How to operate a car in conditions of fuel shortage, a thousand kilometers from the nearest gas station? It’s very simple – just throw some wood in the tank and go. Stop! What tank? What kind of firewood?
History of gas-powered cars
Cars using wood (gas) gas as fuel began to appear in the 1930s, before World War II. The development of gas-generating vehicles was carried out both in the USSR and abroad, in many European countries. Wood gas is a product of combustion of organic materials (wood, charcoal briquettes, peat briquettes).
To operate on this type of fuel, cars naturally required special equipment. It consisted of a hopper into which fuel was loaded almost to the top, a cooling block, coarse and fine filters, as well as an air mixer before being supplied to the engine. The classic gasoline engine required almost no modification to operate the gas mixture.
Even in pre-war times, Soviet designers created various types of equipment using gas generator fuel. These were not only trucks, but also tractors, buses and even water transport. However, the most famous gas-generating vehicles in the country were the mass-produced GAZ-42 and ZIS-21.
GAZ-42
The GAZ-42 car is a gas-generating modification of the legendary GAZ-AA lorry produced by the Gorky Automobile Plant. This car, produced in 1938-1950, used wooden logs as fuel. Engine power was 35-38 hp. pp., load capacity - 1 ton.
The gas generator unit was also produced at GAZ; its weight was 250 kg.
Another gas generator version of the GAZ-AA was the GAZ-43, which ran on coal. This modification was distinguished by the smaller dimensions of the gas generator unit and was produced in small batches in 1938-1941.
There was also a gas-cylinder version of the GAZ-AA using compressed gas. It was called GAZ-44. Gas cylinders were located under the cargo platform. 60 cubic meters of compressed gas were stored in six cylinders. The weight of the gas installation was 420 kg. Gas equipment was produced by the Kuibyshev Carburetor Plant. The average mileage of a car without replenishing gas reserves depended on the type of fuel and was 150 km on coke oven gas and lamp gas, 200 km on synthesis gas, 300 km on methane. The car was produced in small quantities in 1939.
ZIS-21
The ZIS-21 was a standard ZIS-5 truck equipped with a gas generator, which were manufactured at the Moscow Kometa plant. The total mass of the gas generator unit was 440 kg. The height of the gas generator tank (hopper) is 1360 mm, diameter is 502 mm. The weight of fuel in the bunker is 80 kg.
Wooden logs, briquettes made from shavings and sawdust, sawing waste, coal and peat briquettes, and even pine cones could serve as fuel for the gas generating unit.
The car had a 6 liter 5,5-cylinder in-line engine with a power of 73 hp. With. On wood gas, the power dropped to 50 hp. s., but this was reflected in speed, not load capacity.
The maximum speed on gasoline was 60 km/h, on wood gas - 48 km/h. The car could carry 2,5 thousand tons of cargo, minus the fuel supply. One charge of the bunker was enough for 60-100 km of run, depending on the type of wood being charged.
Woodworkers
During the Great Patriotic War, in conditions of an acute shortage of fuel, which was primarily sent to the front, gas generator trucks fully contributed to the cause of the great Victory. The use of a gas generator unit had many disadvantages - a reduction in mileage at one gas station, a decrease in the vehicle's carrying capacity, a decrease in engine power, but all of them were more than offset by the main advantage of such a car - the ability to operate autonomously on practically free fuel. It was these trucks that were the main transport of the rear, transporting goods in agriculture, logging and other industries, industrial enterprises of the fighting country.
During the pre-war and war years, when gas-generating vehicles were most actively used, about 34 thousand GAZ gas-generating trucks and more than 16 thousand ZIS gas-generating equipment were produced in the USSR.
On the other side of the front
In Germany, and in Europe as a whole, gas-powered vehicles were widely used during the Second World War. Thus, in Germany, gas-generating cars were produced by the Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz concerns. In Europe, not only trucks, but also passenger cars were massively equipped with gas generator units.
After the end of World War II, both the USSR and European countries began to gradually abandon the use of gas generator technology. In subsequent years, gas-generating cars were most often the fruit of the labor of skilled car enthusiasts. Today, wood gas technology is used on a relatively large scale only in North Korea.
Information provided Russian Automotive Market Research
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