A bit skeptical.....but I am a bit old fashioned....not exactly "Green" or politically correct on most days. What are thoughts on steam trains powered by vegetable oil? I am just picturing what my skillets look like after using vegetable oil and trying to figure this one out...hmmm....what's next? Carrot Juice? www.allaboardtrains.blogspot.com come and post your comments on our blog or leave them here on this great site!
The fact that any steam locomotives still operate in 2010 should be enough of a miracle in itself. Unless one owns stock in coal or oil companies, it doesn't matter what it burns to boil the water.
The following links may be of interest:
http://www.thetrain.com/Steam-Event-7275.html
"It's Time To Get Fired Up! Steam is back at Grand Canyon Railway"
http://www.thetrain.com/special-achievement-award--1064213597-7950.html
http://www.sincity-247.com/tws/?p=5054
"...MAY 8-9, 2010 WITH STEAM LOCOMOTIVE RIDES POWERED BY RECYCLED VEGETABLE OIL; DISCOUNT ON PACKAGE
"...In celebration of National Train Day, the Grand Canyon Railway (GCR) and the Grand Canyon Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society will host a two-day event May 8-9, 2010 featuring rides pulled by a steam locomotive powered vegetable oil..."
I've heard of yachtsmen who have run their smaller auxiliary diesel motors, the ones ued to power sailboats through calms, on vegetable oil. They say the exhaust smells like french fries! I suppose that any oil the contains BTU's can be used to raise a head of steam. I wonder what modifications, if any, have to be made to the burner ports. The Chief Engineer on the preserved Liberty Ship Jeremiah O' Brien once told me they could steam on anything from used crankase oil to paint thinner or a mixture thereof but the EPA made them stop doing it.
At one time the German Army was running multi-fuel engines in their main battle tanks that would burn anything from kerosene to Joy perfume. With some fiddling, of course...
If it can be atomized properly and mixed with air, the rest is just what goes up the stack. And deep throaty chuffs. Oh, oh, ooohhhh...
-Crandell
Part of the appeal of the steam locomotive is that it can burn solid fuel. Sure, liquid fuel is convenient, even for a steam locomotive firebox, but back in the day when they ran "oil burners", I am pretty sure they were using Bunker C or some tarry fraction of refined petroleum that they didn't have any other use then -- nowadays they seem to use "all of the oil except for the squeal" (or is that the meat packing plant?) and the residue from petroleum is something they call "petcoke."
Again, vegetable oil that is discarded from fast-food restaurants is the burn-the-waste-byproduct kind of thing, but here, it seems they can use all of that for running more thermally efficient Diesels (oh well).
But all is not lost. The Argentinian L. D. Porta was promoting a "biomass" tank engine for Cuba, presumably the waste from sugar cane after they get the sugar out. So the ideal fuel would be the waste after they do the pressings to extract the valuable vegetable oil, either as a food or as a fuel after it has been long enough in a fast food deep fryer. So think pelletized solid vegetable matter.
Who knows, do you think a pelletized biomass fuel could be "blown in" to the firebox with steam or compressed air?
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Like most alternative fossil fuels I believe this won't last a single season.It's wishfull thinking at best.Vegetable oil after burning is a heavy saturated smoke.Instead of soot coating boiler flues and the smokebox you will have grease.I am not sure how they will clean the boiler tubes from this grease.Usually sand is poured in the firebox while the locomotive is moving to clean soot from the tubes.But with grease the sand would just get stuck and clog the tubes.I can only imagine the inside of firebox will be a sticky mess of grease inches thick.I can see unburned fuel a big problem also.Raw vegetable oil coming out the stack and coating the locomotives and cars in a oily mess.
Propane would be the ideal fuel.Burns very clean.You would need several tank cars though for probably just one days worth of excursions.Bunker oil is still the best fuel for steam locomotives.It's cheap,burns well,and is always in supply.
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