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submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Fun fact, an engine with a carburetor can very very easily run on biomass, wood or dried grass, via gasification. Essentially, a large sealed container with a fire under it, or a fuel deprived fire inside of a container, will produce a large amount of combustible gas that can be bubbled through some water to clean/cool it a bit, and then fed straight in to the carburetor. No modification to the engine required, although a bit of tuning will get better performance. It doesn’t work with a fuel injection engine unfortunately, and basically all modern cars are fuel injected. It will also have less performance than with gasoline as the gas is less energy dense.

Nighthawk in light did a video on it with a little motorized bike, his results weren’t the best as his design wasn’t great but the engine did run. There are a ton of examples of people running vehicles surprisingly well on these kinds of system though, usually older pickup trucks as the bed gives a good spot to put the gasifier.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

combustible gas

Which contains a whole lot of carbon monoxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Make sure that shit is sealed well because those PAHs will give you super cancer if you breathe it in while riding your bike. And don't play with the "tar" without extensive PPE because that shit is concentrated PAH carcinogens.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Are you saying americans shouldn't give themselves preventable illnesses?

You know that's basically cultural genocide, right?

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yah breathing in smoke from a fire is generally ill advised. So is huffing gasoline. Or leaving a car running in a garage.

Generally I think the sealed container with a charcoal fire compartment underneath is a better way of doing it than a partial combustion one, simply because it is much easier to seal it up properly, and you end up getting a better mix of combustibles.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You've got a significant misunderstanding on the level I'm talking about. Incomplete pyrolysis creates cancer causing compounds in the percentage level, gasoline and smoke has it in the parts per million. It's multiple orders of magnitude more toxic. Gasoline fumes, wood smoke, and car exhaust are like breathing clean air compared to this shit.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The regulation for the average content of benzene in US gasoline is .62% and the WHO, as of march, classifies gasoline in its totality as a IARC group 1 Carcinogen.

Group 1 does not denote risk, just that it is definitely carcinogenic.

Again I’m not diminishing the fact some products of pyrolysis produced in significant amounts are very hazardous and carcinogenic, but I think you underestimate gasoline.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Industrial producer gas generally produces 5 percent aromatics by weight of feedstock with their light tar(the stuff diy gasifiers have to clean out) being roughly 70 percent benzene and toulene. There's not data on diy gasifiers but expect it to be worse, with more varied polycyclics that likey much more toxic that aren't particularly filtered out by bubbling it through water. These heavy polycyclics are generally eliminated in the gasoline cracking stage.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Isn't that just biofuels? Vegan cars would be such an ecological disaster. Veganism is pretty green but the idea of using loads of land for car fuel rather than food would be a massive problem. Even if they did eat just grass.

In fact, if they did, would we be required to give all our lawn clippings to the council for biofuel processing? Would having a lawn go from an HOA requirement to that of a government law in America for example?

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

At that point, it basically circles back to horses.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

My VW [New] Beetle could've legitimately been vegan, as it runs on 100% biodiesel.

But it's a carnivore instead, because my biodiesel is made from chicken fat byproducts rather than vegetable oil.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Where can I find the Department of Motor Veghancles?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Does that car tell you every time the mile counter goes up that it's vegan? Does it regularly try to guilt trip you into quitting meat?

this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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