COMPLETE and RUNNING!
Sales for 2450 US$ (see purchase order form below)
Air freight available worldwide.
(Custom exempted within North America NAFTA zone).
(Check for « on the shelf » inventory...) Note: At this time, the manufacturer
limit its role in supplying engine,
and do not get much involved into engine system integration.
Engine application projects are customer achievements. Example:
12 volts Electric Generator at
www.pureinvention.com/apuq/APUQGeneratricePneumatique.htm
Quasiturbine - Not a Vane Motor
Unlike vane pumps or motors, which vane extension is important and against which the pressure acts to generate the rotation, the Quasiturbine contour seals have a minimal extension and the rotation does not result from pressure against these seals. The vane geometry does not allow high compression ratio at TDC (top dead center), while Quasiturbine does, and this is why QT is efficient (less pressure charging losses), and this is why there is no vane combustion engine. Quasiturbine publishes « efficiency data » while vane motor manufacturers don't. Premium on « efficient equipment » is
rapidly recovered in operational cost, and provide the basis for QT success...
Product Description
The Steam Quasiturbine is very
similar to the pneumatic one, except for dilatation provision, lubrication and
corrosion consideration.
Each chamber has a 75 cc maximum volume, and the motor expands 8 chambers per
revolution:
Displacement: Total = 8 x 75 cc = 600 cc intake per
revolution.
Cylindrical outside about 7 7/8" (~20 cm) in diameter excluding peripherals.
Thickness 2 1/2" (~6.35 cm) excluding shaft and peripherals.
The casing and rotor are made of metal (no aluminum
at this time).
Power shaft: 3/4-inch (~1.90 cm) diameter throughout.
2 intake ports 1/2"
male NPT pipe threads.
2 exhaust ports 1"
male NPT pipe threads.
Weight (all metal)
about
20 pounds.
Simple in-line lubrication.
A silencer may be
suitable for some demonstrations.
Not optimized as compressor.
Present typical limitations under proper
lubrication:
- Intake pressure: 60 psi (4 bar) peak.
- Revolution: 500 rpm.
- Block temperature: Under 150 °C (300 °F) (steam can
be hotter?)
- Torque
(2009 version and later):
Up to
30 N-m (25 pound-foot) peak (with no
gearbox).
- Power 1,5 kW (2 HP) peak
- Pressure flow energy conversion efficiency:
+/- 80 %
(optimum across the range - no off-peak
penalty)
- Load factor: Exceed the 20 % automobile standard.
Theoretical Output Power Extrapolation: Pressure increases both
the rpm and the torque. Since the power is proportional to the product of rpm
X torque, the power output is roughly proportional to the square of the
pressure. Increasing the pressure by 3 fold would then increase the power
by 9 times! (2 kW at 4 bar would theoretically become 18 kW at 12 bar
- or - 3 HP at 60 psi would theoretically become 28 HP at 200 psi). This is of course outside the operational
range of the present machines...
Possible applications: In mining industries, for biomass and solar steam
electrical generation and as rotary expander in thermal systems.
Quasiturbine Model QT.6LSC steam
Usable with intake pressure from 1 to 60 psi (4 bar) peak!
Notice:
This product is custom made and not yet in mass production.
It is offer for institutional and corporate application researches,
demonstrations and projects
and is not intended at this time for private individual retail sale.
Among the new emerging technologies like
hybrids, hydrogen, fuel cell, PV solar, in-wheel motor, power windmill, nuclear
thermal...
the Quasiturbine is by far the least expensive innovation to familiarize with!
QT.6LSC theoretical main characteristics can be approximated from 3
parameters:
Instantaneous maximum torque for 2 opposed working chambers is 8.0 + 8.0 = 16
N-m / bar (0.4 + 0.4 = 0.8 pound-foot / psi). The average torque is 65 % of the
instantaneous maximum, which is 10.4 N-m / bar (0,5
pound-foot / psi) differential effective
pressure through the motor, assuming no truncated intake);
The RPM revolution within reasonable range and the intake geometric flow
(75 cc
x 8 chambers per revolution x rpm, assuming no truncated intake);
The power output which is
proportional to the product: Torque X rpm.
Typical value given as indication only. May vary from one QT to another.
QT.6LSC (shown here) without the differential and the central shaft.
It has a volume of 75 cc per chamber,
and swept 8 chambers per revolution (4 on the top, 4 on the
bottom),
which totalized 600 cc per revolution. (Rotor average diam. 6 in. by 2 in. thickness)
Steam characteristics are roughly similar to the Air Motor.
