Friction Steam Boiler

[brenie]

Hells-bells! I guess you know eskimo-nell.
Nobody should have to live with temp's like that. I live in East Anglia these days, east coast UK. To is a little chilly, 45deg F, not minus!
Last week we went down to -5c, but that is rare.
You have my sympathy, get the 'balaclava and sea boot socks on'

A friction boiler would be handy. Regards, Bren.

[rickoff]

Jeepers, Brenie!

45 F degrees would feel like summer right about now! We have had zero or below temperatures every night for the past two weeks, and wind chills to 40 below zero and lower. Had a pretty good dump of snow too, and it wasn't fun going out to clear that from my driveway with that bitter cold wind in my face. I have a weird sort of driveway, in that it is only about 20 feet from the street to my garage, but the driveway is about 60 feet wide to allow parking for 3 or 4 vehicles. No matter when I go out to clear up the snow, the city plow rig comes through right afterwards and dumps a huge snowbank back into my driveway. It's like they watch to see when I get it done, and ready to put my snow blower away, and then they swoop right in! It never fails.

I can definitely feel a touch of that old cabin fever setting in. Seems way too early for that, as we still have 3 months of cold weather ahead. It's a good time to be working on all those inside projects that you don't want to bother with once the weather gets warmer, so that's what I'll be doing for a while. How's it going with the rest of you folks?

Rick

[rileydad48]

It gets cold Here in Indiana too... but not that cold!! You're not alone in the belief that snow plows have spies telling then when someone's cleared their driveway. Or, they have GPS systems in the plow trucks, that show directions to clean driveways.. LOL I've even had it happen twice in one day.!! The stuff they deposit back in your drive is always much heavier than what Mother Nature put there..

[rickoff]

That's for sure, Paul. And if you don't clear it off quickly then it doesn't take long to form into an unmovable, hard, icy mass. Don't you just hate that?

[little_old_lady]

Replications

Has anyone successfully replicated this device? I plan on making an attempt, but would feel better if a few independent verifications could be made first.

[rickoff]

Hi Little Old Lady,

I have heard from several people who have replication projects underway, and I have encouraged them to post construction details, photos, and video links in this thread. I would love to build one myself, but spent so much time working on this thread that winter moved in before I could get very much accomplished. My project will probably have to wait until summer, as I am currently straight out on prepping my home for sale. If I can find some extra time somehow, I will construct a small scale working model (perhaps 1/8 to 1/4 scale), and I highly suggest that as a first step for anyone contemplating a replication. With a scaled down replication, you can build your model at little cost. Testing and modifying your build will also be easier and less costly. Also, a small model such as this will be capable of doing some useful work such as space heating in a garage or small workshop, heating water for a hot water tank, or distilling water. If you build at 1/4 scale, you can use a rotor of 1.25" height and diameter made from an iron pipe, a 1/4 hp electric drive motor, and 1" x 1" x 4" pieces of green hardwood. So if you have the time, why not give that a try? You can probably round up most of the materials from your local recycling center, and keep your costs to a minimum. And please do share your results with us.

Best wishes to you,

Rick

[rileydad48]

Rick..
I finally got a "sky dive " account so I can post pics to the Forum.. Thanks for the advise. Here is a pic of my garage heater that I am constructing. Although, not a scaled down model, it will be rather compact in size, compaired to Llyods original design. I will post more results when completed.
Thanks
Paul
Idea W_Tesla Blower 2.jpg
T&T END VIEW.jpg

[little_old_lady]

Rick,
I really like your design for a heater, though there is one problem that jumped out at me. You forgot to account for the change in the weight of the wood as it is burned. This will cause the amount of friction to vary over time as the pressure against the spinning disk would change with weight.

The combination with tesla turbine is a nice touch and would probably help prevent your bearings from getting too hot!

[rsc]

Disclaimer:
Read Post #37
This is a chemical reaction and all safety devices shall be used.

Do not use this unless you have the knowledge to do so.


This is a chemical reaction between water and Quicklime.
When these 2 are put together in small amounts you can produce steam.
The quicklime will react to the water and have a temp around 500*.
This will not produce any flames but has the potential heat that is required to produce steam.

I feel that you can do away with the mechanical part of this boiler.

You can then utilize the turbine aspect to the steam.

Turbine: By using the tubine compressor blades at different stages of compression you can speed up the steam as it passes through the turbine. The turbine can have a collector blade on the end...as the steam passes over it, the collector blades spins on a shaft.

The turbine shaft can then be connected to a pto, generator, ect...

Connect a small solar panel to dc motor with belt drive to spin the shaft of the turbine and it could run forever. This would also help pull the steam into the turbine compressor blades.

These are just my thoughts on how to do this in a different manner.


WOW maybe a way of wind turbine also!

Rod

[rsc]

Rick..
I finally got a "sky dive " account so I can post pics to the Forum.. Thanks for the advise. Here is a pic of my garage heater that I am constructing. Although, not a scaled down model, it will be rather compact in size, compaired to Llyods original design. I will post more results when completed.
Thanks
Paul
[ATTACH]2017[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]2018[/ATTACH]

Very nice!

Can you go one step further and use that hot air?

