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Reply to "Question for the Steam Experts"

I think that thermal efficiency and emissions would be significant issues in building a new steam locomotive.  No matter how clean the combustion process itself, if the thermal efficiency is low the fuel consumption and therefore emissions will be high. It would be necessary to:

1) Increase the thermal efficiency by operating at much higher temperatures and pressures than a conventional steam locomotive.

2) Add a condenser to recycle the exhaust steam and reduce the waste of energy due to exhausting into the atmosphere.

Neither of these is practical in a locomotive.

I recently wrote about this elsewhere on the forum. For what it's worth, I repeat my comment below.

In the early 1970s, I worked for a company that was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop an automotive steam engine. The thinking was that generating steam in a continuously-firing external boiler (burning gasoline) would produce lower emissions than a gasoline engine in which there is intermittent combustion of fuel. The boiler and reciprocating expander (engine) ran at a steam pressure of 1600 PSI and a superheated steam temperature of 1600 deg-F - both much higher than anything ever contemplated in a steam locomotive. The high temperature was needed for thermal efficiency (fuel economy) and the high pressure allowed the engine to be compact. Unlike a locomotive, the automotive system was a closed circuit in which the exhaust steam was condensed and reheated, thereby eliminating the large quantities of water that were required in conventional steam locomotives, which simply exhausted the hot water through the stack and wasted energy. Ultimately, the automobile's emissions were excessive because the thermal efficiency of the steam cycle (proportional to the maximum steam temperature) was too low. Diesels and automotive gasoline engines combust fuel at higher maximum temperatures than were possible in our steam engine and therefore are more efficient and have lower emissions.

MELGAR

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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