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Non Steam Discussions
Re: Pyrolysis chamber - 13 years ago
Hello Andrew, I am curious about what fuel you are using. What kinds of contamination are there? Organic compounds, like PCBs or PBBs, or metals like used lubricants or cutting oils? We have strict emission regulations about such chemicals and their burning. Are you checking what is in that white smoke? Your project looks interesting, good luck Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Steam vs Electric - 13 years ago
I had some discussions with Eaton Corp about their hydraulic hybrid system for weight reduction of the accumulators, the heart of the system. The prototype UPS truck was made with a carbon fiber accumulator shell, which allowed a max pressure of 7000psi. Then the UPS accountants found out what that cost, and after a few heart attacks they told Eaton to use their largest production unit, which isby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Steam vs Electric - 14 years ago
Jeremy, I'm interested in your MHD work. Some very promising development was done back in the 60's and 70's by Avco and the Soviets, but the main problem was the very corrosive/erosive environment. The beasts basically ate themselves. Nowdays there are ceramics and intermetallics that are conductive and very hard, so that problem could be tackled. The real question is how do you get anyoneby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Steam vs Electric - 14 years ago
Graeme, I'm not sure what your background is, mine is pure grubby engineering. I have been interested in alternative energy since Carter was messing things up. The hydrogen programs are a huge waste of time and effort, and their principal purpose is to be a unattainable goal and a stall. By having this ultimate goal out there, DOE can get large appropriations and employ lots of high end bureaucby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Steam vs Electric - 14 years ago
Every one I met at Tesla is now gone, either quit or fired. I think they are on their fourth management team. Elon Musk is now demonstrating how you make a small fortune in the electric car industry: start with a big fortune. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Steam vs Electric - 14 years ago
FyI, I was at a week-long DOE meeting in Confusion-on-the-Potomac a few weeks ago. They were reviewing some of the current projects they are backing with corporate America, for transportation and hydrogen. To give you an idea of the scale and cost, they were providing a catered lunch each day, for over 1000 attendees, at a Marriott in the Embassy Row area of Washington. Each meal was a seriousby TH - SteamStuff
Re: A few thoughts on existing and potential energy sources. - 14 years ago
Scott, An excellent summary. The greenies like to ignore problems like soil depletion. I live near a lot of empty fields that used to grow cotton. Now they grow weeds and not much else. The greenies seem to be incapable of understanding dynamic systems. Greenhouses routinely raise CO2 levels because it speeds plant growth. So why won't that happen in the outside? Answer, it does, theby TH - Miscellaneous Technical
Re: Jay Leno and Steam - 14 years ago
Jim, I know we are a bit off-topic, but one more thing I forgot to mention. There's an outfit called Lakeside Engineering, makes space heaters in Chicago and China. They have pulled some work back to Chicago because their Chinese plant caused a recall. The chief engineer a few years back said if it was his call, he would pull ALL the work back, because then he wouldn't have to worry about itby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Jay Leno and Steam - 14 years ago
Jim, Some interesting tidbits I picked up about China. The Asian Tigers like Korea and Malaysia use China, but they use them like the Mexican border factories. They make all the precision parts, then send them to China for assembly grunt work. Also, a few years ago American die shops were buying work from the Chinese shops. What they got was fine to start with, until you had to do maintenaby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Hello new guy here - 14 years ago
Welcome. BTW, there is no such thing as a stupid question. There are plenty of stupid answers, and most of us have given at least one of those in the past. Ask away. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
One of the interesting points is whether a low-cost low-tech solution will end up better than a high-tech high-cost one. Simple ponds, or even better open swamps will probably not yield as much oil, but the total return might be better than a high startup cost tube complex. For now I still think either one will work better than solar. Solar is starting to look better on first costs, but the kiby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Subaru Justy 3-cyl = Steamer? - 14 years ago
Ken FYI, there's a hybrid design out there that is a lot like your proposal. The company is Bright Automotive, and they are pushing a front-drive ICE, rear axle electric van. Didn't get DOE funding, and I'm not sure they will survive long, but a pretty good idea. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
Jeremy, Not to rain on your parade, but Changing World, the company that was pushing this technology filed Chapter 11 last year. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
My offhand comments about putting an algae plant next to a stockyard has got me thinking. The chicken plants are always getting flack for runoff, and all those capons and pullets put out a significant amount of CO2. Piping the ventilation exhaust through the ponds/pipes should not be hard to arrange, also the waste products. They tend to be away from cities, so room for the algae works should bby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
