wood gasification

Getting Around After The Apocalypse

Should we ever find ourselves in a post-apocalyptic (PA) world, what will we rely on for our transportation and cartage needs? Will it be the horse as many, if not most, PA writers speculate? Probably not.

But if we won’t be using horses in a PA world, what will be our options? Fortunately we have three excellent ones.

For the past four weeks I’ve been talking about transportation in a PA world. And I’ve made a point that we won’t be using the horse — books, movies, and TV shows to the contrary.

Horses are skittish, high-maintenance animals. In addition, they are not only dangerous but have pretty much always been the speciality of the rich. The poor and middle class used their feet or dog carts. Or perhaps rented a horse and wagon.

Even in the 1800s, when the horse was everywhere, most folks did not own a horse. They were simply too expensive to maintain. So why would things be any different in PA world, where survival of the human is going to take precedence over everything else?

In fact, the most valuable use of the horse, should we find one, just might be to fill our stomachs.

Aside from our feet, what are our land transportation options?

First off, we have man’s best friend: the dog. Dogs have been with us longer than horses. They are also far more manageable and versatile than horses.

Dogs can guard our possessions, warn us that intruders or predators are about, haul our goods, and, while we can’t ride them, they can pull us about in a cart or sled. In addition, most of us know dogs. The same can’t be said for horses.

Dogs. Probably the most practical animal in a PA world.

But when it comes to transportation, what we are most familiar with are cars and trucks.

Just because the gasoline runs dry doesn’t mean we can’t use our cars or our trucks. We simply need to think outside the box. And the answers are already before us: steam-power and wood gas. Both of which are established technology. No need to reinvent the wheel.

1970s Dutcher prototype steam car-owned by Jay Leno

Converting an internal combustion engine to run on steam would take a considerable amount of machining, but it can be done. In fact, it has been done many times over by steam-power aficionados. The tech is out there, and has been since at least the 1970s.

All the savvy prepper and survivalist has to do is find the info on the Internet and print out the instructions. Now, rather than later. Then, when the SHTF, team up with a machinist to rebuild engines and to make boilers and burners. Easy-peasy.

Steam cars. It’s really what we should be driving today.

Wood gasification is also established tech. Once again, no need to reinvent the wheel.

Wood gas can fuel our cars and trucks, be used to fuel our stoves and furnaces, provide us with lighting, as well as provide power for industry. And in a PA world, bringing back industry will go a long way towards building back a new and better world.

Many countries survived on wood gas in World War II. Why wouldn’t survivors do the same in a PA world?

Once again, the savvy prepper and survivalist simply needs to print off the abundant material available on the Internet (now, rather than later), and life will be good when the SHTF.

So, the next time you read a book, or watch a movie, or TV show that makes abundant use of the horse after the apocalypse just chalk it up to the writer’s love for westerns — because that’s the only place where the horse was king. And most westerns are the stuff of fantasy.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer; as well as an armchair philosopher, political theorist, and social commentator. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

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Wood Gas for the Win

For the past three weeks I’ve been talking about transportation in a post-apocalyptic (PA) world. Specifically, how unlikely it will be that the survivors will be using horses.

We’ve looked at the horse and found it wanting. A much more practical animal is the dog, and we might see the return of the dog cart and dog sled in a PA world.

Last week I looked at the steam automobile. The great advantage of steam cars is that anything that burns can be used for fuel to power the vehicle. Another significant advantage is that we know how to drive cars. We don’t know jack about horses.

Today, I want to look at wood gas. The advantage of using wood gas is that it doesn’t require any major modifications to the internal combustion engine. And like the steam car, a wide variety of “feeders” can be used to generate the gas; the one most used being wood.

So what is wood gasification? Basically, it is the process of cooking wood to produce a burnable gas.

Here is a link to a detailed manual on wood gas: http://www.gengas.nu/byggbes/contents.shtml Be sure to print out this manual. It will make a great addition to your survival library.

A wood gas generator turns carbon containing material into hydrogen and carbon monoxide, with possibly some methane in the mix. This “producer gas” or “syngas” can then be used to power cars, trucks, buses, and tractors.

Wikipedia has an excellent introductory article on wood gas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas

This article at Make contains diagrams, and notes the pros and cons of using wood gas: https://makezine.com/2010/06/24/lost-knowledge-wood-gas-vehicles/

Here’s a how-to article on building a gasifier that outlines the problems a DIYer might encounter: https://www.instructables.com/A-Home-Built-Biomass-Gasifier-for-Producing-Wood-G/

The major problem as noted in the above article is the production of tar. Which probably would necessitate a tar scrubber in order to be able to use a wider range of less “fussy” biomass.

At the end of the day, even though the above DIYer encountered problems, the wood gasifier is established tech. These devices are currently in production in China and Russia. All one needs to do is to obtain one and essentially copy it to provide a wood gas culture here in the States and anywhere else where self-sufficiency is valued.

Like the steam-powered car, the “woodmobile” can be powered by any carbon containing material. In a post-apocalyptic world, such flexibility will be crucial to the survivors and will enable them to continue to use cars and trucks.

In addition, a wood gasifier can be used to fuel a cookstove or a furnace, or a gas-powered refrigerator, and even a gas lamp — and thus enable the PA survivors to enjoy a certain amount of pre-apocalyptic normalcy.

Europe survived on wood gas in World War II, and, as noted above, China and Russia still manufacture wood gasifiers for cars and industrial use.

In fact, wood gas is one way the world could free itself from petroleum. Because any carbon-based material, not just wood, can be used to produce gas. In fact, all manner of agricultural waste can be used to generate producer gas.

