Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

And you may find this link interesting if its for real.
http://www.rexresearch.com/cottell/cottell.htm

No idea if it phase changes.

dan, dont worry about it being loss-y, simply reclaiming the exhaust heat as winter heating will raise the efficiency heaps whats the thermal efficiency of diesel IC engine? the rest can go to a hydronic heating system

Oh that's a great to heat water with the exhaust!

i'd probably make one from scratch with paralleled stainless 2 inch pipes.

run the system so that the exhaust gas exits at less than 100C (say 85C ?) then you will also be extracting the latent heat stored in the steam byproduct of combustion by letting it condense out. this is the MAJOR difference with high efficiency ducted heaters.

just make sure to include a condensate trap somewhere in the system

if you deisel engine runs at 60% efficiency and your fuel oil has a heat content of say 35 MJ/L

then you have roughly 14MJ/L left as heat.

Build a 90% efficient exchanger and you gain 12.6 MJ/L as hot water.

Give 2.6MJ/L away through the radiator to keep the tilapia warm in the GH in winter and we'll work with 10MJ/L

lol, then build an absorption chiller (modify the solar ice maker plans) using ammonia / calcium chloride and you have your 10MJ/L for cooling.

enough for 30kg (not including specific heat from ambient to 0C) of ice per L of fuel.

have two parallel AP systems
one for trout
one for tilapia
pump heat from one system to the other

frank

sleepe, just saw your link may fav. site. many a grainy eyed day after a late night (early morn) there. surely ONE of them has to come through

Just thought why bother removing all the water, if you can make the engine work with it.

Interesting link http://autospeed.com/cms/A_1873/article.html
(watch it it has a pop up), don't agree with all he says in the whole series however the hydrogen bit was interesting.

BR Bill Have you given this any more thought?

How are you doing with the bead process for biodiesel, Dan? I am still making my biodiesel from tranesterfication of waste veggie oil I collect for free. I did try their filter as final step after washing and dry the BD. Worked good but expensive for simple poly filter.

I just finished installing PV to power the AP greenhouse. Put up "Windblue" 12 volt wind genny as supplement. A dump load for the genny is to a 12 volt immersion heater in a 50 gal hot water tank. Planning to add solar hot water collector to that heat tank then FT so I can raise gourami for food fish. I have assembled stuff for adding a BD oil stove to green house for additional heat. I gotta get busy.

After all that is all done will set up my Listeroild diesel genny to add heat to greenhouse and power the main battery bank ( system dedicated to well pump and circ pump.). Plan to start her on BD and then run 170 deg. waste oil direct. I wont run it at night but will rely on the oil stove and stored heat in 50 gal tank..

Has the BD from algae make any progress with any0ne?

DDM,
I have been using vegetable oil as diesel fuel for nearly 9 years and while Accusorb beads may reduce the amount of water in the oil, there is a much easier (and cheaper) way of drying the oil. You can also test the oil to determine whether it is dry enough to use in your engine.
By warming the oil to slightly above ambient in an open topped drum, and bubbling air thru it (or pumping the oil thru a shower nozzle back into the drum) in a non-enclosed atmosphere (so air Relative Humidity {RH} does not build up excessively) the oil can be dried relatively easily and inexpensively. The heat to warm the oil can be provided by solar, waste heat from a variety of sources, or even electric heating (not the cheapest option).
A fan can be used to increase the airflow over the drum to minimise the RH increase.
So, the main cost of drying the oil is an air pump, which most of the forum members would have available. It is not necessary to use a fine stream of bubbles as the air is just to circulate the oil, to ensure that the oil circulates and the oil at the air/oil interface changes frequently to permit evaporation of any water present in it.

To test for water, using a heavy fry pan, smear some oil on the cooking surface of the pan. Heat the pan until the oil smokes rapidly, then add a teaspoon of the "oil to be tested".

