Built a Glyc burner

[Tony]

Had a bit of spare time today so dragged the MIG out into the garden and had a play.

Cut the top off a dumpy CO2 cylinder and welded legs on, added a 1 1/4" chimney (about 2m worth) and added an adjustable splash plate on a section of box, drilled the plate so air could get down the box and through the plate - and that's about it - so far.

Burns a treat

Oh and I cut the side of the cylinder and put a bit of copper tube in, this is driven by an air pump and bubbles through the hot glyc - the splashes vapourise off the splash plate and this ups the exhaust temp from 270C (no air pump) to 360C.

Tomorrow I might have a go at winding some microbore around the chimney and heating water.

If nothing else it'll be something fun to bring to the BBB.

[Julian]

Sounds great, can we have some pictures please?

There's probably quite a lot we can do with a jet of super heated steam ... what about one of those posh coffee machines that throths up the milk, or a steam cleaner for shifting polymerised oil from the back of the car.

[Tony]

I was thinking some glyc superheated water might be good for a cuppa tea.  Will take some pics tomorrow when I've progressed it a bit further.

[julianf]

youtube vid upload?

[Tony]

Well I did take a pic



Fire is in the big pot, chimney is the left tube.
Middle tube goes down to a circular plate the height of which can be varied, air travels down the box section through a hole into the core of the fire.
Right hand canister is a glyc melter, it gets to about 70C, I dump in the solid glyc and when it melts it goes through a hole at the bottom into the body of the burner.
There is also an air pump out of shot that feeds a tube to the bottom of the burner, if the centre plate is lowered the splashes vapourise off it and light.

And that's about it aside from the heat exchanger around the exhaust producing running hot water

I shall bring it to the BBB for perusal.

It just happily sits there and gets on with it with little intervention - when it's up and running anyway.

[greasemonkey]

Very cool.

[Julian]

Is the water hot enough for tea?  There doesn't seem to be much steam around.

[Jamesrl]

Is the water hot enough for tea?  There doesn't seem to be much steam around.

Thats coz he's not got no glyc.

[Julian]

Is the water hot enough for tea?  There doesn't seem to be much steam around.

Thats coz he's not got no glyc.

I was just envisaging strolling up to a little tap at the BBB with a mug and an Earl Grey tea bag and having a cuppa ready within a minute or so.  As opposed to suffering third degree burns wrestling with that kettle on a blazing fire.

[Tony]

It steams a lot when water first goes through the coils, hardly surprising as they're 300C+ but it soon cools to nice and warm.  If you want tea we should let it boil dry then put water through

[Jamesrl]

Looking at the picture aren't you feeding from wrong end of the coil.

Your feeding hot water to a cooler part of the chimney surely.

[Tony]

You're right Jim, spotted that after the photo was taken, it was noticeably warmer after swapping the feed so the cold went in the top.

[Dickjotec]

Interesting, any chance of a section drawing?

[photoman290]

if you cut a hole in a tin about 3 inches larger than the flue pipe stick it over the the flue and lead the copper pipes out the top  than seal any gaps at the bottom with exhaust cement  you could fill it with perlite  or vermiculite,put a bit of ally foil over top to stop it blowing away you will get a lot more heat out of it. you could use sand but that will make it a bit too heavy unless you support it somehow.

guess who is getting seriously into thermodynamics ?

[Tony]

Interesting.

Another thought I had was putting a Peltier on the upper surface (with heatsink and fan) to generate some power (self powered fan?)  But I'm not sure what temps they can take.  The upper surface gets up to 300C.