GEK Basics
All GEK Reactors | GEK Imbert Downdraft | Open Core: Updraft & Downdraft | Pyrolysis-Biochar | Test Report
The Core Machine: Gasifier Experimenter’s Kit (GEK)
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The Gasifier Experimenters Kit makes it easy for beginners and experts alike to run high performance solutions in small scale gasification and pyrolysis. Whether you’re a DIY enthusiast, commercial user, or university researcher; the GEK will get you over the starting hurdles and onto the more rewarding work of making clean gas for power generation, or biochar for soil amendment.
The GEK is designed in a modular fashion for easy switch out between common reactor types and operating situations.You can use the GEK to run an expertly configured downdraft gasifier forfueling engines and generating electricity and heat. Or you can use the same system to create a multi-mode pyrolysis reactor (the BEK) for biochar making and soil studies. The result is a uniquely powerful “LEGO system” of biomass thermal conversion. The GEK lets you deploy all the commonly discussed, but rarely implemented, “expert solutions”– and does so at the smaller-scale and lesser price needed for personal scale energy project
Build it or Buy it You decide the relative amount of effort vs cost you want to invest towards your finished GEK. You can “build-the-GEK-from-scratch” using our FREE open source CAD files. Or, you can make it a little easier on yourself by getting one of our “weld-together” sheet metal kits. Don’t want a fab project? You can also buy the GEK fully fabricated and ready for final assembly and firing on your end. Every GEK kit includes all components needed for a full gasification system. All kits include the reactor, hopper, cyclone and filter vessels, as well as every plumbing part, nut, bolt and accessory needed to finish the job. Instrumentation is included too, which will help guide you to successful operation of your unit. Whichever route you choose, our goal is to provide the best new engineering solutions in gasification and pyrolysis, open and honest information, and the physical equipment to make it all happen at uniquely value optimized prices. |
Basic Reactor
| The default reactor for the GEK is an Imbert type downdraft reactor. An Imbert is the usual starting point for generating low tar wood gas to power internal combustion engines. The GEK Imbert is delivered with a default configuration known to produce clean syngas when operated by a knowledgeable operator, using appropriate fuels.The standard 3″ hearth and nozzle configuration will run 5-20hp engines, or 3kw to 12kw of electrical load. Switching to the optional 4″ hearth expands gas rates to support engines up to 40hp, or a 20-25kw genset. You can run many different types of engines and gensets with either configuration. See here for the pros and cons of various GEK-engine-genset combinations.
The GEK Imbert combines all common Imbert internal variations into a single reconfigurable reactor. It elaborates these basics with significant improvements to the traditional design. Improvements include:
See the GEK Gallery for pictures and videos of these features in action. |
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Add-ons and Customizations
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The modular design of the GEK lets you add important performance parts and process elaborations to the basic kit. The most important of these is the Hot TOTTI (Tower of Total Thermal Integration) – a total heat recovery and recirculation solution.
The full Hot TOTTI system results in higher combustion and cracking temperatures for improved tar conversion, increased tolerance for high moisture fuels, and increased gasifier efficiency. Putting these waste heats back into the reactor also eliminates the need for a radiator at the end of the system to dump otherwise useful heat. The Hot TOTTI is a combination of Auger Feed Drying Bucket and Pyrocoil IC exhaust gas heat exchanger. The Auger Feed Drying Bucket uses output wood gas to dry your incoming fuel, while at the same time cooling the outgoing gas. The PyroCoil heat exchanger returns heat from the engine exhaust back into the reactor, further eliminating drying loads as well as most of the pyrolysis load. The Hot TOTTI innovations are the main reason the GEK can deliver unusually good performance on regular wood chip fuel, with up to 30% moisture content– and do so in a compact and minimized form factor. See here for more detailed info on the Hot TOTTI. |
Performance Particulars: Satisfaction Guaranteed or 100% Money Back
| The basic GEK is not a turnkey wood gasification unit. Given the variability of fuels and human operators, we cannot guarantee perfection right out of the box. However, in the hands of a knowledgable operator, many have proved the GEK will produce excellent results.
Success is also very accessible to the beginner, but know it will require your active participation and learning. Of course we are here to help you with this, which is the point of the GEK collaboration. We also help at the outset by including free instrumentation with every kit. This makes it possible to use our “speedometer” and “tachometer” operating instructionsto keep things in the good gas making range, not shoot in the dark on best guesses. We believe the design, open source collaboration and manufacturing particulars of the GEK are a powerful value proposition. If you buy a GEK and find the particulars to be otherwise, you can return the unit for a 100% money back refund. After more than 250 units delivered and no requests for refunds after actual use, this is an easy promise for us to make. |
