

[Scott7m]

the key to gassification seems to be a larger liquid storage capacity where the water is heated and stored firing is done in two hours very hot burn and then does'nt need to be fired again for about 12 hours.

Def used to be the case... However with some of the boilers and refractories today they can kill the fire, storing the heat to relight in the refractory and take back off rather easily.  The efficiency of these models are right in line with batch burn models

People sometimes think the fire has to smolder to relight, not the case with refractory, you have your fuel "wood"' you have your heat stored in the refractory, as soon as o2 is reintroduced you'll have fire

[slimjim]

Exactly Scott, As far as I know Mr Hill is still alive, what a treat it would be to pick his brain for a bit, he is a wealth of knowledge. He happens to be from right here in Maine and I have tried several times to have a conversation with him but never could arrange it.