STEAM Power

[urbanfarmer]

Yep, you read that right. I know steam power has been making a comeback in recent years, but has anyone tried or? By the end of the year I plan to build a small turbine powered by steam, which will be powered by either fuel pellets made in the backyard or a Fresnel lens. Using fire instead of a magnified beam of sun would work well to heat a greenhouse in the winter and it would increase CO2, which can be eaten up by the plants (studies have shown that plants grow bigger and faster at 5x the normal CO2 concentration, but get poisoned much beyond that... If I remember my number correctly anyway).

[McStylee]

Wow this is cool. Can you elaborate I would love to use this in our community development project check out our website and tell me what you think
www.bengula-project.org (http://www.bengula-project.org)

[urbanfarmer]

I will update my first post with a simple diagram soon. I checked your website, and I will do what I can to help you.

[urbanfarmer]

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/1035/steampower.jpg (http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/1035/steampower.jpg)

So, this is one way to do it without having to burn fuel, but it's a lot more complicated if you try to do it on a large scale. It also takes more labor because someone has to come in and adjust the Fresnel lens pretty often.


Water container is heated to boiling by solar energy or burning something
Steam goes via a pipe to the steam engine
Steam engine turns the electric generator
You have created steam power!


You can also use the mechanical energy from the steam engine directly if you have a need. This way, you lose less energy to conversion and can do more work.

Charcoal or wood are great sources of free renewable fuel. You can even use natural gasses if they are cheap, but this will likely cost more than using electricity from your local electric company.

If you have a lot of local people with not a lot to do, you could set up some bicycles with generators on them. You could then make everyone come in and peddle for 15 minutes to an hour. With enough bicycles, that 1 hour could be enough to charge your battery for the day or the week! There are so many options, but steam power seems to be a good semi-low-tech way to go.

Feel free to ask questions or if I didn't make sense I can try again, LOL

[badflash]

Good luck with that. On paper it looks good, but show me someone that has done it.

For small scale you are much more likely to succeed with a hot air sterling engine. These have been around for over 100 years and are pretty low tech. Pressure steam and turbines are very expensive to build.

[Brier]

Are you looking to build a huge fresnal lens? It will take a lot to produce enough steam to even drive a model airplane sized steam engine. I think you would do much better exploring wood fired engines. I don't know much about this, but this is my guess.

The Stirling engine would be a much more efficient design for use with a limited heat source like a lens. Does not waste all of that heat, and water. It would be very neat to see a system like this in action.

Might think about just using steam or water for supplemental heat. This is very doable, and is a great way to heat a greenhouse. Might not need that in Florida though.

[urbanfarmer]

I'm not going to build this. PV solar cells are far better sources for renewable energy. Hydroelectric or wind power would be good too if I had good flowing water or air around. For the most part, it's still way cheaper for me to tap into the grid and pay for that than any alternative energy sources I have researched. The batteries in renewable power arrays are what turn me off to them. Not only are they expensive, they are far worse for the environment than CO2 emissions. Just distill your own ethanol and run a generator off renewable fuels. Biodiesel works too :-)

I believe this would be the easiest system for him in Africa. The fuel source could be harvested locally or byproducts from his aquaponic systems could be used. The steam can be captured and used for drinking water. The steam turbine can be built with minimal tools. I have not seen conversion ratios, but I recall reading that the Sterling engine had trouble creating anywhere as much power as a steam turbine or engine.

"Because the turbine generates rotary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to drive an electrical generator – about 80% of all electricity generation in the world is by use of steam turbines." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_turbine

[urbanfarmer]

Wow this is cool. Can you elaborate I would love to use this in our community development project check out our website and tell me what you think
http://www.bengula-project.org
What did you end up doing?

[swamp creek farms]

Here is an idea I am working on. Trying to build a magnetic motor that will hook up to the water wheel, turbine, what ever I find that works better. Been tinkering with this for a few months. Maybe one of these days this winter I will get it working.

I'm thinking of charging a few batteries from this system. Just to create it's own power, not running my house or anything from it. Just an air pump, and maybe a water pump. I made a mini hydro electric generator from some crap parts laying around to test the idea. I can get 40 VAC from the tiny model. I think that motor may have been from a dishwasher or something like that. The motor I'm building now is 4 phase, 400 volts. It will be a monster, hopefully will do the job and more.

[urbanfarmer]

Here is an idea I am working on. Trying to build a magnetic motor that will hook up to the water wheel, turbine, what ever I find that works better. Been tinkering with this for a few months. Maybe one of these days this winter I will get it working.

I'm thinking of charging a few batteries from this system. Just to create it's own power, not running my house or anything from it. Just an air pump, and maybe a water pump. I made a mini hydro electric generator from some crap parts laying around to test the idea. I can get 40 VAC from the tiny model. I think that motor may have been from a dishwasher or something like that. The motor I'm building now is 4 phase, 400 volts. It will be a monster, hopefully will do the job and more.
Is this one of those fancy perpetual motion machines I have heard so much of? :D

From your post I assumed you had a creek or river or something to spin the hydroelectric turbine, but from the picture it looks like you have the turbine in a closed system where the water pumps up then as it falls it spins the turbine. Is this correct?

[swamp creek farms]

correct...

create your own river, similar to a waterfall / creek in a landscape design.

[urbanfarmer]

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but the cost of building this system far outweigh the benefits... I mean it's a neat project for fun, but you are maybe recovering 5% to 10% of the energy used. Your battery will lose its charge and never return! A solar panel is better or hook up your motor to a bicycle and cycle each day to charge what it needs for the day!!! :mrgreen:

[Brier]

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but the cost of building this system far outweigh the benefits... I mean it's a neat project for fun, but you are maybe recovering 5% to 10% of the energy used. Your battery will lose its charge and never return! A solar panel is better or hook up your motor to a bicycle and cycle each day to charge what it needs for the day!!! :mrgreen:
Good to see you are learning grasshopper. Nothing is for free. :D

[swamp creek farms]

All I have is time . Everything is from stuff laying around, or recycled.

[urbanfarmer]

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but the cost of building this system far outweigh the benefits... I mean it's a neat project for fun, but you are maybe recovering 5% to 10% of the energy used. Your battery will lose its charge and never return! A solar panel is better or hook up your motor to a bicycle and cycle each day to charge what it needs for the day!!! :mrgreen:
Good to see you are learning grasshopper. Nothing is for free. :D
:mrgreen:


All I have is time . Everything is from stuff laying around, or recycled.
Well sir... all I ask is you take us lots of pictures then!!! :D

[dennis]

you mention wood heat for green house i just did another post on this, hey just an idea but if you need heat and consider wood, research and check out " thermal mass wood stove's " or russian stove or fireplace, it is the best design i have ever seen for burning and using heat from wood it uses thermal mass, this is old proven tech tons of proof and the exhaust is much cleaner burns around 90 some percent effecient one fast burning fire per day and heat for next 24 hours, the basic of how it works , narrow fire box with a second chamber on top where the smoke is mixed with outside air it will ignite and burn i think it was 2000 degrees heats the thermal mass , in greenhopuse this is dry dirt.
also check out thermass underground house they use styrofoam with water barrier to keep dirt dry and the heat from house over a years time heats tons of dirt to reach stable temp, in one such house NO heat beyond cooking , lights, and body heat was required none zero!

[badflash]

We actually have a section of the forum for that. See SHCS...How It's Done..! (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?51-SHCS-How-It-s-Done-!)