Adding a second engine for steam.

i am not sure if this has bin thought of but probably so just bare with me. i was watching the videos of demonstrating how a gasifier could heat a home and run a engine. the pipe in between was hot enough to circulate throw out a house to add heat. i was thinking you could run to generators one from the gas and another one from the heat that is made from gasification to power a steam engine. i saw a supercharger and thought i could combined the 2 to make even more electricity. i am not sure the best way to heat the water but could you put it around the gasifier and cap it only making it possible to go threw a hydro generator spinning the turbine? Or have the steam turn it i mean. If it is around the gasifier might explode, need a gauge or release valve for safety reasons. or you could add many generators to the long pipe to generate steam to turn the turbine. the steam could be in a loop which keeps on turning the turbine just like if it went threw the house in small tubes.it would come back to the main heat source turning back into steam to turn the pistons or generator. might be easier then using the water that goes threw the generator to make hydrogen to be feed back into the generator. I just believe the heat can be used instead of wasted. i hope to here some comments or ideas.
p.s. sorry about my ideas being all over the place.

Tags: gasifier, heat, steam

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by dreamer on April 5, 2009 at 11:33am: i just want to recycle the energy and re-use it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Marcos Buenijo on April 11, 2009 at 8:37pm: I've considered the same, but the problem is that there will not be much more electricity produced. Only a very efficient and low cost steam system would be cost-effective here, and these are not yet available. Check out my recent post on jet pump cooling for another way to use the wasted heat. Also consider space heating, water heating, absorption refrigeration, and water distillation.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by dreamer on April 11, 2009 at 8:45pm: Thanks for the feedback.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Marcos Buenijo on November 3, 2009 at 11:00am: Hey dreamer. I was just thinking again on other configurations for residential CHP. Consider the WHE biomass system that should be available in the near future. The best thing about this system is that it should be able to operate for extended periods at a low output, and this is ideal for making the most of the available energy. On that note, I see the inability of low power gasifier/IC engine systems to operate continually for extended periods as a huge disadvantage for residential CHP applications. So far I am convinced that only a steam engine operated at low speeds and low power can optimize the use of the available energy. Besides, it's much quieter.

ELECTRICITY: Operating a WHE at a one hp output for 24 hours straight will provide about 10 kwh of a/c electricity after losses are factored. This will consume about 100 pounds of dry biomass.

SPACE COOLING: After some consideration, I have been backing off of the idea for jet pump cooling. I believe whole heartedly that it is viable, but the problem is practicality. The more that I have looked into it the more of a pain in the ass it looks like it will be. The main problem is getting high efficiency in the jet pump, and the large size of the heat exchangers that will be required for high efficiency. But operating a more conventional refrigerant compressor with the WHE should be efficient. I estimate a coefficient of performance of about 0.35 with this approach. That is, for every 10,000 btu removed by the cooling system there should be about 28,500 btu of fuel consumed by the system (one hp output from the engine). Not bad, but the compressor would have to be driven mechanically by the WHE directly to get this efficiency.

WATER DISTILLATION: There is enough heat in the exhaust steam to generate nearly 50 gallons of distilled water each day when the WHE is operated at a rate of one hp continually. Send the distillate into a pressure tank to provide pressurized water to the home... these tanks are not terribly expensive. Water may be stored hot or cold as desired.

ON DEMAND WATER HEATING: There is enough heat in the exhaust steam from the WHE at a rate of one hp for 24 hours to raise the temperature of water by 30F at a rate of 1 gpm.

SPACE HEATING: Never a big problem if you have a steam engine running. Just use the heated air off of the condenser.

FUEL PROCESSING: Use a shredder and/or chipper to process the fuel. Use heat from the distillate condenser to dry the fuel batch to be used during the following day.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Renewablejohn on March 10, 2010 at 12:22pm: dreamer

This is basically what we are doing using a gasification system to run a gas engine generator and then the excess heat from the gasifier and the waste heat from the engine exhaust to heat thermal oil. Then by using a thermal oil steam evaporator we have steam on demand to run a steam engine and generate electricity.; ▶ Reply to This