In 2003 New Jersey Transit announced plans to reopen a rail line to Northeast Pennsylvania that Conrail abandoned. The main need was to put back 28 miles of track on an existing right of way. The railroad took 4 years to design and build the line over a century ago. NJT has just started the first 5 miles, and has no timeline to actually finish the project. Government in action. Or shouldby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
There's the problem, Jeremy. Stop and consider what a square mile of those tubes would cost to set up and maintain... and you would need hundreds of square miles to make any significant inroads into the market. If the tubes cost $2 a running food, that's $55 million in just the tubes. Plumbing, land and processing machinery would be comparable, so you are looking at 100 million for a one mile sby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
On one hand, I like the concept of algae. Low effort, the stuff grows like crazy under the right circumstances, and little to no unpleasant byproducts from the manufacturing. The question i have is economy of scale. A while back someone posted a note about how an area smaller than West Virginia could supply all the oil needed for the country. Sounds good, until you think that's about 22,000 sqby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
I'm working with some of the new electric vehicle outfits on weight reduction programs. I would love to see Cyclone get some of this work (I'm a stockholder) but zero emissions means just that. Doesn't matter if it makes any sense, it's the government.by TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
Jim, Speaking of government mandates, Defense has been ordered by the nitwits in Congress to buy straight electrics for the military motor pool. The only thing that comes close now it the Gem, a glorified golf cart. No one has a design for an electric F150 that can do 75 MPH Tom.by TH - SteamStuff
Re: Doble book by Jim Crank - 14 years ago
Jim, It sounds like you have a decent quantity of probable customers, but need to get over the funding hump. Since it's always easier to get money when you already have it, try this idea. Go to all the probable markets, like us and those collectors, and announce you are taking deposits for the first edition press run. Put an initial price around $110 on it, so you can cover the smallest presby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Doble book by Jim Crank - 14 years ago
Jim, Not to be too nosy, but how much money are we talking? Thousands, tens or Hundreds of thousands? I know MIT Press can print a single book and sell it for less than $50 once the layout is done, but it's a paperback with no cover art, and that's a small textbook size. What size press run do you plan on? Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
Ken, Great minds think alike. I spoke with two electric truck companies at the Washington Auto Show last month. It looks like the Post Office will be the great tryout experiment for EVs. It does fit their strong suit well; regular routes, short distances, and if needed a central location that can swap batteries like fork trucks. There is a group of trucks they set up as trial hybrids a fewby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Ford Walters record car - 14 years ago
Peter, your mileage numbers from the Seventies reminded me of a talk I heard at the SAE congress a few years ago about the Golf, better known here as the Rabbit. The author described how the original one from the mid 70's got 41 MPG. It was also a deathtrap in an accident. The car got that great mileage because it only weighed 1740 pounds. By the late 80's it was a bit less of a deathtrap, anby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Cyclone engine topic continued 2 - 14 years ago
Bill, you have mentioned how natural gas is a scarce resource. My house is sitting on the Barton Shale in North Texas. They've known the shale was full of natural gas for decades, but it was impossible to extract it because shale is not a porous rock. Thanks to modern techniques that fracture the rock in place, that formation is probably heating some of your homes this winter. It's so large thby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Modern Uniflow Steam Engine - 14 years ago
Sorry, the URL did not post http://vaporlocomotive.com/by TH - SteamStuff
Re: Modern Uniflow Steam Engine - 14 years ago
It looks like Skinner is defunct. The machinery manufacturing side went to a rubber equipment maker, and the steam parts inventory was bought by an outfit called Vapor Locomotive Company in Idaho. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Steam Tractors - 14 years ago
Brian, I visited the site for the African steam tractor project. I noticed two things. None of the people involved are actually in Africa, and no one seems to be doing work to reduce the premise to a functional machine. All the postings are at least a year old. This seems like a very good, simple way to improve farming in Africa, but I see little chance that anything significant will come fby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Steam Tractors - 14 years ago
I vaguely remember a posting about some European charity that was looking at a steam tractor for third world economies. The idea was to use weeds and other biomass as fuel, getting away from oil. Did a quickie search but could not find it, anyone else remember it? Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: FUELS - 15 years ago
Magnesium is produced by electrolysis of seawater. VERY energy intensive process. It's a lousy fuel for cost.by TH - SteamStuff
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo - 15 years ago
Parts of the article Bill linked to are a bit deceptive. There would be a good market for urban police cars and taxis with this system. Auto companies are not working on hydraulic hybrids for the same reason they have been coming up with the cobbled-together Rube Goldberg contraptions on the market now. They are used to designing around the traditional engine-transmission-driveshaft system, andby TH - SteamStuff