The "Stalk Gasifier" has arrived..

from China. The technology is old, 18th - 19th century, before natural gas there was producer gas or town gas. It was locally made, piped to peoples houses and used for street light.

The round part still in the crate is the actual gasifier, the rectangular part on the ground is a cooling filter. This baby makes gas from straw or any small bits of dry stems,twigs,or branches. The resulting gas is very flammable being largely carbon monoxide (created by cracking the CO2), hydrogen, and methane. The gas is similar in thermal value to propane. The charcoal left over is a valuable soil amendment, small changes to the system could even create activated charcoal as a commercial product.

In the rural areas there is so much plant material that is burned to get rid of it, just wasted. There are many uses for this fuel, larger scale units are used to produce electricity, small versions were used in WWII for civilian transport, attached to cars and trucks even tractors. The Cary Grant movie, "I was a Male War Bride" shows London taxis with the wood gas producers on back. Eventually I would like to try running my generator on it, the idea of growing my own fuel has me hooked