The following graph is from measurements
on a QT Air Motor
at 500 rpm and under 60 psi (4 bar), and is given as an indication.
Needs to apply 3 - 5 psi at intake
to obtain the 500 rpm free rotation.
The pressure in addition to the theoretical torque curve accounts for :
flow restriction pressure drop at intake port, exhaust back pressure, friction and leaks. The geometric Intake
flow at 500 rpm is 0,3 cubic meter per minute.
Efficiency indication (optimum across the range - no off-peak
penalty) :Each « specific energy conversion
task » can be characterized by an « efficiency coefficient » (Electrical
example: thermal or hydraulic source, generator production, distribution
network, storage, applications...). « Pressure flow energy conversion »
(see definition below) is one task the Quasiturbine accomplishes
efficiently from pressurized gas (or steam) source. These graphs give an indication (not
a measurement) of the pressure flow energy conversion efficiency: (power or torque
obtained) divided by the (power or torque which could be obtained)
+/- 80 %. The
slope difference indicate that this ratio is constant in the range.
Improved solutions exist awaiting mass production...
Theoretical Output Power Extrapolation: Pressure increases both the
rpm and the torque. Since the power is proportional to the product of rpm
X torque, the power output is roughly proportional to the square of
the pressure. Increasing the pressure by 3 fold would then increase
the power by 9 times! (2 kW at 4 bar would theoretically become 18
kW at 12 bar - or - 3 HP at 60 psi would theoretically
become 28 HP at 200 psi). This is of course outside the operational
range of the present machines...
Operation
It is the buyer and/or operator
responsibility
to comply with all applicable national
and local laws and rules,
including those on security and pressurized products.
In several countries 1 bar (15 psi) is considered as high pressure!
Current research lab precaution and procedure
must apply.
Steam is dangerous, and steam qualification personnel
is a must.
Familiarize yourself well beforehand with the Quasiturbine
technology (see the associated site at:
www.quasiturbine.com ).
For optimum performance, the feed line must be well
balanced between the two intake ports, which must be done by ending the line
passed the 2 T by an accumulator (buffer) tank (minimum 3 liters), on which
the pressure gage can be located.
Make it turns gradually (without abrupt acceleration).
Ensure that the rotor is adequately lubricated
(steam oil
only: search "steam engine oil" on the web for local
suppliers). (Never use oil with additive like antifriction,
because large air flow or steam oxidized the oil and precipitate the
additives in glue like product fatal to the Quasiturbine operation). The
best is oil injection within one of the intake port using a small pulsed
pump (electrical or pneumatic). A convenient way is to keep the oil
reservoir pressurized slightly over the QT intake pressure, and to simply
control the oil flow through a needle valve.
Ensure that the hoses and fasteners (particularly the flexible
ones) are of
quality and well anchored.
It is recommended not to exceed 500
RPM and/or 4 bars (60 psi) at the pressure gauge when with load, half
without load. 150 C max. No free running at more than 20 psi.
Avoid flow restriction at exit.
Never exceed the recommended limits.
Intake steam must be reasonably clean.
Silencer could be used (not supplied) with some effect
on efficiency.
Safety Precautions
These units must be operated under the
constant supervision of qualified adults. Heat protection should be use at
all time.
Anchor the unit well on a table before each start-up.
Never exceed the limits and suggested conditions of operation.
Wearing safety glasses, mask and fastened hair is recommended.
The demonstration room must be well ventilated.
Check the tightening of the bolts and adapters. Be aware of the rupture
or the decoupling of any of the flexible hoses.
Have a distant valve at hand to cut the air/steam flow as needed.
Particularly during breaking-in under compressed air, it can happen that
the rotor stops at a dead point, and refuses to turn when the pressure is
applied. This situation is unstable and call for urgent pressure release. In
absence of pressure, slightly turn the rotor with the central shaft and
pressurize it again...
During the demonstration, nothing should approach the central zone of
the rotor;
make observations at a distance of 50 cm (20 po.) or more.
Always remain vigilant and careful!
Sale Details
GENERALITIES
Sale and operation are restricted to adults only.
Steam (not necessarily water)-air-nitrogen (less than 60 psi).
No liquid hydraulic mode.
Additional parts of replacement can be ordered by owners.
CONDITIONS
The Purchasers release the
manufacturer from all responsibilities relative with the use.
Guarantee of the manufacturer is limited to the replacement of the
defective parts (Customer pick-up).
The present document and conditions must be transferred to the chain of
future owners of the unit.
If there is intellectual propriety risk, the manufacturer can simply
refund and not deliver.
