For the one-off guy or gal in the deep woods, with many hectares of free wood, this might be an interesting side-line diversion from boredom.
It's a very interesting process and unique enough to incite intrigue in any gearhead. But ....
It'd never work for the rest of us in the modern world for the following reasons:
- the soot exhaust byproduct it produces dwarfs the allowable particulate matter limit that any three-letter agency would approve of
- the "efficiency" is horrible; well below any other common fuel source
- the source (firewood) is not nearly renewable enough for en-mass scale application; trees would never grow as fast as needed for large population
- the gas-density mixing requirement would cause lean/rich burns, which in turn would cause huge fluctuations in the environmentally evil toxic gases (CO, CO2, NOx, ... unless we could somehow develop a computer-controlled burn cycle ...)
- the fuel has to be fed at a reasonably steady rate; you can't get hundreds of miles of "drive time" off one load of wood for the average gas hopper size. Sure, you could upsize the hopper, but then you have a massive ballast you'd be dragging around (this won't fit in the trunk of your average car)
- the fuel hopper has to be constantly fed for even a remote hope of a moderately steady gas rate. Note in the video they mention a person constantly feeds the hopper; this ain't a one-man show.
- the "start up" of these isn't quick; you don't just jump in and go
- the power-density is awful; say goodbye to quick acceleration or towing heavy loads
- etc ...
It's really cool to see, and would be fun to experience in person. But it's just an anecdotal trip down memory lane and nothing more.
