Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines

Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series

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If you can make steam, you can make electricity.

MAKING STEAM FROM

SOLAR ENERGY

for
Small Steam Turbines and Engines

Part 1

December 1, 2008

By

Robert Saunders

nwwpa@yahoo.com

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 1 of 8
12/07/08
 Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines
Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series
_____________________________________________________________

Quotables

Enter another Republican president, Rutherford B. Hayes. President Hayes was not an inventor, but we
deduct two votes from his party under the “Acts Unbecoming of a President” clause instituted at the
beginning of this column. Some might even say that Hayes’s offense, like Johnson’s, was an impeachable
one. What was his crime?

Upon seeing a demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone in 1876,

Hayes failed to realize its benefits at first. He remarked, “That’s an amazing
invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”
www.inventionmysteries.com/rosen.html

Preface

Some readers will be encouraged after reading what follows, and others will be
discouraged. That depends on the expectations of the reader for harnessing solar energy.
After reading this, all readers should arrive at a similar level of understanding in their
notions for harnessing the sun’s energy. The result should be that they have a better
understanding and more confidence in efforts to convert solar energy to electricity.

The interest of some readers might be limited to providing hot water, or more
ambitiously, to produce steam to run a machine from solar energy, specifically by using a
modified parabolic satellite dish. Others may be interested in using parabolic trough
collectors, or even simple flat plates painted dull black. In any case the reader is
encouraged to follow the process of calculating how much heat can be collected from the
sun, and thus how much water can be heated to what temperature, and how much time it
will take. This might be very useful information where rain-water can be collected,
where solar energy is abundant, where electricity is not available, or is available only
sporadically, or where the cost of electricity is high, and where heating water or
generating electricity results in saving money or improving life.

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 2 of 8
12/07/08
 Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines
Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series
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Part 1 of this paper addresses the solar collection and concentration functions of a system
engaging a steam turbine or engine as illustrated in Fig 1.

Control
Functions

Solar
Steam
Collector
Turbine / Engine
Concentrator
Functions
Functions

Figure 1 System Functional Block Diagram

Solar Collectors. A solar collector accepts energy from the sun and generally stores it.
A somewhat modest distinction is made between a solar collector and a solar
concentrator where a collector in its simplest form can be a flat plate or a box painted dull
black that heats up in the sun. The following website offers a compilation of definitions
for solar collectors.

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+solar+collector&aq=f&oq=

Solar Concentrators. A solar concentrator generally focuses the sun’s rays into a
smaller area. A parabolic reflector, a magnifying glass or a Fresnel lens is a form of
solar concentrator if it is held in such a position that the sun’s rays are focused at its focal
point.

Note: While the temperature at the focal point may be raised to a very high
temperature, a concentrator does not amplify or multiply the total amount of
energy collected.

If a parabolic reflector such as a modified satellite dish lined with mirrors is pointed
toward the sun, it collects the sun’s energy impinging on its surface and concentrates it by
redirecting or focusing that energy at its focal point. In this paper the objective of a solar
concentrator is to heat water to make steam.

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 3 of 8
12/07/08
 Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines
Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series
_____________________________________________________________

Power and Energy. Here are some ideas that need to be understood:

• A kilowatt (kW) is a measure of power (also written as kWe to denote electrical

units).
• A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a measure of electrical energy.
• Power can be expressed as a rate of energy consumption per unit of time, e.g., kWh/h.
• A quantity of heat energy can be measured in terms of British Thermal Units (BTUs).
• A BTU is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one
pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.
• The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a pound of water by one
degree Fahrenheit is called the specific heat of water and equals 1.0.
• Other materials have different specific heats unique to those materials.

There is more to these definitions, but this should be adequate for purposes of discussion.
The effect of pressure will be considered later, but meanwhile pressure is assumed to be
at standard atmospheric pressure of 14.7 psia (lbs/sq. in. abs) unless otherwise noted.

A BTU can be envisioned as a quantity of heat that can be inserted into or extracted from
a material, whether it is a solid, a liquid or a gas. It may be useful to view heat as a fluid
that has no mass and doesn’t take up space, but can be collected, contained and
concentrated, and can only flow from a higher temperature to a lower temperature.

