Want to make energy please.

Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

<< < (2/3) > >>

Lew_Merrick_PE:

--- Quote from: DavidA on December 29, 2012, 10:56:47 AM ---Maybe a Savonious Rotor.

These operate at much lower speeds and start easily in a breeze.

You could make one out of a fifty gallon drum cut in half length-ways.
--- End quote ---

Actually, a Savonious system requires more base wind-speed than any well designed propeller type of turbine unless you go to fair extreme in managing your mass/mass-distribution (i.e. polar moments of inertia). The 55-gallon drum version is incredibly inefficient. Savonious tossed that together for the Red Army during WWII as a, If you are out in the middle of nowhere and you need wind-powered torque... suggestion. The armor divisions had plenty of 55-gallon drums lying about.

My ex-wife came across a copy of Igor Savonious' notebooks why studying in France back in the 1970's. She copied and translated them for me and I believe that my copy is the only English translation (now rather badly deteriorated) in existence. I have (successfully) built and installed three sets of various Savoneious turbines over the years. The ones I installed in Kotzebue (AK) back in the 70's worked the best because the issues was not available wind speed, it was surviving extremely high winds. The units were covered with a canister that had venturi inlet/outlet controls that maintained a (fairly) constant delta-pressure across the system and had the advantage of turning the whole thing into a vertical airfoil when wind speeds got too high.

If you are actually going to get anything resembling efficiency out of a Savonious-type of device, you need to exhaust your flows from the center of the unit, not pass them through. I wasted huge amounts of epoxy & glass cloth learning that aspect of them.

sparky961:
Lew:
Since you seem to be something of an expert on the subject, would there be a good reason not to build a Savonious Rotor with a horizontal axis? I think making the support structure could be simplified if oriented that way.

Also, what did you mean by exhausting out the center? Most designs I've looked at are open to the opposite side in the center (they overlap). Is that sufficient?

Maybe you can point to some information on an efficient design for one of these?

Thanks..

sparky961:
Boy, do I feel stupid... Ok, I know the reason why you wouldn't mount it horizontally. Wind direction.

Sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees... ;)

ieezitin:
Guys

Through my research so far coming from what’s been stated on another forum is that wood gasification maybe a viable option and pretty simple to boot.

I see the main two possibilities here, taking the syngas off for fuel and installing a Stirling engine on top capturing radiant heat.

Two questions: Would a IC engine need to have the syngas supplied to it under slight pressure if not what’s needed? A brief concept I just need to understand the process.

The Stirling, where can I find/buy plans to build an adequate size machine? Is there any particular model, concept and or style recommended?

A Savonious system is ok but this would kill a couple of birds with one stone.

The more I get involved in this the more interesting its becoming.

Anthony.

AdeV:

--- Quote from: ieezitin on December 30, 2012, 11:10:11 AM ---Through my research so far coming from what’s been stated on another forum is that wood gasification maybe a viable option and pretty simple to boot.

--- End quote ---

Hmm, not sure "simple" is how I'd describe it. It's also not a process that has so far lent itself well to automated control. Given the dangers of CO gas, and the constant nannying required to keep it working properly, it's not my favourite idea I must admit. Then again, as far as I know it's the only way to run an IC engine on wood...

--- Quote from: ieezitin on December 30, 2012, 11:10:11 AM ---
Two questions: Would a IC engine need to have the syngas supplied to it under slight pressure if not what’s needed? A brief concept I just need to understand the process.

--- End quote ---

No - the engine will suck it in. There is a group who have done a bunch of experiments with woodgas & an old Lister engine - search for Ken Boak, you should find links to the experiments from there. Long & short - yes, it works.

There is a writeup of some of the work that's been done on the lister engine forum as well.

Can't help you with the stirling; I would imagine that building your own would be the best way forward.

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version