Miss fuel

[addjunkie]

I suspect the petrol vapours in the ibc would be more of a hazard then putting a mix through a boiler. Each fuel has a different calorific value so youd need to keep an eye out for smokey exhaust like any hydrocarbon burning process.

I too would be viscosity testing each batch to make sure it was somewhere near whats required.

I remember a lecturer telling us a gas turbine would run on pulverised coal, just not for very long.

The yanks tried running big boilers on this powering coal carrying ships in the 80s, just old ideas rehasshed

 

[Erie Fred]

Yep, the problem is pumping it.

I was speaking with an engineer from Lucas (A very nice British chap BTW) and he was working on a coal fired diesel project.

I inquired if the abrasiveness is hard on the injectors.

He replied that the coal is ground very fine, added with some diesel, and they didn't have injector problems.

He went to say however, that the resulting ash, was hard on the turbo.

 

[OJCar]

It would be, it ran at 45,000 RPM! (iirc)

Great little unit though. I recall doing efficiency runs on one whilst doing my apprenticeship. Came out of the Vulcan (APU) amongst others.

Mine was an APU,
believed ex a Vulcan.

Long sold off now.

 

[Cobbler]

I remember a lecturer telling us a gas turbine would run on pulverised coal, just not for very long.

My father worked at Napier’s in the 1940’s & they experimented with running big diesels on coal dust, apparently the engines would run on it fine, but the wear rate on everything made it unusable.

 

[addjunkie]

My father worked at Napier’s in the 1940’s & they experimented with running big diesels on coal dust, apparently the engines would run on it fine, but the wear rate on everything made it unusable.

Even gas fired engines need a bit of lube in the injectors. I was on an FPSO with 4x V16 and 4x V18, Gas fired Wartsila engines, needed about 5% diesel to seal the injectors, gas was horsed in at 350 bar.

 

[Farside]

Mate of mine had an old Hillman Minx, that would run on just about anything, I remember him running out of petrol & slinging a gallon of paraffin in, it got him to the garage. Cellulose thinners went into it on another occasion as well.

As a lad, with a job as a trainee metallurgist, I ran my Vespa with reclaimed solvents from the lab. Used to run well on various mixtures of toluene, acetone, etc.

 

[Morrisman]

I believe they are turbine engines now.

And then theres Desperate Dans jet engined trike. It didn't really power it, more like a 'hey, hold my beer' moment. Pretty interesting project though.