Woodgas electricity and heating for a small community


The Liam F1 is a small wind turbine designed by The Archimedes, a Dutch company for research and development.12 It has a diameter of 1.5 meters and a weight of less than 100 kilos, making it suitable for installation on almost every roof and wall.3 It generates an average of 1,500 kilowatt-hours of energy per year with a wind speed of 5 m/s. The design is based on a rotor that captures the kinetic energy of wind to convert it into mechanical energy. Due to its form of screw, Liam automatically points to the optimum position of the wind, like a pennant, and therefore have a peak performance.1 The Liam F1 is claimed to be the most efficient urban wind turbine in existence, able to operate at approximately 80% of the Betz Limit, or 47.4% overall efficiency. Commercial wind turbines max out at 50% of the Betz Limit, or just 29.7% efficiency.0

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Now you tweek my information hungry switch Al F.
Betz Limit . . . hmmm . . .
https://energyeducation.ca/encylopedia/Betz_limit

I wonder how The Archimedes folk plan to deal with too high of wind speed overloads?
The older multi-bladed turned the whole spinner sideways.
The long with few blades types either lock-up or twist feather the individual blades.
S.U.

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Fortunately, and to Mother Nature’s great and joyful hopes for human intelligence, not everything is so unambiguously bad with vegetable and animal fats as engine lubricants.

Firstly, you can choose the design of the motor and reduce the level of power removed from its crankshaft to the lubricating capabilities of these types of fats. By the way, I still have not found comparative tests of these types of fats with mineral oils.

Secondly, pure base mineral oils by themselves are also not suitable for lubricating motors - for this they add a whole range of additives. Who prevents to pick up additives for fats?

Thirdly, no one will bring the development of a lubrication system to us in the form of a ready-made recipe. As with riding on wood, everything falls on the shoulders of the user. At a minimum, one should start by making the simplest measuring instruments to measure the lubricity properties of various oils, and preferably at the operating temperature of the oil.

Everything, as always, is in our hands! :slight_smile:

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Once, my son and I dreamed of our own wind energy, and wanted to make a wind generator with a Ugrinsky rotor and a ready-made Chinese wheel for an electric bike. Then we calculated the battery life and recovered … :slight_smile:

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I wholeheartedly agree. People have forgotten the lessons of their grandparents. Crystalized cottonseed oil was used as a machine lubricant. We now use it as a cooking ingredient called Crisco. Risk or rancidity, not great high temperature properties, attracted insects and rodents.
Mineral oil was a machine miracle. As a boy the old trade handbooks had lists of the limitations of each vegetable oil, temperatures, pressures etc. Petroleum simplified things.

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I am sorry if I didn’t elaborate more when dissenting with Marak’s vegetable oil comments.
I needed to blurt that out right away before someone thought they could pour vegetable oil in their crankcase.
I urge anyone who considers this, to do some boundary layer lubricity research. Machine lubrication is a mature science.
I have no links available nor are my books out where I can find them.

I did a study on used vegetable oil in 2007 and discovered that SVO (straight vegetable oil) caused knocking and high oil pressure.
Used in a hydraulic system, it causes cavitation.

One is much better off to use used crankcase oil in either application.

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What would be a good way to clean up the used oil? Settling and a centrifuge?

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Yes, with the caveat of treating the oil, while settling, to bring it’s pH to slightly alkaline.

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So much technical things was put on the table, but one very important question was not answered yet: WHY

Because different answers to this questions justify different solutions HOW to fulfill this reasoning.

Do you want to just pay least price for electricity? I am 100% sure you can’t beat the utility prices over long period, say 20+ years.
Dou you want to pay minimum bill? Just let it go for anything you can substitute with heat or mechanical work and your bill will be negligible to your family budget.
Do you go off-grid, because:“No matter what the hell might be around US, my home will shine, beer cold and soup warm.”? You will pay a lot for such a high stake, not only in investment, but running cost as well. And you will need a lot of skills, since your hands and brain will be the only ones you may count with.

So, WHY?

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Ask this same question a year from now and you will already have the answer… Marat already has it.

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To start work on cleaning used oil, the following steps can be recommended:

Mix oil heated to 85 degrees Celsius with an alkali solution.

Separate the oil from the reacted residue on the separator.

Repeat these two procedures one more time.

Rinse the resulting oil with distilled water to remove alkali residues. Only rinse with soft water, otherwise compounds with hardness salts will form, which will be difficult to separate from the oil.

Separate oil from alkaline water on a separator.

Repeat these two procedures one more time.

Refining oils sometimes involves pre-cleaning with acid. And then procedures with alkali and washing with water.

If you use settling instead of separation, then the first pure oil obtained can be shown to great-grandchildren …:wink:

And if the separator is made of aluminum and not stainless steel, then you can see new holes in it, not provided for by its developers. :wink:

P.S. You can start experiments with 5-10% sodium hydroxide solution. Based on 3 kg of alkali per 1 ton of oil. Lack of alkali will be visible as residues of oil contamination, excess of alkali will lead to an increase in the loss of good oil - it will be turned into soap.

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Own electricity could be cheaper than public electricity for 43 years in a row… For example:

  1. You are preparing fuel for heating, and according to fire safety rules, you are required to clean up the branches. And you chop these branches and load them into the back of a pickup truck with the help of a chopper and conveyor that your grandfather left you as a legacy. Also, your grandfather left you a decent piece of land with a good forest, and asked you to take care of him in writing in the Family Book.

