For the last month I have been building a wood gasifier for my truck. The technology has been around for over a hundred years. With gasoline prices going through the roof, I figured I could build one in my spare time, out of junk and drive for next to free if it all works out. So far it is almost ready for a test fire but I have yet to build the secondary fine filter. Wood gasification was enhanced during the second world war when the fuel embargos/shortages were in Europe. Thousands of vehicles were switched over and the design is generally the same as today. There are very few people running wood in north america.
The process is simple. Control the air to a hot fire, pipe the incomplete combustion gasses to the motor and control the air mixture as it enters. The gasses produced for the purpose of combustion are hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some methane. The power of the motor is cut to 75% or so do to the lower btu content compared to gasoline but the price is right. Its all experimental build your own at this point. My gasifier should be able to burn any biomass with some modifications but the design is for small wood chunks/chips.
If your interested in the design/concept. Google "woodgas" "holzgas" or "gengas" and check it out. There is a large group of experimenters on Yahoo groups they post trials and tribulations of thier work.
You will see more posting of my work on this as the flying season ends.
