Hybrid Ship Pulse Detonation Turbine to DC Electrics

[RonL]

Originally Posted by SeaBirdShip

Hello All,

I recently purchased a 177' all steel ship here in sunny San Diego she has an amazing history which you can read about at www.seabirdadventure.com the plan is to convert her to a exploration and research ship for environmental issues.

Now to where you all can help, as I was thinking about the 600-700 gallons per day she uses it struck me that she creates 100's of gallons of waste oil and her emissions are that of three large diesel engines. So

What if I removed her three mains and replace them with 2x600hp and 1x500hp DC electric motors on direct drive and figured out a way to burn waste oil to create electricity.

The method I am using and currently building a 200HP prototype by using a combination of 3 technologies;

1) Pyrocatalytic Method “pyrocatalytic converter”
2) Pulse Detonation “pulse combustion”
3) Tesla turbine

and I am calling this a The Pulse Combustion Turbine.

Any one that would like to jump into this discussion please do, there are many engineering problems to work through and I need your help.

Thanks, SeaBird Ship

Hello SeaBirdShip,
I am enthralled with your project, having dwelled upon the Tesla Turbine for well over 20 years, I might have a few ideas that could be of value in your efforts.
In 1996 I started a patent process and did not have the finances or book smarts or mental focus to reach the end results, now I'm just too old to start such a work.

The title of the patent would have been, "A rotating variable displacement expansion valve" this might tell you exactly what I see in the possibilities of this device, which is based on Tesla's words in his patent "a thermal conversion machine".

Unless your main goal is ridding the world of waste oil, there might be a way to build a closed loop steam cycle that has a refidgerating section using keel cooler applications under the waterline of your ship.

The simple pictures in my mind are very hard (for me) to put into words, in a way that people can usually follow, but if you would like to try using private messages and maybe a phone conversation or two, I think we might agree at some point that a face to face meeting could be of great value to your project. I would even try to make this as small of an "out of pocket expense" as I can afford, if that is important to you ?

Let me know if you are interested in going further, as I suspect this might be one of thousands of such comments.
regardless, best wishes for your project.

RonL

[cthippo]

What's your H2O2 consumption going to look like? Traditionally the problem with rocket powered anything has been the rapid fuel consumption and the need to carry a seperate oxidizer. Is there a way to use H2O2 to get it started and then use air for the oxidizer? Maybe regenerative heating to pre-heat the fuel? Waste oil may be cheap, but I doubt hydrogen peroxide is, plus the need to carry a separate, and dangerous, oxidizer is going to cut into the commercial viability of this system.

Can your system run on more conventional fuels without using the oxidizer?

Just a cautionary note, but H2O2 based propulsion systems in torpedos have killed a number of submarines, including the Kursk. A fixed water mist system in the engine room in case of a leak might be a good idea.

[SeaBirdShip]

Originally Posted by cthippo

No, that is not "pretty cool", that is FREAKING INCREDIBLE!

Thank you very much for your comments, it has been 5 years of learning and work to get to this point.

Cheers, SeaBird

[SeaBirdShip]

More answers to more great questions...

Keep in mind that at this test stage I'm only using the H2O2, so at his point in time with 100% duty cycle the system is using 1.8 gallons / sec. - a fair amount!

On a mono-propellant engine the oxidizer is inherent from the reaction, also and H2O2 engine does not require O2 as it generates its own.

It is possible as you suggest to either use this part a start up only procedure and it is also possible to use "air" to burn, but I wanted to get a fully operation PDE which currently does not exist in the commercial world. I felt this would give me the best chances of success.

Read a few posts earlier as a refresher, the plan is waste oil of any type as a fuel, but any hydrocarbon based fuel could be used. The only reason I suggest this, is that I wrote a bunch on the wast oil part of the project earlier.

Your concerns are warranted, but simply put H2O2 is by far safer then gasoline ever will be. The only thing you do not want to do with H2O2 is place it in a sealed container, heat it up and drop in a hunk of silver. if you do this the reaction WILL BURST the container in a spectacular way.

[cthippo]

Ok, cool. I hadn't realized you were still in the proof of concept phase, guess I should have. So what is the next step then? How long until you expect to have the PDE on-line?

