Cars That burned Wood for fuel During World War II, Basic Introduction to Gasificaition

The lost art and science of biomass gasification.

Over 2 million cars powered their engines with wood from 1939 to 1945. Several automobile companies, that are still around today, produced these special cars and trucks. Companies like US based Ford and Chevrolet and European companies like Volvo and Renault.

Automobiles with this equipment, operated by filling a cylinder mounted on the car with wood scraps, then sealing the lid and lighting the wood through a hole at the bottom of the canister. The engine vacuum worked to keep the system hot and help turn the wood into a type of natural gas.

This type of natural gas is actually a combination of several gases including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane. Wood gas or syn-gas has a long history starting with the industrial revolution.

The originating technology came from coal gas also known as town gas which was developed in 1795 in France, by Philippe Lebon and in England, by William Murdock. This is what lit the rapidly developing cities of the 19th and 20th century. These Power and Light Districts eventually converted to electricity starting in the late 1890's.

In the 1870's the Otto Engine was patented. This new internal combustion engine started displacing steam engines as stationary motive power. The late 19th century engines primarily ran on various forms of wood or coal gas, as gasoline was still in its infancy.

Gasoline quickly grew as the primary fuel for automobiles around the world in the 20th century as the price was low and fueling stations appeared making it the easy choice. Diesel fuel followed shortly after as it was even more efficient for larger trucks.

Many reasons came together to bring this outdated tech back for a brief period in the late 30's to early 40's. Used primarily in European countries but also other areas such as Japan, Australia, and the South America found a real need for these devises.

Fuel embargoes and rationing left hundreds of thousands of people unable to travel, so individuals and companies started building and attaching gasifiers to their cars as a way to operate their cars without gasoline. The power was not as strong as gasoline and they required daily maintenance but they did get the job done. A lot of innovation went into these devices and they started becoming quite useful.

As soon as the war ended these units where disassembled and thrown away, making original units very rare. People where happy to return to gasoline, as gasoline reentered the markets.

Below are some examples of vehicles powered by these devices:

They had races to show how well they could perform.

It was not just cars and trucks powered by gasification in a time when gas was in short supply. They strapped these things to tillers, motorcycle and even tanks.

I doubt we will ever again see systems like this deployed in mass. Though I have seen a renewed interest in making modern gasification systems for individual use and this trend might increase in popularity. If done responsibly we could reduce our use of gasoline and diesel in several applications for a more environmental approach. I have become so impressed with human ingenuity in times of hardship. I think this is truly a fascinating combination of history and science.

Over the years I have collected a ton of general info and pictures. If you would like me to share more about this tech please let me know in the comments below.