Steam generator

[John ChadwickParticipant @johnchadwick40197]

Hi. I was wondering in this age of low carbon emissions if anyone had any references to a battery driven flash steam generator that could be used instead of the traditional boiler.

[John ChadwickParticipant @johnchadwick40197]

[garyParticipant @gary44937]

I am interested so thought I would bump it to the top again. regards gary

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

It is ‘obviously possible’ but I think you would be disappointed by the poor overall efficiency.

Years ago, we made a steam generator for use in the environmental test house: It held less than a litre of water and used a kettle element for heating : This was just used for ‘steaming-up’ car windows.

You haven’t mentioned what size of device you are considering though … Perhaps generating pressurised steam would be viable at some sizes.

I’m interested to know what others think.

MichaelG.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I think that there are equivalent or greater environmental concerns about using lithium or lead acid batteries. The National Trust uses wood briquettes to fuel its steam launch Gondola on Coniston – no sulphur pollution and sort of renewable.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

You'd need an awfully big battery, the overall efficiency of boiler/engine would be at most 1/10 of just using the battery to drive an electric motor

[John ChadwickParticipant @johnchadwick40197]

Hi. Many thanks for the posts so far. I was thinking of 5inch gauge. I recall seeing a flash steam generator in an article some years ago. I think the idea is to have a small high pressure pump injecting water into a heated chamber. Why do it? well i would prefer the pistons to be driving the loco rather than just flailing about on the end of a geared electric drive.

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