Re: GAS-L: Engine Experience

[Kevin Chisholm <kchisholm@ca.inter.net>]

Dear Harmon

I am one of the elder fellas that believes Carnot, and
who also believes, thermodynamically speaking,  that:
1: You can't get something for nothing
and 
2: As a matter of fact, you can't even break even.

When one sees a machine that runs at 85% efficiency,
there is not much potential for improvement..... thats
where the "conventional" gas or steam  turbine stands.
When Tesla Advocates claim 101% to 105% turbine
efficiency, warning bells go off.

Then when Viscotherm claim an "engine efficiency" of
89% to 114%, in comparison to about 35% for a
conventional gas turbine that respects Carnots
Constraints, I sort of lose interest. It does not
appear to me that there is much of a future in
perpetual motion. 

I would suggest that biomass gasification is being done
a great disservice by attaching it to the Tesla Turbine
with its claims of greater than 100% efficiency.



Harmon Seaver wrote:
> 
...del...
time. There
> is a company which sounds as if it might begin production sometime soon --
> www.bladeless.com. There are quite a few other people building prototypes,
> however.
>     Here's one that says they'll be in production with a 200kw unit "end of
> 2002"   http://www.geocities.com/viscotherm/tesla.htm
> 
ViscoTherm is claiming to have a turbine system whuich
has an efficiency of greater than 100%. Perpetual
Motion does not work.

...del...
> > > gasified, then the gas burned. Even in the small homesized wood burning boilers
> > > you see pretty horrific pollution except with the gasifiers.
> >
> > Small sized boiler and stove systems are exactly where
> > you expect the greatest pollution problems. Any decent
> > sized commercial boiler on biomass can be run with
> > virtually perfect combustion efficiency, and virtually
> > zero pollutant (unburned combustibles) escape.
> 
>      Interesting. is it simply a matter of a bigger fire, more heat so nothing
> escapes? I guess that makes sense, most of the smaller boilers are usually kept
> smoldering away rather than hot enough for gasification.
> 
As Sherlock Holmes would often say "Elementary, my dear
Watson." Any competent Combustion Engineer can easily
set up a boiler to give high efficiencies and low
pollutant outputs. 

Kevin Chisholm

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