All future energy estimates will be concerned with units of kilowatts (kW), kilowatt-
hours (kWh), British Thermal Units (BTUs) and degrees Fahrenheit (deg F), unless
otherwise noted. The following relations between kilowatts (1 kW = 1000 Watts) and
BTUs should be committed to memory:

1 kWh = 3412 BTU (energy)

Likewise:
1 kW = 3412 BTU/hr (power)

Power available from the sun, as stated above, can be expressed in terms of BTUs per
hour per square meter (btu/hr/m^2). The range of maximum available solar power is
generally considered to be:

1 kW = 3412 BTU/hr/m^2 (low estimate)

1.3 kW = 4435.6 BTU/hr/m^2 (high estimate)

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 4 of 8
12/07/08
 Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines
Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series
_____________________________________________________________
An apparent paradox.

Assume a one square meter concentrator, such as a magnifying glass or Fresnel lens, is
used to focus the sun’s rays on a surface of only 1/1000th (0.001) of a square meter. The
intensity of the sun’s power density will increase from a nominal 3412 BTUs per square
meter/hr to 3,412,000 BTUs per square meter/hr on that small surface. No doubt
whatever that surface is made of, the material would probably ignite, melt or vaporize.
However, the solar energy does not multiply, it is simply concentrated into a smaller
space. If the target area were immersed in 3412 lbs of water, the temperature of the water
would only increase at the rate of one degree per hour.

The following is a practical example of how to calculate the amount of solar energy or
heat needed to produce steam from a given quantity of water.

Example 1. Heat required to raise water temperature to the boiling point.

Given 5 gallons of cold well water, at 40 deg. F, and a 3-meter converted parabolic
satellite dish collector to be used to raise the temperature of the water to the boiling point,
how much heat is needed and how long will it take? Since a gallon of water weighs 8.3
lbs, multiply 5 gallons times 8.3 lbs/gal to obtain the total weight of the water.

Total weight of water = 5 gal x 8.3 lbs / gal = 41.5 lbs

Determine the heat required to raise 5 gallons of water from 40 deg F to the boiling point
of 212 deg F:

Temperature change = T2 – T1 = 212 – 40 = 172 deg F.

Therefore, Hw, the total heat required to heat the water is:

Hw = 1 BTU/lb-deg x 41.5 lb x 172 deg = 7,138 BTU

Estimate the time required to increase the temperature of the water to the boiling point:

If the available solar power density is 1.0 kWh/hr/m^2, a solar collector can absorb 3412
BTU/hr/M^2. If a satellite collector has a diameter of 3 meters, the collecting area is
approximately 7 square meters and it can collect Hh heat per hour:

Hh = 3412 BTU/hr/M^2 x 7 M^2 = 23,884 BTU/hr

Therefore, it will take Th hours, where:

Th = Hw / Hh = 7,138 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 0.3 hrs.

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 5 of 8
12/07/08
 Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines
Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series
_____________________________________________________________

Heat required to convert water to steam:

This might be counterintuitive, but when water is boiling in a closed container, the
temperature of the steam will not increase as heat is added until all the water in the
container has turned to steam. This will become important later in the discussion.

Heat required to convert water from its boiling temperature to steam is called the Latent
Heat of Vaporization and has a value of 970 BTU/lb for water at atmospheric pressure.
What this means is for every pound of water, 970 BTUs are needed to convert the water
to steam at 212 deg F.

Heat of Vaporization for water = 970 BTU / lb

To vaporize the 212 degree, 5 gal of water to steam, the following amount of heat is
needed:

Hv = 5 gal x 8.3 lb/gal x 970 BTU/lb = 40,255 BTU

The time required to make 41.5 lbs of steam from 5 gals of water at the boiling point is:

Tv = 40,255 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 1.69 hours

Heat required to increase the temperature of steam. Heat required to increase the
temperature of a pound of steam is less than that needed to increase the temperature of a
pound of water. Assume the final desired temperature is 600 degrees F.

Note. Quantitative analysis of the thermal process of increasing the temperature

of steam is a complex problem. For purposes of this discussion, it is assumed that
the specific heat of steam is 0.5 BTU per pound. This may be oversimplified but
it will allow us to continue the discussion. Therefore, it is necessary to supply 0.5
BTU to increase the temperature of each lb of steam for each degree of
temperature increase.

