70 b.h.p. Producer-gas Generator Weighing 1801b.
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APRODUCER-CAS plant, specially designed from the word " go," to meet the demands of road-vehicle engines, forms the subject of a patent held by Mr. C. Q. Iffla, a British subject, residing in Italy.
Mr. Iffla told The Commercial Motor representative that he had been concentrating on his present design for the past eight years-and that he ignored entirely the possibility of adapting existing stationary-plant generators to a sphere of use to which they are quite unsuited.
In the case of stationary plant, constant quantitative production is called for, whereas, in the case of the road vehicle, what is required is constant . qualitative production combined with constantly varying quantitative production, hence one of the chief problems was to provide for rapid response to the accelerator pedal, because had acceleration of vehicles running on pro ducer gas is, perhaps, one of the most outstanding failings of ordinary generators.
Another problem which Mr. 'Ma set himself to solve was to provide a plant in which coal, coke, wood and other fuels, could he used with equal facility, so that the operator would not be restricted in this direction.
He claims to have solved these, and other problems, in a generator which, for an engine of 70 b.h.p., weighs only 180 lb. Moreover, it is of such simple construction and straightforward design that the chances of derangement are remote, ' As •'an example of the results already obtained, experiments were carried out with a Fiat 1932-model car of 2.5 litres capacity. The time taken from starting up the producer to full gas production with the car under way was 45 seconds, the acceleration being not greatly inferior to that obtained with motor spirit. The maximum speed obtained on a level road with a load of five passengers was 57 m.p.h., the fuel consumption working out at 1 lb. of coal and 6 ozs. of water per 3.2 miles. The fuel used was anthracite beans.
The generator proper consists of a combustion chamber, to which air is supplied from the bottom in an axial direction, through an air inlet in, the form of a nozzle, adapted to deliver a jet, or column of air, at high velocity and of small cross-sectional area.
The top of the generator forms the -hopper for the reception of fuel, which is fed by gravity to the combustion chamber.
Au interesting feature of the design is that the gas, as generated, passes out through perforations in the walls of the combustion chamber to an annular space completely surrounding the combustion chamber. In its turn, this gas chamber is enclosed in a non-heat-conducting jacket, possibly a vacuum chamber. Thus, when the generator is working, heat losses are small and the need for insulation is eliminated. Combustion is substantially supported by the introduction into the air nozzle by a second nozzle, of a supply of pulverized water. This is obliged to pass vertically through a zone of temperature in the region of 3,000 degrees F., where it is divided into its constituents of hydrogen and oxygen.
'Although it is not suggested that the introduction of this generator would, in any sense, affect the petrol engine. the results already obtained are sufficient to prove its possibilities where supplies of liquid fuel are scarce.