There is a lot of information on the net about the process of coverting wood or other forms of biomass to carbon monoxide for fuel. The more I read on it, the more exciting it seems to me.
People are actually using this means of powering generators, operating pumps, powering vehicles and so forth. It was a not uncommon means of powering vehicles during WWII.
At least at first glance, it appears using gasification methods, one could produce electric, or operate water pumps, two very critical things, at a mere fraction of the cost of doing so with other off grid means. To, it seems a cord of wood, properly prepared, might produce far more heat this way.
Most exciting about this old technology is it is within the financial means of many of us who cannot, otherwise, afford power production through [expensive] solar or wind systems.
As happens often, reading upon one thing leads to other things of interest. For example, individuals are running gasifiers off charcol they make. As many know, charcol has a number of valuable uses, fuel and filteration being primary ones. It appears making quantities of charcol requires nothing more than cooking wood, without allowing oxyen to get to it (activated charcol is charchol cooked at higher temps to fracture it, giving it more surace area to trap pollutants).
Below are links, some of them quite good, on building and using gasifiers:
http://sites.google.com/site/dicksfoundry/Home/dasifier
http://gekgasifier.pbworks.com/How-to-B ... K-Gasifier
http://gekgasifier.com/forums/
http://gekgasifier.pbworks.com/How-to-B ... K-Gasifier
http://woodgas.googlepages.com/home