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Originally Posted by freebeard
Are we talking about a solar tracker that works while the vehicle is in motion, like a tank turret?  |
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Based on the fact this thread came back to life after almost a year, I thought we were talking about running it on sunlight.
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I'm still thinking about that one. The trailer would have to fold up. We're talking about something that can fold out to over 500 square feet. That's what it would take to get the battery charged in my Leaf in 4 hours.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stubby79
Efficiency will go right out the window. What form of fuel would you run it on? About the only thing that will burn clean is propane and or natural gas.
You'd do better to convert an engine to run on said fuel instead. Defeats the purpose if you only get 1/4 the power out of the same amount of fuel.
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I was thinking propane, regardless of whether I do internal or external combustions. However, doing some research, the 1920's Doble Steamers could run on kerosene, diesel or gasoline and got emissions about what CARB would want today! The reason is that as you increase steam engine efficiency you do it in part by increasing the boiler temperature. So then you have this super hot lean continuous flame. That in itself eats up nearly all the HC, CO, VOC and PM emissions. And since it's not compressed you don't get the NOx emissions along with it like you do in an internal combustion engine.
I was thinking with steam of doing a high pressure super heated steam triple or quadruple expansion engine. If I get the pressure and temperature high enough I should be able to get as much as 20% efficiency. The problem is that I can't seem to find any engines like that.
Reliable Steamhas a triple expansion engine, but it's only rated to 200psi. They also have a V4 double expansion engine that's rated to 1,000psi.
On the other hand, I do have a 1985 VW diesel engine with a 23:1CR that can get 55mpg at 70mph unmodified. It has the whole car with transaxle and driveline and wheels. I was also looking at Mr. Sharkey's VW diesel pusher that he did for his EV in which he cut the front end off and made it into a trailer. He added propane fumigation. I could too. The ignition could still be the diesel injection pump left indefinitely at idle and could be used as a dual fuel backup. Or I could tap out the injector holes and add sparkplugs. I could put a propane carb on the intake and use a ball valve on the propane line as a throttle. I'd have to redesign the intake though since the air cleaner is part of the plenum and I'd want it to be in the order of filter, carb, plenum, not carb, filter, plenum. I bet I could get an intake for a gasoline car VW with carb and all that would be a direct fit.
As it is now, the 1985 VW diesel engine is noisy and leaves big black clouds of smoke wherever it goes. It would be a great engine for efficiency and it's already bought and paid for. But it wouldn't be so great for emissions and noise. Besides propane fumigation I was also thinking of water injection, urea injection, Miller cycle and EGR for reducing emissions. But from what I've read everything has it's pros and cons. Propane fumigation lowers NOx and PM but increases HC emissions, Water injection lowers NOx at low loads but increases it at higher loads. EGR increases PM and HC emissions. And on top of that this is still a 23:1 CR mechanically indirect injected diesel engine.