External combustion chamber

[JW]

Hi All,

Here is some footage of the cornburner that I have been working on all these years. The unit is burning corn in the videos. This unit will burn any pelletized fuel. This is one of the earlier generation burners, its "manual feed". The later generation burners are fully automated, and much more refined than the one that you see there.

http://flashsteamvideo.com/watch_video.php?v=87f1e6f33fe2ff5

anyhow have a look and enjoy.

JW

[JW]

Here's a better link for the video-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKDSX3lMasw

In the next couple weeks im going to film this at night/dark, so you can see the blue flame more easily. The daylight drowns most of it out, althou you can see it if you look close at 0:55

Im still messing around with the flashsteamvideo.com site. For now I just cant beat youtubes performance for displaying video's.

Best

JW

[JW]

Hi All,

Not sure if you guys are aware, I have been working on this page of my site, it features an engine animation for the external combustion engine.

http://www.flashsteam.com/steam_proj3.htm

There's been alot of changes made in the last coupla months to this page. Its now in a semi-final state, you always find things to add after, but im pretty happy with it for now. The page was made in order to more easily understand the engine cycle (4-Cycle Steam).

Been thinking about this alot lately, I feel the main advantage to this engine design is ease of use for the operator, and a basic elimination of boiler controls. So the engine is not classified as a rankine cycle and does not utilize a traditional boiler or pressurized storage vessel. It's a true flash steam engine.

It took about a year for me to make the animation from scratch, Cad drawings to Gif frames, then color and script controls to change the speed of the animation, I did have help with the animation controls. The page is basically done now and I was wondering what you guys think.

JW

[wdyasq]

JW,

Interesting .... I worked with some White Automotive steam boilers years back. ~300 Lf of tubing would be welded together then wound into a coil. This would be heated by a naphtha/gasoline mixture and was controlled by a cast-iron/copper valving system.

White actually built more steam cars from 1900 to 1910 than Stanley in a much longer time frame. They also recaptured exhaust heat and had provisions to 'pre-heat' the motor before using to increase efficiency. For 1900 to 1910 it was a fairly sophisticated system.

https://www.surpluscenter.com/  has some augers for feeding corn to a stove.

Good luck,
Ron

[JW]

Hi Ron,

 Glad to see you made it over to the new board. Thanks for the comment.

Jeremy

[bob golding]

JW,

Interesting .... I worked with some White Automotive steam boilers years back. ~300 Lf of tubing would be welded together then wound into a coil. This would be heated by a naphtha/gasoline mixture and was controlled by a cast-iron/copper valving system.



Good luck,
Ron

hi ron, some not far from me has a couple of white steam cars. he  takes one of them to rallies. saw it on the road  just the other day. lovely machine. his name is dr dykes newbridge cornwall uk if you want to investigate further.

[JW]

Speaking of the White steamer.

(here's some shameless advertising)

Im also a member of this group-

http://www.steamautomobile.com/lcc/index.htm

some interesting references

The Steam Automobile Bulletin
Volume 24 Number 4   July - August, 2010

http://steamautomobile.com/phorum5214/read.php?1,15630

Also, I remember Jim Crank speaking about doing an article about "The White Flowmotor Control System" also VERY informative. Its in SACA Bulletin issue-
Volume 24, Number 3    May - June, 2010

You have to be an actual SACA member the recieve the Bulletin in the mail, I think its worth it. Stuff thats printed in the bulletin is way different than the forum.


This is the system with the Quartz control rod, I believe.
-edit-There was also the waterman system, one of the two, used a bronze expansion rod, I get this mixed up sometimes, Doble and White-

JW

[bob golding]

a link to dr bob dykes 1908 white steam car.

http://www.steamcar.net/art-white-model-l.html

[JW]

Here are some Cad Drawings I released today, figure this will give you guys a better idea of what im working on. This is a pellet burner that I have designed. This design is pat-pend since june 2010. Im still not quite sure how im going to get these in production, although im working on it.






JW

[12AX7]

JW...


*YIKES*

A few years ago I got a Pellet Stove bug.  Looked at a number of them, and looking at how they were built and their price.   Compared many makes and models,  decided I could build my own.
Started collecting materials and that's as far as I've gotten.

What I saw/thought was that there was room for improvement in the area of the burn pot/chamber.
Is your lined with a fire brick?

Between the "pellet feed delivery/control"  and "air flow/combustion/control"  I got bogged down on how the two need to tie together. 

Now you add superheated steam to the problem and ...  *yikes*

Many (many) years ago I spent some time running an old furniture factory boiler.  IIRC it ran at 160psi   Superheated steam pressure runs much higher, right?

I like your video, sometimes sounded like corn popping!

Good luck!  and keep a fire extinguisher handy!

ax7
Mark

[JW]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the encouragement 

The area that holds the pellets (fuelpile) has no firebrick. I was able to get away from that with good air-flow entering the combustion chamber, the burner grate is actually cooled by the incoming air. Its a fairily tricky design but only produces about less than 1% ash.

Superheated steam does not necessarily have to have much pressure at all. Any steam that has a temperature above 212*f is considered superheated. For example steam that is 500*f and 15psi is superheated. Supercritical steam is at high pressure.

Between the "pellet feed delivery/control"  and "air flow/combustion/control"  I got bogged down on how the two need to tie together.

Yes, combustion controls can be very difficult to manage, Ive spent about 17 years on this particular design. Basic controls are an auger that has a timer control (runs for set time to fill the combustion chamber), and I use a fiber-optic sensor to trigger the fueling cycle. It looks at the fuel pile and determines when refueling is needed. Applying air is very tricky as well, I use an afterburner to burn any unburt combustion products, so this design is especially clean burning. The combustion dynamics are based on both forced and natural convection. Using these systems the unit can run continuously automatically, without much operator interaction. I make steam with a unit simular to the drawing but its manual feed, same one you see in the video.

JW

[DaS Energy]

Hello JW

Just watched your external combustion chamber, you are no slouch when it comes to thinking.

Being an old steam man, perhaps a loose hood (fitted above to allow air gap) to direct the exhaust heat stream back through the fire box may lift its temperature.

Cheers

Peter

[JW]

Hi Peter,

Being an old steam man, perhaps a loose hood (fitted above to allow air gap) to direct the exhaust heat stream back through the fire box may lift its temperature.

Im guessing you are refering to a type of EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation). My thinking about this, is that, doing such, may lower combustion stream temperature, if only for dilution reasons CO, CO2. It is desirable to maintain combustion stream temperatures below 2500 degrees fahrenheit, since this will lower NOX emissions, that cause SMOG. Anything you can do to reduce combustion temp under 2500*f is good.


JW