OK, its the least I can do. I'm amazed sometimes about how complicated this
invention process can be. And how much money it takes. As of today, I am
seemingly hours from light off, I think. You understand, I built one
conversion system to turn a Beckett burner into a Babington burner. That
system was kind of jury rigged, but I got at least 40 hours of burning time
on it. Most of that time was without a chimney, just venting into my very
well ventilated shop. Lots of people came by to see it and remark about how
clean it was burning. I also ran the burner on used motor oil, but without a
chimney, it was just too nasty. With vegetable oil, it was actually pleasant
to stand around the open flame, about 3' long. No one got a headache from the
vegetable oil combustion. I figured it was producing about 100,000 btu's, but
that is subject to confirmation.
Instead of out in the cold, I'm working on getting the second generation
burner going in my basement. To do this, I had to install a used HB Smith
boiler, convert it to hot water from steam, hook it up to my overly
complicated piping system, then build a second generation conversion system.
The new burner is a Carlin brand, just to show that the conversion process is
independent of the brand of burner. This second generation needs to use all
of the usable components of the existing burner, especially the pump,
controls, motor, fan, etc. Its not a really complicated conversion, just
needs a babington head, a few pieces of tubing and a few nuts and bolts. I
still intend to write a manual sometime this winter, complete with exploded
diagrams. etc. I just want to get the damn thing working and not have an
exploded house in the process. As it turns out, the original conversion was
just about right in terms of the technological details, just dumb luck. After
many reiterations, I'm back there again. Perhaps that means the design is as
simple as it can be, but no simpler.
So, every business day, it seems, I need a few more parts from the supply
houses (McMaster), and every day some other technical issue arises. And I'm
still heating my house with wood. So this is a real possibility, but don't
wait up for me, I may be awhile. As for the original burner, its directed
into the new masonry byproduct burner. But, baby, its cold outside, and my
system really isn't ready for full time operation up there. Its a plumbing
extravaganza, and still needs a lot more connection, before its ready to do
its job.
In the ideal world, someone would want to buy into this invention, and
forward me a few dollars so I could finish this thing. But no has offered,
and I'm unemployed, except for this project. Things are proceeding slowly,
but not for lack of effort. All I can say is stay tuned and see what
develops. I'll be sure to let you know.
Tom Leue
In a message dated 1/25/03 5:58:41 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Any chance you could give us some more details or a schematic? this sounds
> really interesting (though most of us wouldn't have access to a masonry
> stove just for our biodiesel operation)
>
> Mark
>
>
> At 12:04 PM 1/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >I've got a couple years experience with burning glycerin. I had to do it,
> >I've got such a large accumulation of the stuff. I've tried it in a couple
> of
> >wood boilers and in a babington burner. The stuff does burn, but it takes
> >special conditions to keep it going. Basically, without being exact about
> the
> >fine details, it takes about 1000 degrees of temperature to keep the stuff
> >going. Below that temperature and you'll mostly just burn off the methanol
> >component, leaving a heavy vegetable based "tar" residue.ÊÊ It tried it in
> a
> >babington, but it does not burn above about a 25% mix with oil. In a wood
> >boiler it burns on top of coals well, but when the wood fire dies out it
> just
> >accumulates the glycerin without much reduction.
> >
> >My current burner has a babington burner running on vegetable oil into a
> >masonry stove with a separate drip of glycerin onto a hot steel plate. It
> >burns very cleanly and VERY hot. Absolutely no emissions visible. Now I
> have
> >to find out what to do with over 1000000 btu's per hour.
> >
> >Tom Leue
>
-----------------------------
Homestead Inc.
www.yellowbiodiesel.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Biofuels at Journey to Forever
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuel at WebConX
http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm
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