[Bioconversion] New Subscriber / Waste Veg Oil Generator

[Ken Boak]

Hi List,

Some of you will know me already from the stoves and gasification lists.  

I have taken the suggestion to subscribe to this list, as it is probably more relevant to my current activities.

In short, I have set up a waste vegetable oil generator at my home in suburban south east England, with the intention of using it to offset my fossil fuel  requirements for heat and power.

The engine is a 1950 Lister CS slow speed diesel, and the alternator is a Chinese ST type 4 pole synchronous machine - recently imported.

The engine drives the alternator through a 8mm pitch x 20mm width toothed belt drive, to allow 1500rpm synchronous speed on the alternator, when the engine is doing its rated 650 rpm.

The engine is now running on filtered waste vegetable oil obtained from local pubs and restaurants.  Fuel consumption is about 1 litre per hour when running at 2/3 load - about 2kWe. 

My daily household power requirements can be met by running the generator for 4 to 5 hours and charging a battery bank torun an inverter for the rest of the day.

A fuel pre-heater coil wound around the hot exhaust reduces the viscosity of the fuel sufficiently for the injector pump to handle it effectively.

Cold starting is still a little problematic on vegetable oil, and I generally resort to warming the air intake of the engine with a blow-lamp to get some warmth into the cylinder head.  Once the cylinder head is warm, starting is not a problem.  I am considering diverting some of the water from my solar water heating panel to pre-heat the engine in the morning, being up to temperature by 8:30 or 9am.

Whilst the engine is now running reliably on waste vegetable oil, the system is by no means yet complete.  I have a battey bank and inverter to set up, and also some heat exchangers to assist is capturing some of the waste heat from the water cooling and the exhaust.

Some photos of the project can be seen on my "Listers" website

www.powercubes.com/listers.html 

and more specifically the latest developments are at 

www.powercubes.com/listers_13.html


If anyone is interested in this project or similar - please do not hesitate to get in touch.


regards,


Ken Boak

Redhill, Surrey, UK