The Lloyd Tanner Heater..Nearly A Closed Loop

[Cap-Z-ro]

A very interesting and practical concept.

More here...

http://www.blfdesigns.com/frictionheater/

[tak22]

This topic has some very interesting potentials and is being discussed in depth over at energetic forum, where Rick has been in contact with Lloyd Tanner.

http://www.energeticforum.com/renewable-energy/2835-friction-steam-boiler.html

Here is one of Rick's summary posts:

The original design, as shown in the video is simplistic enough as to be duplicated after a careful review of the video, but Lloyd has made several refinements since then that make it even more productive. The use of a long, horizontal roller, and a wider trough, allows several chunks of wood to be set against the friction roller at a time, thus generating multiples of the heat and steam produced. What you see happening here is something that anyone owning a circular saw with a dull blade has already seen. The wood cuts slowly, and chars, and the saw blade gets very hot quite rapidly. As Jetijs points out, the rotational speed is an important factor, and Lloyd says 1800 to 2000 rpm seems to be an ideal rate. Very little force is needed for the friction required to heat the metal wheel or roller to a temperature high enough to convert water droplets to steam, and even less is required to maintain the temperature once reached, so a relatively low hp steam engine should do the trick for a home sized unit. The entire unit is airtight, with the covers and steam vessel mounted, so the heat and resultant steam pressure build up rapidly with no losses (except for the trough's exterior surface to air heat transfer, but this also provides heat to your home). The pressure is held within the steam vessel until Lloyd opens the valve on the front of the steam vessel, allowing steam to rush into the inlet of a steam engine, if one is utilized. Remember, the wood never actually burns - it only chars, and slowly but eventually wears down. I believe that a 3 hp steam engine would be sufficient for home heating and domestic water production. A 3 hp steam engine will put out 100,000 BTU per hour from its exhaust, about the same as a conventional oil burning home heating system boiler. Of course you could couple the exhaust to a radiator system with an electric circulator pump to distribute heat around the rooms of your house, and recycle the still warm water at the end of the radiator loop back to a tank that could be used in refilling the water hopper. Normally, a 3 hp steam engine, if using a wood fired boiler, requires about 20 pounds of hardwood per hour to produce continuous steam sufficient to run the engine, so you can see the tremendous advantage that Lloyd's setup has over conventional methods of producing steam. Imagine running almost continuously (excepting for occasional maintenance) for 5 years on just one cord of firewood. Just imagine that, and you will realize the potential for this device. With a 5 to 10 hp steam engine, you can not only provide heat and hot water for your home, but have enough reserve engine power to drive an electric generator head to provide 2.5 to 5 kw power for your household electricity needs. Those who don't require heat can convert more of the steam engine's power to generating electricity. A 3 hp steam engine will produce 1.5 kw from the shaft power, even while producing 100,000 BTU's at the exhaust, which is an adequate amount for running a refrigerator, TV, crock pot, and some lighting, while others are without electric power. So the optimal steam engine size is determined by your energy needs. It should be noted that reciprocating piston steam engines rotate much slower than steam turbines, generally in the 700 rpm range or thereabouts, so to obtain the ideal rotational speed of the friction wheel or roller, you would need a 1:3 gearing ratio. A 2,000 rpm direct drive would be at the lower end of a steam turbine's capability for rotational speed output. While turbines are expensive to buy, they are not all that complicated to build if you have access to a machine shop. Mart provided a good link for a 3 hp reciprocating engine, and a larger one too, if you decide to go that route. The link provided by Jetijs shows a really nice radial design engine. It would be great for experimentation, and probably sufficient to run a small friction heater that would at least produce domestic hot water or heat a small cabin if you are well insulated and not living in a climate having extended low temperature ranges. Edit - Here's what the builder says about this little engine: "The engine has a 1" bore, and 1" stroke. The hp is unknown, rpm is 50-500 rpm aprox. This is just a model and is not designed to do any real work, it is mechanical art for men, and is for your office desk or den as a conversation piece, it does go round and round when air pressure is applied."

While the electric motor, seen in Lloyd's video, worked fine to start up the steam processing, Lloyd says that he much prefers the new method using propane. No electric motor, motor mounting hardware, switches, controls, batteries, electrical connections, wiring, or additional drive mechanisms are needed. The propane works quickly for start-up, and is then turned off. The system is then self-sustaining as long as water drip is available and the friction producing wood is loaded.

Just some clarifications and additional food for thought from the man in Maine.

Nothing new from Lloyd at this time, but I will post anything that comes along as quickly as is possible.

Best regards to all,

Rickoff 

Images provided by Lloyd are here:

http://cid-a4a1d6e4bb17a7e3.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/Lloyd%20Tanner%7C4s%20Friction%20Heater?uc=1

tak

[resonanceman]

A very interesting and practical concept.

More here...

http://www.blfdesigns.com/frictionheater/

I think  that   the water  hammer  device or  spinning  disks or  cylinders in  oil  can  do the same thing ...........without  wasting  wood .

friction is  caused  by  making  atoms  bump into each other  at a faster rate .  There are lots of ways to  create it without  direct contact .

gary   

[rickoff]

Hi folks, I'm glad to see that you have a thread going here about Lloyd's device.  I have been quite busy the past few weeks in the thread at EnergeticForum, and there is a lot of new information posted. My post #32 gives full details about the functional parts.  See that here: http://www.energeticforum.com/renewable-energy/2835-friction-steam-boiler-2.html#post31322

If you read my post #60 of the same thread, I think that will make it clear that the Griggs pump is not the way to go, and that Lloyd's device is more effective.  I posted a new concept drawing on October 28, in post # 93, that shows how I would go about constructing a replication of Lloyd's device, and I think this will help people to better visualize everything that is going on. Thanks for your interest, and I hope that you will find the information both interesting and useful.

Best wishes to all,

Rickoff

[nitinnun]

i want to do this exact same thing. but with one steel bowl spinning inside another. another that has motor oil in it.


the friction is what causes the heat.
it is not necessary to destroy materials, to get friction.