Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Meet the Steamcell(tm)

Discussions of conventional and alternative energy production technologies.

Meet the Steamcell(tm)

Unread postby Hegel » Sun 18 Jul 2004, 04:50:57

This is going to be my firsting here and to the contrary it's going to deal with good news! 8O

Meet the Steamcell(tm) Technology from good ol' Germany, home of the far worst energy per capita leechers on this planet, we all call our home sweet home. For further information visit http://www.enginion.com/en/index.html

My thesis for today: This nifty box is definitely buying us several years of precious time to soften the down-slide we are facing since the whole world including OPEC peaked in late november 1998 (Surprise :lol:)

Heads up, things don't look that bleak after at all, for the 1st World that is *ouch*.

P.S:
And yes I know of such basic natural laws like the law of Thermodynamics and von Liebigs Law of Carrier Capacity.
User avatar
Hegel
Peat
Peat
 
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun 18 Jul 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Germany

Unread postby RegGuheert » Sun 18 Jul 2004, 07:51:49

Hi Hegel,

Thanks for the link!

It's good to see someone working on external-combustion engines. Based on the limited information found on your site, it appears this design has the normal characteristics of a modern steam engine: clean burning compared with internal-combustion engines, but lower fuel-to-mechanical (and hence, electrical) efficiency, leading to the need to promote the co-generation aspects of the design (which is not a bad thing!). Are these fair statements?

But perhaps I am missing something: To me, it appears that this device would propose to replace home power generation, which currently uses mainly coal, nuclear and hydro-electric energy sources with oil, which I would say is moving from less-scarce resources to more-scarce resources.

Also, on the issue of cogeneration, the main issue I have seen is finding a load which uses the same fractions of heat and electrical energy to match the cogenerator. In a house, the 20% electrical and 80% heat fraction your device provides would be suitable for wintertime, but in summertime, I only see the water heater as a major heat load in my house. Unfortunately, my water heater uses less than half the energy than the electrical loads in the house.

Any further thoughts on how this would be applied to a specific problem?

Thanks again,

Reg
User avatar
RegGuheert
Wood
Wood
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri 16 Jul 2004, 03:00:00

Unread postby Devil » Sun 18 Jul 2004, 08:04:51

I can't really see this as a viable solution. Maybe a few kWe of electricity here and there to feed the adapted houses in winter, but what about summer when electricity demands are high for airconditioning? No electricity available because the thing is switched off, even hot water being heated by the sun. IMHO, CHP is not going to be a panacea. The only real advantage is that it can be run from biomethane in the few places where it is available. If you have to use fossil fuel, it would be more efficient to use it in a 2 GW power station.
Devil
User avatar
Devil
Tar Sands
Tar Sands
 
Posts: 816
Joined: Tue 06 Jul 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Cyprus

Unread postby Hegel » Sun 18 Jul 2004, 18:17:56

RegGuheert wrote:
But perhaps I am missing something: To me, it appears that this device would propose to replace home power generation, which currently uses mainly coal, nuclear and hydro-electric energy sources with oil, which I would say is moving from less-scarce resources to more-scarce resources.

Reg


This kind of device is part of the technologic field of "thermoelectric engines" or "Wärme-Kraft-Kopplung" in german. It's actually multi-fuel capable, you can feed it with natural gas, methanol & ethanol, diesel, biodiesel, coal dust etc. That is what really hooked me up. Most other thermoelectric engines are diesel/heating oil driven. These are merely Diesel generators providing electrical output and have fitted a heat exchanger to their exhaust pipes to collect waste energy with a somewhat lower energy ratio.

RegGuheert wrote:Also, on the issue of cogeneration, the main issue I have seen is finding a load which uses the same fractions of heat and electrical energy to match the cogenerator. In a house, the 20% electrical and 80% heat fraction your device provides would be suitable for wintertime, but in summertime, I only see the water heater as a major heat load in my house. Unfortunately, my water heater uses less than half the energy than the electrical loads in the house.


This engine lets you choose what kind of fraction balance you want concerning the technical information provided by enginion. E.g. in summertime you'd prefer 100% electrical output for air-conditioning and in wintertime 100% thermal output.

An Ideal system ought to be a combination of solar thermal collectors and thermoelectrical engines. During Spring, Summer and Fall, thermal collectors provide heated water and during wintertime steamcell with 100% thermal output keeps one warm in the middle of the night hehe.

Since 1999 I got a 10,2m² solar thermal collector with a tripple cascade of heat-converter installed in my house. It grants me enough heat - for warm water for my dishing machine and even for my laundry machine - from mid-february through mid-november without running this old heating-oil driven furnace/water heater I have got in my cellar. I want to get rid of this old system and replace it with a steamcell, for two reasons:

1) Further reducing my energy costs

2) Comply to a new german enviromental law that prohibits use of older unefficient fossil based heating systems which exhaust more than 15% CO2 in one qubicmeter exhaust gases (virtually all systems built before 1978 are affected by this). Fine is 10.000? for violation, quiet expensive. I guess a steamcell will ship cheaper than that and save a lot of Euros on heating-oil too.

I'm fully aware that this device depends on carbonhydrate fuels and isn't the best solution to corner the worsening of the energy crisis we are already facing. It's an interim solution to me, something that has the capabilities to help soften the transition of our current carbonhydrate based energy society to a renewable one. Buying time so-to-speak, because we are running out of time to research and develop necessary technologies.

I do post this with the best intends and I'm neither affiliated with enginion company nor a marketing guy of the fossil energy syndicate :lol:
[/quote]
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Current Doomerosity Level (Jaymax Scale): 5
User avatar
Hegel
Peat
Peat
 
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun 18 Jul 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Germany


Return to Energy Technology

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 51 guests

cron