Low-Energy Boiler

[mayorredbeard]

My assignment:

Create the most efficient turbine you possibly can.

Efficiency in this sense is actual efficiency. And it has to be able to operate continuously.

Pretty broad, right? This is my idea:

1. Create an air-tight chamber.
2. Fasten a small diameter pipe onto one of the walls of the chamber, and the other end feeds into a reservoir of water; held back by a latch.
3. Use a industrial pump to remove as much air as possible.
4. Heat the inside of the chamber.
5. Release water into the chamber and it should boil at a very low temperature due to the lack of internal pressure, making it vastly more efficient then a normal steam turbine.

Anyone see any flaws in this idea? As long as you keep feeding in water the pipe won't open up to the atmosphere causing the chamber to reach equilibrium with the outside. It seems so simple I figure there must be something wrong with it. Otherwise this would be done on a much larger scale to make electricity very cheap.

 

[BrynF_UK]

but where does the steam go once its been created

 

[mayorredbeard]

Hehe left that part out. The chamber narrows towards the top, and at the top there is a turbine. The rising steam spins the turbine, which spins a magnet around a coil to produce electric current.

Once the steam flows past the turbine it is collected in a collection pool at the top, which is then sealed once full and removed, then allowed to reach regular pressure after which it is a liquid again and returns to the original water reservoir.

 

[BrynF_UK]

is the area around the turbine under a lower pressure too?

 

[mayorredbeard]

Yea, the turbine and the magnet + coil are all located inside the low pressure chamber.

 

[BrynF_UK]

where does the steam go once its spun the turbine?

 

[esa193]

also try to make as much pressure as possible push a magnet as fast as possible

 

[mayorredbeard]

where does the steam go once its spun the turbine?

Into a collection chamber at the top, that also has a latch. So you can close the latch once its full, and open it up to the atmosphere to condense back into water; then poured back into the original reservoir.

 

[BrynF_UK]

cool, so whats to stop the "positive" pressure going back when the latch is opened?

 

[mayorredbeard]

I've incluced a picture below.

The collection chamber has its latch open when the air is being pumped out; this way the pressure in the collection chamber equals the pressure in the main chamber. It is only closed to remove the collection chamber and re-condense the steam into water under normal atmospheric conditions. It is then reattached, and the latch opened. The pump then only needs to suck the air that was in the collection chamber, a lot less then the work done by the turbine, (at least according to my calculations), thus still resulting in positive work being done. If any of you take physics, I'll try and include a PV diagram once I figure it out to better understand this process.

DIAGRAM:

- Red lines are closable latches.
- The green line simply indicates the connection between the main chamber and the pump.
- The gold/orange thing towards the top is suppose to represent a magnet around a coil, while the black thing to the left of it is the best turbine I can draw