The problem with flow calorimetry with this system is that the working
fluid is not water but high temperature glycol or something similar. You
could measure the temperature of the fluid, but you can't just run it
through the machine and dump it down the drain. So the starting
temperature will rise. That is, the glycol reservoir temperature will rise.
The commercial unit has a primary glycol cooling loop, a heat exchanger,
and a secondary water cooling loop. That's complicated! You can do
calorimetry on it, of course. But that's a lot of equipment. It is a
large mass of material, with many things happening in it, pumps pumping
and whatnot. The skeptics would have a field day. Alan Fletcher could
think of dozens of ways to fake that. For a scientific test, especially
in the first round, I prefer the "naked" reactor approach with
isoperibolic calorimetry.
Keep it simple.
- Jed