• If the oil splatters, there is free water present - it is too wet to use in an engine.
• If there are many bubbles in the oil, it has dissolved water and may cause cavitation or metal corrosion in the injector pump.
• If there are a few small bubbles, it is almost perfectly dry, and should not cause any problems.
• If there is only heat lines in the oil, the oil is perfectly dry and can be used without fear of problems in an indirect injection diesel engine which has a mechanical fuel pump.

There is a whole raft of methods for using vegetable oil as fuel in diesel engines.

The combinations for reliable veggie oil use, in order of my preference is:

• Indirect injection diesel engine with in-line injector pump (IP) - this can use a blend of petrol or diesel and vegetable oil and most engines of this type would be able to start from cold (not freezing) with little more than extended glow cycles.
• Indirect injection diesel with rotary IP. As there IPs are less tolerant of vegetable oil viscosity, it is preferred that the engine be started on diesel and changed to veggie once warm. Changing back before shut-down will allow cold starting without stressing the pump.
• Direct injection diesels - As there is an increased likelihood of unburned fuel causing coking of the compression rings, it is advisable to treat these engines as for those with rotary IPs.
• Common Rail diesels - due to the high pressures involved and the cost of repairs to them, it is not recommended that these engines be used on vegetable oil

Some people blend the oil with petrol, diesel or other solvents to reduce its viscosity. In some engines this is very useful, but in others, it may be problematic.

Biodiesel does not seem to be an issue with most modern diesel engines, although some manufacturers use incompatible seals in their fuel systems, or add a particulate filter which relies on over-fuelling to burn off the collected soot in the DPF. - biodiesel does not burn hot enough to perform this role, but also does not cause as much soot to be generated. In these cases, it may not be advisable to use biodiesel as the fuel of choice.

When using vegetable oil or biodiesel to fuel your diesel, ensure that oil change intervals of 5 - 10 000 km are used to minimise the potential for polymerisation of unburned fuel which reaches the sump. Polymerisation (solidification) can cause terminal engine failure due to oil starvation.
I hope this short primer is of use in this discussion.

Regards,
Tony

I have tested, very successfully, algae oil. Collecting the algae is the problem. This is way more efficient than solar cells for collecting and storing energy; even when the algae is only 32% oil and only 70% of that can be extracted.

The catalyst beads do a good job of splitting up the oil chains. In my opinion is light years ahead of having to heat, dry and applying a mixture of lye and methanol (which cost money).

My current focus is on completing a AP garden to supply all my families food. I am almost finished and once finished my next project is going to be energy.

Solar is to expensive. Wind is not usable here. Veggie oil is hard to get and illegal to get now. I local family was bankrupted because they were moving waste without a license. So I am opting for ethanol and algae bio diesel produced from new on site. It is going to take me at least a year or two before I get this all working, but I must first try a couple other options before I commit my resources to the project.

Two other options I want to explore is hydrogen from bio mass. The only problem is storage, but it can be produced fast and in large amounts. Perhaps a large bag could collect it.

First option, The process goes like this. Heat a barrel full of wood. Condense out the alcohols and Turpines and burn the volatiles in the heating fire. Cook down to pure carbon. Place carbon in insulated pipe. Light carbon and blow air to white hot, shut down air, then inject steam and recover pure hydrogen in large quantities. Once temp drops to low to produce hydrogen restart air to bring up temp. Repeat until carbon is used up.

Second option, heat iron and blow steam across it to produce hydrogen (same as used to fuel the shuttle). Then burn bio mass to produce carbon monoxide and pass over iron which will regenerate the iron by stripping the oxygen from the iron.

Hydrogen burns so clean and so readily in any engine. Thes above methods are a bit more managed than wood gas and perhaps they could be automated, but the result is a lot of high grade fuel.

Wow, a family was cited and run thru the mill for transporting used veggi oil??? The original oil collector probably reported them! I'm gonna warn my friend from work to get a CDL license or stop it! The DOTD can be a faceless demon

The law was changed so that veggie oil is toxic waste or something stupid like that. Its a total joke. I would have told them to go jump in a lake.

So, BRB any ideas on collecting the algae?

I was thinking that the water could be pumped through a screen in a bucket and collected from time to time.