[rileydad48]

Little Old Lady,

Thanks for the comments. As far as your concern about the varying pressure, the wood blocks will be (3) 2x4 green oak pieces 10 to 12 inches in length. The steel weight will be 8 lbs. That should make the pressure about 12 lbs with new wood pieces and never less than 8 lbs at the end of the "burn". ( for the lack of a better word ). Hopefully, this should not vary the temperature a great deal. I will say one thing though, after the heater has run for a while, I'm sure I will have to remove the wood and let the roller cool before it is shut down completely. I can't see the wood sitting for long on top of the hot roller with out the air pumps cooling them. Can we say "Fire in the Hole".
One thing that does have me a little concerned, is the ash residue left over after the "burn" ( for the lack of a better word) Will the air pumps pick it up and blow it on the garage floor. What will the temperature of this ash be after going thru the exhaust turbine??? Won't know that till it's built. It may not be a concern at all..?? Might need to put somekind of spark arrestor on the exhaust ports..?? Hoping the Tesla air pumps move enough air to keep the temperature on the inside below 300 degrees, well below the ignition point of oak.. but plenty of heat for the garage.. Gonna have to finish it before I can answer these question..
Thanks again, glad you liked it.

Paul

[rileydad48]

Very nice!

Can you go one step further and use that hot air?

Can you go one step further and use that hot air?


RSC..
What did you have in mind???

Paul

[little_old_lady]

This is a chemical reaction between water and Quicklime.
When these 2 are put together in small amounts you can produce steam.

It looks like quicklime is $61 per metric ton (2002 price), unfortunately it seems like a very dangerous substance.

I was running some numbers...

1 cord of dried wood costs $150 to $200 dollars (in the city) and contains 26,000,000 BTU of heat which translates into about 7420 KWH if you can do 100% efficient conversion. Lets assume that the friction heater is 90% efficient at transferring wood to heat and that a tesla turbine is 40% efficient at turning heat to electricity then that means that we could get 2700 KWH or generate $270 of electricity from 1 cord of wood ($0.10/KWH)

Now I know that a normal steam engine can reach 25 to 30% efficiency if you recycle the waist heat vs (5 to 10% eff. if you don't). I would expect you could get slightly higher total efficiency doing the same thing with tesla turbine.

So there you have it, we should be able to generate electricity for about $0.075 per KWH at $200 per cord... I think we can get wood for about $100 per cord in the country and even cheaper for fresh (unseasoned wood). So even if our electric conversion is less than 20% eff or the friction heater is less than 80% eff then we could still be "on par" with the electric company.

At $70 profit per cord of wood, it would require 4 cords of wood per work day to replace the average household income. At the rate the friction heater "burns" wood, we would need a VERY BIG one to burn 4 cords of wood per day!

I would assume that you could get freshly cut, unprocessed raw logs for $25 to $50 per "cord" and thus reduce the number of cords to about 1/2 of a cord of wood per day to replace the average household income. This all assumes that the electric company will buy energy from you at the same price you pay for it.

Note: I assume that the power used to turn the motor is mostly converted into friction heat and does not need to come from the heat of the wood. I also assume that the turbine turns the shaft after it is started so there is no mech->elec->mech conversion losses.

[rsc]

Can you go one step further and use that hot air?


RSC..
What did you have in mind???

Paul

I am asking you if you could use the hot air coming out of the heater for an extra source of energy.

Maybe you could spin a blade connected to a dc generator...Every bit of free energy helps even is small amount. yes!

[rsc]

It looks like quicklime is $61 per metric ton (2002 price), unfortunately it seems like a very dangerous substance.

I was running some numbers...

1 cord of dried wood costs $150 to $200 dollars (in the city) and contains 26,000,000 BTU of heat which translates into about 7420 KWH if you can do 100% efficient conversion. Lets assume that the friction heater is 90% efficient at transferring wood to heat and that a tesla turbine is 40% efficient at turning heat to electricity then that means that we could get 2700 KWH or generate $270 of electricity from 1 cord of wood ($0.10/KWH)

Now I know that a normal steam engine can reach 25 to 30% efficiency if you recycle the waist heat vs (5 to 10% eff. if you don't). I would expect you could get slightly higher total efficiency doing the same thing with tesla turbine.

So there you have it, we should be able to generate electricity for about $0.075 per KWH at $200 per cord... I think we can get wood for about $100 per cord in the country and even cheaper for fresh (unseasoned wood). So even if our electric conversion is less than 20% eff or the friction heater is less than 80% eff then we could still be "on par" with the electric company.

At $70 profit per cord of wood, it would require 4 cords of wood per work day to replace the average household income. At the rate the friction heater "burns" wood, we would need a VERY BIG one to burn 4 cords of wood per day!

I would assume that you could get freshly cut, unprocessed raw logs for $25 to $50 per "cord" and thus reduce the number of cords to about 1/2 of a cord of wood per day to replace the average household income. This all assumes that the electric company will buy energy from you at the same price you pay for it.

Note: I assume that the power used to turn the motor is mostly converted into friction heat and does not need to come from the heat of the wood. I also assume that the turbine turns the shaft after it is started so there is no mech->elec->mech conversion losses.

Great numbers, now do the number for my sugestion!!!!

You have to use energy to create your steam yes. It also requires alot of WOOD CHOPPING...build up some muscles yes. 4 cords per day...not for me.

This system was used in the ancient Egypt. Why not figure out a way to use it today.