Steam Generator

ThermalJake

....article from PM. It was emailed to me from a friend.

This is the link
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4213088.html?series=11

Newburgh, NY is right next to me.

Jake

Steamhead (in transit)

Cool!

nm

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Weezbo

excellent read*~/:)

The steam car and the electric car were all running side by side with the puddle jumper in my minds eye ...
thanks for the links

ttekushan_3

Future of steam engines

Having studied plenty of 19th century technical texts, what Jay says here rings true:

"Since neither of my engines came with its original operator's manual, I tracked down some old books about them. I started reading a manual from the 1860s. I figured, "Well, we're smarter than people were then." But it was just sooo complicated that I gave up after two pages. There's so much math and science involved. Engineers are engineers — no matter what the era. I'll bet that a good engineer from 200 years ago would blow the doors off your average guy from today. Back then, they had no computers or calculators to help them."

Hasn't this been our claim about the inestimably creative Dead Men?

The rotary steam engine is a new idea, no? NO. Note especially the Hult and the Tower Spherical engines: Rotary Steam Engines

Look at the latest advancement of the steam car (!?). Jay Leno has one of these too; It surpasses current and foreseeable California Emissions standards: Doble Steam Car Note its performance specs.

The Strange Triumph of Abner Doble

Its ironic that the steam engine is given such short shrift as a green solution via Trigeneration (heat+power+cooling). Steam engine advancements made possible by modern materials eliminates the lubrication problem. Decent efficiency results for real-world, modestly sized generating sets especially considering lowered maintenance, clean running and long service life.

Spilling Energie Systems

and of great interest too: Cyclone Power self contained radial steam engines

In trigeneration, nothing is wasted, so marginal differences in nominal generating efficiency numbers become less important since the waste is recovered.

Naturally the nascent residential and light commercial microCHP industry is going with Power Generation first, Heat Recovery second. Internal combustion engines (high maintenance when driven 24/7) or Brayton cycle turbines, like gas turbines (pretty good under constant load, but not any cleaner than internal combustion engines) generate electricity. Then the waste heat is used, if there's a use for it. The current microCHP generators are either expected to generate enough electricity to power air conditioning, in which case efficiency drops because there's nowhere to put all that heat (unless you introduce geothermal but this causes logistical problems for electric generation during heating cycles) or you must rely on the grid for air conditioning when the aging grid is at its most vulnerable - when the weather is hot and everyone's using air conditioning!

I think the industry's got it backwards. Here are some "heat first, power second" people I agree with: TurboSteam

This way, you only generate power when heat is needed (for heating or cooling-think micro trigeneration- I'll get to that in a moment). Furthermore, you can burn just about anything at any time. Using the grid is no big deal when no heat or cooling are required. So you generate steam to run what in practical terms is an ultra clean steam generator driving an advanced steam engine (double expansion, rotary, unaflow, whatever) using the heat for direct steam heating (isn't that a lovely idea?!!) or exchanged for hydronic or hydro-air.

This gives us several interesting opportunities like using absorption cooling (just wait till these get a bit smaller, although I'm impressed by the practical size of these units): Yazaki lithium bromide/water absorption coolers They work on low temp waste heat. And water is the refrigerant. The use of waste heat for cooling eliminates the need for drawing from the grid during peak hours, or eliminates the need for oversized generating equipment that scuttles efficiency the rest of the year. Sounds green to me.

So the sun's beating down and we're using that @#$&! boiler on a 100 degree day? No we're not! concentrating parabolic reflectors Generate steam in real time!

And round this out by using a boiler arrangement capable low temp or solar heat recovery (utilizing HRSB-heat recovery steam boiler)and you've got it made. If anyone knows of a company/university/government agency/industry association anywhere pushing this arrangement for the micro level, let me know. I've found nothing. Makes me wonder why.

Fascinating stuff, nonetheless. Thanks for posting about Leno's steam engine.

-Terry