[Bioconversion] Boilerless Steam Engine

[Ken Boak]

List ,

Some years ago I came across a patent for a steam engine where steam was
raised in the head of the engine in a series of heater tubes.

Clifford Hall first started to research this type of engine in the 1960s and
wrote about them in The Model Engineer in about 1969.

A recent patent search has revealed a 1993 patent GB 2267127  which may be
vieved here:

http://v3.espacenet.com/origdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB2267127&F=0&QPN=GB2267127

There is a definite attraction to the simplicity of this type of engine,
plus the advantage that the heater tubes, if made from stainless steel will
be tolerant to less than perfect tar free gas.  No ignition system needed,
just heat up the tubes and spin the flywheel.  This might be of interest to
smaller domestic electricity generation where just a few hundred watts of
electrical power is required.

It would probably be possible to build a free-piston machine based on this
principle, tuned to 50Hz or 60Hz for driving a linear alternator, thus using
fewer moving parts.


regards,



Ken