Gas-Engines and Producer-Gas Plants / A Practice Treatise Setting Forth the Principles of Gas-Engines and Producer Design, the Selection and Installation of an Engine, Conditions of Perfect Operation, Producer-Gas Engines and Their Possibilities, the Care of Gas-Engines and Producer-Gas Plants, with a Chapter on Volatile Hydrocarbon and Oil Engines

by Rodolphe Edgard Mathot

When the engines are fed with producer-gas the parts which have just been described should be frequently inspected and cleaned; for they are only too easily fouled.

Engines thus governed should be run at high pressure

so as to insure the ignition of the producer-gas mixtures formed when the position of the cam corresponds with the minimum opening of the gas-valve. Powerful governors should be employed, capable of overcoming the resistance offered by the cylindrical valve or the cam.

It may often happen that variations in the load of the engine render it necessary to actuate the air valve, so as to obtain a mixture which will be ignited and exploded under the best possible conditions.

3. Mixture Constant in Quality and Variable in Quantity.—In supplying an engine with a mixture constant in quality and variable in quantity, the compression does not remain constant. The quantity of mixture drawn in by the cylinder may even be so far reduced that the pressure drops below the point at which ignition takes place. For that reason engines of this type should be run at high pressures.

The variation of the quantity of mixture may be effected in various ways. The simplest arrangement consists in mounting a butterfly-valve in the mixture pipe, which valve is controlled by the governor and throttles the passage to a greater or lesser degree. A very striking solution of the problem consists in varying the opening of the mixture-valve itself. To attain this end the valve is moved by levers. The point of application of one of these levers is displaced under the action of the governor so as to vary the travel of the valve within predetermined limits. Under these conditions a mixture of constant homogeneity is introduced

into the cylinder, so proportioned as to insure ignition even at low pressures.

Fig. 76a.—Governing system for producer-gas engines.

In recent experiments conducted by the author it was proved that with this governing system ignition still takes place even though the pressure has dropped to 43 pounds per square inch. This system has the merit of rendering it possible to employ ordinary governors of moderate size, since the resistance to be overcome at the point of application of the lever is comparatively small. In the accompanying illustration the Otto Deutz system is illustrated.