solid fuel

nick · Post by **nick** » 21 Sep 2004, 23:51

XUD engines run quite happily on LHM fluid, not very cost effective mind you....

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 22 Sep 2004, 00:45

At a push I have seen vegetable oil used in place of LHM fluid! In addition used chip oil will be up to 20% lard!, military diesels can run on almost anything.
Stewart

nick · Post by **nick** » 22 Sep 2004, 01:00

....I have also seen a Perkins engined 1960 Fordson tractor running on baby oil, even less cost effective [:D]

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 22 Sep 2004, 01:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by banger

The next time you have a fry up,hold a match to the hot fat,then tell me it doesent support combustion!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
It probably wont. Now here's a trick for the brave - throw a match into a bucket of diesel and it will just go out. The heat transfer rate and specific heat capacity of a liquid is too high for it to burn as it cools the heat source down before ignition occurs. However a fuel like petrol will evaporate and the low specific heat capacity of the vapour will allow it to heat up to it's ignition temperature and burn. Then the heat produced will evaporate more petrol which can burn as a gas.

NiSk · Post by **NiSk** » 22 Sep 2004, 12:13

ABB still produces advanced "liquid coal" powered power stations. The coal is ground dowmn toa fine powder, mixed with water and injected into the furnace. The liquid form makes it very much easier to control the combustion and lowers the emissions (There's one in Vartahamn in Stockholm that supplies a large part of the town with hot water).
I remember a proud army driver back in the '70s stating that his Centurion tank would run on peanut butter (not the crunchy type, I hope!) so lard is denifitely a possibility.
//NiSk

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 22 Sep 2004, 12:46

I think it was in fact the Chieftan tank that had the multifuel capabilityn and would run on anything from creasote downwards. it was a strange engine build by Leyland (yes that one!) and had 2 crankshafts and 2 pistons in each cylinder (Cut your GS engine down the middle and put the 2 cylinder head faces together!) It was 2 stroke and the 2 cranks were linked in some way (connecting rods I think)
Curiously the donkey engine was more or less an exact minature. All was great but they smoked which of course isn't the best thing for a tank.
The centurion had a Rolls Royce (Meteor?) which was basically a land based Merlin - all 27 litres of it without some or all the superchargers. This of course ran of best petrol.
jeremy

uhn113x · Post by **uhn113x** » 22 Sep 2004, 12:54

I don't think that anyone has pointed out yet that Rudolf Diesel's original engine ran on coal dust.

uhn113x · Post by **uhn113x** » 22 Sep 2004, 12:58

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I think it was in fact the Chieftan tank that had the multifuel capabilityn and would run on anything from creasote downwards. it was a strange engine build by Leyland (yes that one!) and had 2 crankshafts and 2 pistons in each cylinder (Cut your GS engine down the middle and put the 2 cylinder head faces together!) It was 2 stroke and the 2 cranks were linked in some way (connecting rods I think)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Commer did a 2-stroke supercharged diesel like this in the 60s - many dustcarts were such. Very noisy indeed [:(]
I had the misfortune to follow one for 20 miles in my Humber Hawk sans windscreen, going to Rootes dealer to get a new one!

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 22 Sep 2004, 14:01

The Ecurie ecosse transporter had one of these engines and was jolly quick.

spudgun · Post by **spudgun** » 22 Sep 2004, 14:10

off the top of my head,conventional fuel oil has a calorific value of aprox 45.700 kj/kg as apposed to 36.600 kj/kg for lard,Wouldent this mean that you would have to burn more of it for the same power output? and you would probably have to add something to it like mothballs dissolved in turpentine to alter the cetane rating as well !

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 22 Sep 2004, 17:18

Perhaps everyone is looking at this from the wrong angle- instead of liquifying the lard and injecting it, maybe we should be replacing our diesels with sterling engines, and we could then just pile up the lard underneath and set it on fire.

Stempy · Post by **Stempy** » 23 Sep 2004, 00:02

I know a chap who fitted one of those opposed piston two stroke diesels into a Reliant Robin!!! Boy did it make a noise.

Kered · Post by **Kered** » 23 Sep 2004, 01:03

I've been interested in Diesels for more than 50 years - to the extent that I am the proud owner of Lyle Cummins 746 page book "Diesels Engine Volume 1 From conception to 1918"
Lyle Cummins is from the Cummins Diesel family and he knows what is what!!!!
Early diesels used air blast injection - usually from a separate power source. As a result various fuuels were blasted in including coal dust. 'Twas in the late 20s that Robert Bosch invented "Solid" injection - which is what we know today.
Derek

bikeboyz · Post by **bikeboyz** » 23 Sep 2004, 01:06

Well if you don't believe it buy the video......
http://lardcar.com

john alexander · Post by **john alexander** » 23 Sep 2004, 03:49

back to my previous post and akroyd stuart inventor of the diesel engine born in lancs or yorks who used powdered coal. Diesel wasnt a great inventor just clever with patents.