  2. Your father, in his youth, assembled a mini-CHP from the then high-quality manufactured internal combustion engine and electric generator. Let’s say 11kW of constant and 22kW of peak electrical power. And at the same time he provided a good supply of good spare parts in his barn. Or even a workshop in a barn for the production of motors! A? Also, from your father and grandfather, you got a family recipe for cleaning used motor oil or a recipe for additives and a technology for preparing motor oil from vegetable or animal fat.

  3. In your youth, starting in 1980, you mastered the programming of Intel8051 microcontrollers and were able to make this mini-CHP work 24/7/365 days a year with your minimum participation (lifetime is also a resource!), including having the possibility of self-diagnosis and shutdown in emergency situations before their development into emergency and catastrophic. Or your friend mastered these microcontrollers, and together with him you made this automation for a mini-CHP.

So, where can the payment for the electricity you receive in this case come from? Having all this, you will even be very surprised that today in this world someone pays someone for electricity and heat!

Didn’t you inherit all this? It doesn’t matter - become the grandfather who will start this energy independence for your grandchildren! Or a father who will continue it. Or a son who improves what he inherited, and does not screw it up in some city, paying utility bills …

This is not a matter of technology (everything you need is already available!), but only a matter of personal choice on what to spend your life on.

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MaratL. you last line is a perfect Life-wisdom.
I have notebook written it down, to preserved it.
I will quote you often now.
S.U.

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OK, @Marat_Lysenko, I won’t dispute your personal real experience and skills which deserves admire.

But, to be fair, you should admit, that you are talking about system with zero investment cost, zero maintenance cost and zero operating cost. Especially, you price your work and wood at zero cost. And as everybody knows, there is no such a thing as “free lunch”.

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The reason why, is that we believe that major social and economic disturbances are on the way. In fact we had something like that some 30 years ago. It caught many people with pants down. Many emigrated, many died in war, many went mad, many went divorced…etc…
so we are looking for a way to have a smoothest possible ride in next 10 years…

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Well said, Veljko.
Serbian you speak with meaning, and weight of many-tears experiences.
I have worked here in the USofA in the last 50+ years now with first Vietnamese; Cambodians; Lebanese and now some from the bad times in Central America.
All knowing, and experiencing societies where the smooth wheels first wobbled, came loose, then fell off. Many-tears. Many losses. None ever wanting to experience such again.
The wise know that complete security is impossible. So prepare to soften blows that will occur.

Along with Will-Power; true motivation is the very best driver to actions and results.
Ignore all things that do not forwards security and self-reliance. Not for you any tomorrow, maybe someday technologies.
As Marat said in his last line advices.

The trees; they will still grow converting and storing energy. Making for foods, medicines and building materials.

Regards
Steve Unruh

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I think the industrial engine Toyota 1KS 21 KW might be close to ideal. Compression ratio 12:1, so it should be efficient.
Rindert

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That’s right, Kamil, free cheese only happens in mousetraps!

But where you saw zero costs and zero investments, I see a colossal waste of time, money, energy of the soul and mind! 2-3 generations of your ancestors had to make real, durable, very expensive Things that cannot be bought in stores, because companies work for their own profit, reducing the cost of their goods, including through cheaper materials and technical solutions. They don’t need longevity! Unlike your grandfather, who can put his name and year of issue on the Thing he made, for you personally, for a long and good memory.

It seems to me that it is very expensive to pay for the work of all public utilities, their bosses, taxes and expenses paid by these firms. It is much easier to do light fitness in your own forest, on your own land, to provide yourself with heat and electricity.

When my younger kids want to eat an apple, pear, or tomato, they just pick them up from our garden and eat them. When we lived in the city, for this my wife and I had to wake up early in the morning, ride the bus to work, wait for the salary to be paid, go to the market or the store, pay for fruits or vegetables (or most likely what is sold there under the guise of fruit). and vegetables), carry these bags home so that the children can eat some fruit or vegetables (as long as the money earned was enough). And then to be afraid of the appearance of allergies or even worse - childhood oncology, as it is already around. Every day I felt like an idiot until I understood how the children of the Creator of the Universe should eat and live according to His Plan…

These tasks are so large and expensive that in one lifetime you may not have time to solve even some of them.

This is my favorite video about the power of generational continuity, and it starts with honest words: “I’m a 5th generation farmer.”
It is not surprising that the guy has beautiful equipment, good granaries, etc.
Therefore, I also want that in a few generations in my family, on my land, it would also be beautiful.

God forbid the people of reason not to allow the Communists in power! When you do not have the right to own your land, to work honestly on it with your tools - this is worse than war! For the war can be ended, you can survive in one generation, and the communists with their illusions for slaves will take away lives several of your generations from you …

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Hey Veljko!

You have very serious plans!

If this is not a secret, then please share your ideas about the rest, very important and difficult issues in autonomous life:

  • How do you plan to provide yourself with food?
  • What kind of cars do you plan to drive? After all, where there is no electricity, most likely there will be no paved roads.
  • How will your children be educated?

The question is not whether social cataclysms will occur, but whether you will be ready for the time when they occur.

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Well the idea is to trade with locals - in case its just a serious economic depression. Most of us can earn online. Producing food reliably on our own is a serious task for which we are not skilled. Of course there will be small gardens, but we can’t seriously count on our skills.

In case of severe crisis ,civil war etc…then plan is to use gasifiers for grinding flour. People around us will have food but without electricity and some kind of motors it will be difficult for them to process wheat.

For cars, we already have one vehicle that can run on canola oil. Of course it will be used very sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.

Education, well that is easy :slight_smile: I must say if there is a benefit from all this - its that children will avoid modern brainwashing

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