[SeaBirdShip]

Originally Posted by cthippo

Ok, cool. I hadn't realized you were still in the proof of concept phase, guess I should have. So what is the next step then? How long until you expect to have the PDE on-line?

No worries, the whole project is a steep engineering learning curve. Based on my current research I will need to use high grade ceramics for the PDE turbine assembly and nozzles. The only other material for the nozzle might be graphite but the pulse stresses may break it down.

So for right now my work goes to perfecting the power in to power out equations to continue to squeak out the highest efficiencies I can from using the Tesla arrangement. While at the same time getting as many people on the web site and getting involved with the "Earth Blog" http://www.seabirdadventure.com/seabird/earth-blog

and "Eco Forum" http://www.seabirdadventure.com/eco-forum

I would greatly appreciate your help on this as you guys have a great forum going now.

Cheers, SeaBird

[SeaBirdShip]

Hello Ron L.

I'm not sure I answered your post from last year...? Bus yes I am certainly interested in talking with you on your ideas. If you wouldn't mind, send me a contact email from the Seabird Site at http://www.seabirdadventure.com/contact

and I'll give you a ring.

Cheers, SeaBird

[cthippo]

Originally Posted by SeaBirdShip

I would greatly appreciate your help on this as you guys have a great forum going now.

I'd love to help where I can. This is the most exciting design concept I've seen in a very long time.

I'm also dying to see it in person! I need to find a way to make a roadtrip to Cali.

[SeaBirdShip]

Originally Posted by cthippo

I'd love to help where I can. This is the most exciting design concept I've seen in a very long time.

I'm also dying to see it in person! I need to find a way to make a roadtrip to Cali.

Thank you again, It is really great to see folks appreciate all the hard work going into this.

This last weekend we took some more film on the expansion differences between 50% H2O2 and 90% H2O2, lot's of fun, I'll be posting these pics this week and let you know.

The way to help is get anyone you think that might like all this and get them to join up and start discussions and commenting and being involved.

http://www.seabirdadventure.com/seab...responsibility

We are starting to get interest from companies to sponsor the ship and our projects with her.

Cheers, Sea Bird

[cthippo]

I'll post this to the other forum I'm on. They're geeks over there and should appreciate it.

What's with the pic of Texas Tower 4?

[SeaBirdShip]

Originally Posted by cthippo

I'll post this to the other forum I'm on. They're geeks over there and should appreciate it.

What's with the pic of Texas Tower 4?

One of the incredible history facts about the Sea Bird Formally the USNS New Bedford is that she was the ship during the tower 4 disaster.

Here is the main article but there are many more on the site; http://www.seabirdadventure.com/hist...e-texas-towers and http://www.thetexastowers.com/07-TheAKL-17/index.html

She was also the ship used in the movie Mister Roberts from 1954; http://www.seabirdadventure.com/hist...r-roberts-ship

These are some of the reasons I got involved with her as a project, she has amazing history!!!

Cheers, Seabridship

[SeaBirdShip]

And thank you for posting on the other forum, every link and reader helps a ton.

Cheers Seabridship

[SeaBirdShip]

Originally Posted by cthippo

I'd love to help where I can. This is the most exciting design concept I've seen in a very long time.

I'm also dying to see it in person! I need to find a way to make a roadtrip to Cali.

Please fill out the contact form on http://www.seabirdadventure.com/join-now/contact

And I'll give you a call back so that we can get together for lunch.

Cheers, Seabird

[cthippo]

Hey Seabird, hows it coming?

[SeaBirdShip]

Thank you for checking in. Well we have made substantial upgrades to the navigation and information on the site http://www.seabirdadventure.com/

In addition we have added and been posting a blog update http://www.seabirdadventure.com/seabird/earth-blog with more up to date world news and thoughts.

Finally I have some additional nozzle pics of the turbine that I'll post here 1st and am getting ready to post on the Sea Bird site at http://www.seabirdadventure.com/phot...-tesla-turbine

So lot's of work but slow progress, getting ready to do a dual impulse turbine design very soon to double the HP contribution to the Tesla disk pack too!

Cheers, Sea Bird