Ready Tribe: Cool DIY Video: Free Gasoline from Wood, Plastic or Trash

We’ve all probably thought about finding ways to get gasoline more cheaply. For me, it was the last time I filled up my car. But what is your plan for fuel when SHTF? Does your bug-out location have an underground fuel tank to meet your needs long-term? Probably not, right?

Of course, depending upon the type of disaster, many roads may be impassible, yet having gasoline or other fuels on hand for running a generator, a chain saw or other equipment would be part of a well thought out plan. But what if there is no gasoline available? In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, New York and New Jersey were still rationing gasoline for weeks afterward. What if I told you that you could generate an ongoing free supply of gasoline from wood or other organic materials or even from plastic?

The process is called gasification and involves applying high heat to a fuel source while minimizing the oxygen available and a clean burning fuel gas called syngas or synthetic gas is generated (think natural gas or propane rather than gasoline). In this case, a useful byproduct of the gasification process is fuel oil that can be substituted for gasoline.

Incredibly, there have been several times through history that vehicles have operated using wood burning gasification process burning the syngas. Wood-powered vehicles were used heavily during World War II when fuel rationing was common and are still manufactured to this day in German, China and Korea. Among the benefits of “wood gas” are that it provides a nearly limitless supply of fuel and the fact that it burns more efficiently than petroleum fuel. Additionally, both the gas (syngas) that is generated and the liquid fuel can be used to power internal combustion engines.

In this video, Mr. Teslonian demonstrates how to create bio fuel through a gasification process whereby the fuel (wood in this case) is converted into high grade gasoline using inexpensive items that you could easily assemble to generate your own free gasoline. While the one demonstrated is a stationary gasification unit, you could also convert your vehicle to run on syngas using a vehicle-mounted unit. He also has a DIY video series on how to do that. If you’d like to learn more about wood gasification and how to generate syngas, you can find more information as well as free plans here.