Hs = 0.5 BTU/deg/lb x 41.5 lb x (600 – 212) deg. = 8,051 BTU

Time required to raise the temperature of 41.5 lbs of steam to 600 degrees F.

Ts = 8,051 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 0.34 hours

Without explanation, it can be assumed that steam at 600 deg and at the system working
pressure is superheated dry steam. This means there is no liquid water present in the
steam.

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 6 of 8
12/07/08
 Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines
Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series
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Making Steam. The problem is to determine how much steam can be generated from the
sun by knowing how much heat is needed to convert water to superheated steam. The
following example shows how to estimate the heat needed to convert 5 gallons of cold
water to an equivalent weight of superheated steam at 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

Total heat required to convert 5 gals of cold water to 41.5 lbs of steam at 600 deg F.

The total heat, Ht, required to make 41.5 lb of steam at 600 degrees from 5 gallons of
water starting at 40 deg F is the sum of the heat requirements calculated above where:

Hw = 1 BTU/lb-deg x 41.5 lb x 172 deg = 7,138 BTU

Hv = 5 gal x 8.3 lb/gal x 970 BTU/lb = 40,255 BTU
Hs = 0.5 BTU/deg/lb x 41.5 lb x (600 – 212) deg. = 8,051 BTU

Ht = Hw + Hv + Hs = 7,138 BTU + 40,255 BTU + 8,051 BTU = 55,444 BTU

Total time required to convert 5 gals of cold water to 41.5 lbs of steam at 600 deg F.

The total time, Ttot, required to make 41.5 lb of steam at 600 degrees from 5 gallons of
water starting at 40 deg F is the sum of the times calculated above where:

Th = 7,138 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 0.3 hrs.

Tv = 40,255 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 1.69 hours
Ts = 8,051 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 0.34 hours

Ttot = Th + Tv + Ts = 0.3 hrs + 1.69 hrs + 0.34 hrs = 2.33 hrs

Or:
Ttot = Ht / Hh = 55,444 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 2.32 hrs

Total heat required to convert 5 gals of hot water to 41.5 lbs of steam at 600 deg F.

If water from a condenser at a temperature of 212 deg F is returned to the boiler, the heat
needed to convert the water to steam at 600 deg F is the sum of the heat needed to
vaporize the water, Hv, plus the heat needed to raise the temperature of the steam to 600
deg F, Hs.

Hv = 5 gal x 8.3 lb/gal x 970 BTU/lb = 40,255 BTU

Hs = 0.5 BTU/deg/lb x 41.5 lb x (600 – 212) deg. = 8,051 BTU

Ht = Hv + Hs = 40,255 BTU + 8,051 BTU = 48,306 BTU

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 7 of 8
12/07/08
 Solar Steam for Small Turbines and Engines
Junk Yard Mechanics at its Best Series
_____________________________________________________________
Total time required to convert 5 gals of hot water to 41.5 lbs of steam at 600 deg F.

The total time, Ttot, required to make 41.5 lb of steam at 600 degrees from 5 gallons of
heated water starting at 212 deg F is the sum of the times calculated above where:

Tv = 40,255 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 1.69 hours

Ts = 8,051 BTU / 23,884 BTU/hr = 0.34 hours

T’tot = Tv + Ts = 1.69 hrs + 0.34 hrs = 2.03 hrs

Continuous boiler output steam flow in terms of weight per unit of time:

The output of the 5 gallon solar boiler described above is therefore:

Ws = 41.5 lbs / 2.03 hr = 20.4 lbs/hr

Ws = 0.34 lb/min

Steam consumption calculations.

At this point the reader is encouraged to download a steam consumption

calculator from the following website:

www.katmarsoftware.com/turbine.htm

Using this calculator, if we know the input parameters and the desired turbine
output, and we can estimate the efficiency of the turbine, we can then determine
the amount of steam required by the system. What this calculator does is eliminate
the need to refer to steam tables, a very tedious exercise.

Notes to the reader:

1. Part 2 discusses efficiency and how to use the Steam Consumption Calculator.
2. Comments from the reader regarding the material covered are welcome.
3. It would be appreciated if any errors or omissions are reported to the author.

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Copyright 2008 Robert Saunders Page 8 of 8
12/07/08