Here in the US, we have a tendency to make things complex and difficult. We spent millions developing a space pen. The Russians used a pencil.

The battery-powered electric car is another ridiculous example of making things complex. Instead of using established technology to solve the problems of fossil fuel use and pollution, we resort to solutions for which we don’t have the technology to make them feasible on a wide scale.

Battery technology is not sufficiently advanced for electric cars to be able to compete with the internal combustion engine. In addition, to the lengthy charge time, improper charging of the battery can shorten its lifespan.

Further more, batteries are toxic — both to manufacture and dispose of. And the last thing we need is more toxic manufacturing and waste in our environment. Batteries also use non-renewable resources in their manufacture. How wise is that?

On the other hand, wood gas makes use of established technology and contributes no waste to the environment and provides a much cleaner exhaust than gasoline or diesel. In fact, using wood scrap, agricultural waste, and waste biomass material, a wood gasifier actually saves the environment from being polluted.

Now advocates of electric cars will say that an electric car doesn’t pollute. And that is true. But the production of electricity for the power grid to charge the car does generate pollution. And let’s be honest with ourselves: the day when wind and solar will be able to supply all our power needs is way off in the distant future. We are going to be relying on fossil fuel for a very long time. But we can significantly reduce our dependence — with currently available technology.

The manufacture of batteries is highly polluting. And uses non-renewable resources. And their disposal adds to our toxic waste problem. Which makes batteries, in my opinion, a non-starter for mass transportation.

Let’s face facts: electric cars are polluters. The pollution is just being hidden from us, the potential consumer.

The electric car is not the answer. Which is why they went out of fashion back around World War I. By contrast, the steam car didn’t make it only because no one mass-produced them. Which made the price tag something only the rich could afford. (A Stanley steamer sold for $5000, while a Model T went for $500.)

Steam cars and gasoline cars powered by wood gasifiers are the real solution. They make use of established tech and could end our dependence on fossil fuel in a very short period of time.

In a post-apocalyptic world, there will be no re-charging stations, and no petroleum production or refining. But that doesn’t mean we have to do without cars and trucks, and try to recreate a horse culture, which would take hundreds of years to reproduce.

Wood gas is readily available and just might be what saves us and enables us to rebuild a better world.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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Horses After The Apocalypse

Given the fact that horses are no longer a part of daily American life — and haven’t been for some 90 years — I’m always amazed at the common use of horses in many post-apocalyptic books, movies, and TV shows.

In actuality, most of us have little to no knowledge of horses. We are as familiar with horses as we are with the cows that give us milk and cheese. And cows are a lot more important to us than horses.

Urban People

We are an urban people. Heck, most of us don’t even know how our cars work, never mind our computers and smart phones. And those things we use every day.

We are technology users, but most of us know little about how that technology works. What makes any writer think we would be able to learn en masse about horses and horse culture overnight? It’s totally unrealistic.

Without a doubt, the writer of such post-apocalyptic scenarios has probably never had anything to do with horses. And not understanding how cars work, resorts to an even more unlikely scenario: people using horses as they used to use cars.

This is on my mind because I started reading a post-apocalyptic novel where horses, as usual, feature prominently. Everyone knows how to ride them, without ever having ridden one prior to the apocalypse. That was an immediate put off, and I quit reading the book.

The vast majority of us know nothing of horses, other than what we see on TV or read about in books. And oftentimes, the picture presented isn’t anywhere near accurate. Horses running at full gallop for long periods of time, for example. Impossible.

Horses

The US horse population reached its high of 20 million in 1915. Today, the number is much less. And their use very much restricted. Mostly, they are pets for the rich. Think about it, when was the last time you rode to work in a horse-drawn carriage? When was the last time you even touched a horse?

Today, the US horse population numbers somewhere between 1.9 million and 9 million animals, all depending on how you count them. Perhaps the most accurate number is 7.24 million as of 2016, which is some six years ago. And that number was down from 9.22 million in 2003. The number of animals may even be less than that today, in 2022.

Regardless of the number of animals, how many of us actually know anything about how to use and care for a horse? I’d wager darn few. Probably not a single person in any average neighborhood.

The last time I was on a horse was 64 years ago when I was in kindergarten. And I only sat on the horse I didn’t really ride it. Somebody walked the horse around a small enclosed circular track.

The last time I saw a horse up close in real life was perhaps 6 to 8 years ago when 2 mounted Minneapolis police officers rode past me on Nicollet Mall.

I know more about goldfish and cats than I do about horses. In fact, I know more about the theory of how rockets work than I know about the practical care needed for a horse.

What we’ll actually use

Which is why Bill Arthur, the hero of my Rocheport Saga, said horses weren’t the answer. We know about cars and trucks. They are the answer.

In any post-apocalyptic world, transportation will be achieved by cars and trucks — not horses.

But in such a post-apocalyptic world, where there is no gasoline or diesel fuel, and no re-charging stations, what will power our cars?

The answer is actually simple: steam and wood gas.

It is fairly easy to convert a diesel engine to run on steam. After conversion, all you need to add is a firebox or burner and the boiler. The great advantage of a steam engine is that it can use just about anything for fuel.

A wood gasifier is fairly easy to construct. It converts wood to burnable gas that can be used in a gasoline engine. Wood gasifiers were in fact used during the Second World War on the domestic front to provide fuel for tractors, cars, and buses.

We know how to drive cars. We don’t know how to ride horses. After the apocalypse, I’m betting we’ll be driving cars — not riding horses.

Another advantage of cars, either steam-powered or wood-gas powered, is that you don’t have to clean up any road apples.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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