h a l f b a k e r yThis ain't rocket surgery.
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A place like Jiffy Lube must have a lot of used oil and brake fluid at the end of the day. Those fluids can go to good use however, because It is well known that turbine engines can burn pretty much anything under the right circumstances. Just dump the waste into a reservoir that fuels a jet engine
with fuel injectors capable of handling the sticky motor oil, and higher temperature igniters. A particulate filter and diesel exhaust fluid will help make it environmentally friendly. The engine will generate enough electrical power to supply the business, and possibly sell some energy back to the power company, while a manifold provides heat. Bleed air replaces the shop's conventional compressors for the air tools. The whole system will even be relatively low maintenance since the jet will have /plenty/ of lubrication.
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Aw, I was hoping we were going to attach a PTO shaft to one of the car's drive wheels. |
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or the vehicle is driven up onto a platform, is fixed and then lowered down to the ground, driving a generator. |
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In some states it is still legal to undercoat your vehicle with used oil to protect it from rust. That's how we recycle it. |
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all the local shops store oil and burn it in the winter for heat, since generated power here is basically more expensive than line power, so long as otherwise you would be btu/btu with natural gas. i imagine this is similar everywhere. Also, many places sell used oil to refineries which produce new oil from it. So, either sell it, or burn it. No sense in the inefficiency of trying to replace mains power. |
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But if you got the generation right you'd get the heat, with power for free. |
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Myself I'm more concerned with potential for metal finings in the waste oil, and what they'd do to the generator.. |
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No, you would get most of the heat. Some of the heat is converted into work, and soot. The problem is that the fuel is more valuable as a lubricant than it is as a fuel and the energy produced is more expensive than mains power. (cost of generation minus value of fuel>cost of mains kWH) |
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//In some states it is still legal to undercoat your
vehicle with used oil// |
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What surprises me even more is that there are
states which have passed a law to prevent it. You
guys... |
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//No, you would get most of the heat. Some of the heat is converted into
work, and soot.// |
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Assuming that you burnt the fuel as efficiently, you'd get pretty much the
same heat out in the end. In fact there are ways to get more heat where
you want it than energy input, although we needn't concern ourselves
with that here. The real issue is that efficient power generation is rather
complicated and expensive, and doesn't scale down well, so it's not really
worth it at small scales. |
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//The problem is that the fuel is more valuable as a lubricant than it is as a
fuel and the energy produced is more expensive than mains power.// |
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That doesn't actually seem like much of a problem to me. Okay, so it does
rule out DIYMatt's proposal everywhere that it's worth shipping the stuff
back to be recycled - but it's not an issue with the system as a whole. |
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