Posted on 04/28/2008 10:15:36 AM PDT by Red Badger
I’d dearly love to have a Stanley Steamer made with modern materials and techniques.
Stainless steel, aluminium, carbon fibre, I’d drive one till the wheels fell off.
When I was a kid (1960’s) the guy down the street had one, and he took it out for a spin pretty often. Very cool car.
Half an hour to heat the boiler and then off you go.
Steam Punk Ping!
It seems silly to me to start this process on passenger cars. The obvious candidate is an 18-Wheeler. The annual miles are huge and the cost of operation is critical (i.e. Cost savings would easily justify capital costs.)
There is also plenty of space for equipment to be mounted and actual APUs that need the power generated by the steam turbine.
It’s not like I ever get in a great hurry anymore. A half hour one way or the other isn’t that bad.
Give me time for a cup of coffee or two.
I worked for a real blacksmith back in the early 50s” (Yes he was a shoer of horses) We worked on trashing machines and other stuff...
He told me that once the energy folks got their heads out of their butts...steam power would become the most effecient power ava, he knew nothing about nuke power. I think it’s still true today.
Here, IF the weight an be kept down, and IF the enviro’s/baby-sitters in the DOE/DOT/OSHA in the government will permit the high pressure steam and boiler/waste heat recovery unit from being prohibited (in an accident, the steam WOULD break out and burn people) ...
Then the idea has merit.
We've used waste heat recovery in power gen gas turbines for a while. they now are about just about double what a regular gas turbine yields. (67% percent efficient compared to 37-40% in a once-through gas turbine. GT will yield more heat out (and a quick startup) compared to a boilers slow startup.
Better for long-haul though, NOT for 15 minute trips around town to the grocery store and to school. You'd need a while to heat up things and actually get the efficiency they are assuming.
Well, it's not that simple any more. We have learned a lot about the special problems of steam power production in the last 100 years.
The only way to be sure that it can run for 100,000 miles or more with minimum maintenance and downtime, is to run distilled water through the system
Another demand for external energy use totally ignored for now.
http://www.scuderigroup.com/
That one is a Forehead slapper. Why didn't I think of that.
Split a 4 cycle engine with 1/2 the cylinders becoming a 2 cycle engine and the remaining cylinders becoming a supercharger, feeding into the 2 cycle engine.
Right market!
Use a closed loop and you could limit the necessity of refills of the boiler to the bare minimum. A simple heat exchanger on the back side to condense the steam back to liquid and send it back to the boiler would also increase water consumption efficiency. One wouldn’t even have to use water, there are other fluids that could be used in its place.
I’m certain there are technical details that would make it somewhat more complicated that that, but we’ve come a long, long way since the steam engine was in it’s heyday.
I don’t care what it takes as far as external fuel sources as long as I can afford it. Like the battery powered car you have to charge from the grid, I’m not one of the blind fools who thinks thats a zero emission vehicle. My interest in a steam powered car isn’t to “save the planet” or other any such asinine fantasy, I just like steam power.
Except the price of clean water skyrockets.
Here's the question: how big is the condenser?
Seems like steam is a big part of some nuke plants.
You and me both buddy ! I've always been enamored the the Stanley Steamer.
I was especially impressed with their testing of each boiler before installation. Lower that 'puppy' into a big hole and push about 3-4 times the operating pressure into it. If it didn't blow up, it was good. COOL!
Those little babies got 25-30 MPG and were the fastest vehicles made at the time. What's not to love?
Nam Vet
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