Re: Oil Burner Advice Needed
| December 30, 2010 08:25PM |
Hi, Beau,
No one will be at the museum this Saturday (New Years Day), but I should be there on the 8th, weather permitting. I would be happy to look at your burner, and we can scratch our heads together. if we are lucky, Phil Reader might show up, and we can get his two bits worth as well.
If everything is getting covered with oil droplets, then the oil is not getting atomized; it's just getting blown around by the steam jet, which suggests you need more atomizer, not less--provided, of course, the oil is functionally contacting the steam spray. I think the first thing to try is heating the oil to thin it out, which in turn helps the atomizer do its job. Something the consistency of running water or a little thicker would be good (which means the oil is hotter and disperses more easily). Having not worked with vegetable oils, I don't know how much you can heat and thin them out without having the oil coke up on you or start smoking. You'll just have to experiment. The fact that you are getting a blue flame (while it lasts) is not necessarily bad; it is the sign of good, complete combustion in the presence of abundant oxygen. Would that we could get that sort of complete combustion in a steam locomotive. But the oil spatter suggests to me that, again, only a fraction of the oil is getting atomized.
Below is a photo of an experimental burner that the folks at the Grand Canyon designed for burning low-sulfur diesel in their steamer. As you can see, the results are quite spectacular (imagine confining that to the dimensions of a firebox!). In their case the diesel and superheated steam are mixed inside of the burner head and then ejected through the slot; the diesel is superheated and almost burns by spontaneous combustion. If you look closely, you will see that the fire actually stands several inches off of the burner; you can see the steam/oil spray in the gap between the burner and the flame. In that short distance the steam/diesel mix begins to pick up the oxygen necessary to sustain combustion. The third picture shows the burner installed in the firebox. Notice the very substantial thickness of the firebrick; the round holes in the firebrick admit the draft. What looks like handrails running along the inside of the firebrick surface are actually steam lines headed to the burner. These lines, exposed to the fire, serve to superheat the steam before it enters the burner. The Last picture shows the back end of the original burner, designed for the days of Bunker C fuel oil. When cold, Bunker C had the consistence of cold molasses and had to be vigorously heated. The small-diameter pipe to the lower right is the steam line to the burner. The oil enters from the other side of the burner opposite the pipe plug. This is the type for burner found on the three locomotives at the museum and was almost universal back in the day.
As they say on television, don't try this at home!
Thanks to Nigel Day and Sam Lanter for their pictures from a Web site posted by Martyn Bane in the UK. Pictures are copyrighted.
Mike
No one will be at the museum this Saturday (New Years Day), but I should be there on the 8th, weather permitting. I would be happy to look at your burner, and we can scratch our heads together. if we are lucky, Phil Reader might show up, and we can get his two bits worth as well.
If everything is getting covered with oil droplets, then the oil is not getting atomized; it's just getting blown around by the steam jet, which suggests you need more atomizer, not less--provided, of course, the oil is functionally contacting the steam spray. I think the first thing to try is heating the oil to thin it out, which in turn helps the atomizer do its job. Something the consistency of running water or a little thicker would be good (which means the oil is hotter and disperses more easily). Having not worked with vegetable oils, I don't know how much you can heat and thin them out without having the oil coke up on you or start smoking. You'll just have to experiment. The fact that you are getting a blue flame (while it lasts) is not necessarily bad; it is the sign of good, complete combustion in the presence of abundant oxygen. Would that we could get that sort of complete combustion in a steam locomotive. But the oil spatter suggests to me that, again, only a fraction of the oil is getting atomized.
Below is a photo of an experimental burner that the folks at the Grand Canyon designed for burning low-sulfur diesel in their steamer. As you can see, the results are quite spectacular (imagine confining that to the dimensions of a firebox!). In their case the diesel and superheated steam are mixed inside of the burner head and then ejected through the slot; the diesel is superheated and almost burns by spontaneous combustion. If you look closely, you will see that the fire actually stands several inches off of the burner; you can see the steam/oil spray in the gap between the burner and the flame. In that short distance the steam/diesel mix begins to pick up the oxygen necessary to sustain combustion. The third picture shows the burner installed in the firebox. Notice the very substantial thickness of the firebrick; the round holes in the firebrick admit the draft. What looks like handrails running along the inside of the firebrick surface are actually steam lines headed to the burner. These lines, exposed to the fire, serve to superheat the steam before it enters the burner. The Last picture shows the back end of the original burner, designed for the days of Bunker C fuel oil. When cold, Bunker C had the consistence of cold molasses and had to be vigorously heated. The small-diameter pipe to the lower right is the steam line to the burner. The oil enters from the other side of the burner opposite the pipe plug. This is the type for burner found on the three locomotives at the museum and was almost universal back in the day.
As they say on television, don't try this at home!
Thanks to Nigel Day and Sam Lanter for their pictures from a Web site posted by Martyn Bane in the UK. Pictures are copyrighted.
Mike
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.