First Flames in a Charcoal Fired Pioneer (Fluidyne) Type Gasifier
Douglas Diaz MccLeod, January 23, 2007

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Dear Mr. Williams & listers,
I am very glad to inform that the small pioneer class gasifier Works wonderfully.
We kept the main dimensions and worked on a 100 pound LPG tank.
The only main difference is that it's completely insulated with a 30 mm refractory lining.
We chose the push arrangement for the vent, which makes lighting a bit slow and smoky but in general works perfectly.
The first tests have been made with charcoal, very irregular in size and shape. The gas flow is constant and just stops after a couple of hours when the air injection nozzles go uncovered.
What is really amazing is the turn down ratio; we can go from 4" W.C down to less than 1/2" and it still works nicely.
After testing with charcoal we tried wood pellets 1/4" diam. & 1" in length, that was a big change. Smoke can be seen in the center of the flame for a very long time, until the whole system is really hot, and the flame colors are always reddish. The other problem with pellets is that they tend to block the system and gas flow is very irregular. I suppose that can be solved with some vibration on the grate.
The only thing we haven

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