The purchasers accept the present page as part of the purchase
order agreement and invoice.
PRICE AND SHIPPING
The price includes the applicable local sale taxes if required, but not
the shipping (pick-up) and custom costs.
The insurances and customs fees are the responsibility of
the purchaser.
As possible, shipping (pick-up) will be made on schedule following the reception of the
payment,
or according to the production capability of the moment (Check for « on the shelf » inventory...).
Failure of the buyer to make final payment or take delivery of the unit
within 3 months of the notice of completion will be interpreted as an
abandon of the product without compensation.
Quasiturbine model QT.6LSC Steam
with rotating central differential and shaft
(facultative intake cut off valve and silencer not included),
is intended for integration research, demonstration and projects.
To be use only under competent supervision.
Guaranty is limited to replacement of defective parts.
Current research lab precaution and procedure must apply.
Sale done FOB Montréal, Québec Canada
Price including Canadian local sale taxes when applicable
but not the shipping (pick-up)
and custom fees (NAFTA Exempted? # 8413.81): 2450 US$
Money rate conversion at
http://fr.finance.yahoo.com/m3
Package
Weight: 14 kg / 30 pounds
Size: 30 cm X 30 cm X 26 cm height / 12 X 12 X 10 inches height.
Email the form to
info@quasiturbine.com or fax to 514-527-9530.
An invoice will follows with payment instructions.
(Terms: 50 % on invoice, the balance 10 days before shipping).
A positive displacement pneumatic or steam motor can be
ideally represented (case without truncating the intake) by a piston in an infinitely long cylinder, in which case
the power is proportional to the product of the pressure time the flow.
(Attention: The (volumetric) flow rates use in the following equations
are not normalized to the standard atmospheric pressure)
Power (HP) = Pressure (psi) X Flow (cfm) / 229
(cfm = cubic feet/min.)
(As an example: 1 HP = 10 cfm at 22.9 psi)
or (1 m3 / min = 35.3 cfm):
Power (kW) = Pressure (bar) X Flow (m3/min) X 1.70
(As an example: 1 kW = 0.294 m3/min at 2 bar)
QT.6LSC Flow = 0.6 liter X rpm (in liter/min) = 0.021 X rpm
(in cfm)
For specific fluid, temperature and pressure conditions,
the Mollier table gives the steam flow in pounds/hours (kg/hour).
See for example:
www.chemicalogic.com/download/mollier.html
If the intake pressure increases, the flow (rpm) increases
also, such that generally the engine power increases as the square of the
pressure.
Remember that there could be a significant difference
between the pressure applied at the engine intake and the actual pressure into
the engine chambers. Also, efficiency of all engines falls in the free spinning
regime, where the torque load demand is too low (or rpm demand too high) to extract all the
machine power. Furthermore, no engine is 100 % efficient. Conventional turbine
or piston engines are driven by similar pressure-flow relation (case without
truncating the intake). Relative to the pressure flow energy conversion role of
the Quasiturbine, the efficiency (not an absolute efficiency,
nor is the piston efficiency when discarding the energy spent in fuel refining
and transportation) is given by the
(power or torque obtained) divided by the (power or torque which could be
obtained according to these formula).
Free spinning (no load) in the 0 to 800
rpm range of a well run-in unit is typically given by:
Free spinning (rpm) = 100 X Pressure (psi)
= 1500 X Pressure (bar)
(Maximum engine power is produced near half of the free spinning rpm)
Feed Line Capacity
Flow velocity near a piston valve is always impressive, and
it is not different with the Quasiturbine intake ports.
To sustain 500 rpm in a 600 cc displacement QT.6LSC, the intake flow rate must
be (600 cc X 500 rpm) = 0.3 m3 / min..
Knowing that a 1/2 inch diam. tubing contains 0.125 liters / meter long, this
correspond to a flow velocity in the tube of :
(300 liters / min.) / (0.125 liter / m)
= 40 m
/ s or 150 km / h
Could be half, considering that the Quasiturbine has 2
intakes which could be feed individually. Velocity near the intake ports will be
even higher. Consequently, such a relatively small tubing must be quite short
(or act as a limiting safety factor to protect the unit?). This shows that a
proper feed line design capacity must not be under minded to achieve a good
system integration, with special attention in matching the end of the feed line
with a damper tank for optimum load under fluctuating flow. Notice that once the
pressurized fluid gets into the engine, the flow velocity reduces to match the
tangential rotor speed, which is:
(engine perimeter = 50 cm) X 500 rpm = 4 m /
s = 15 km / h
and flow speed increases again into the
exhaust, which must show minimum restriction.
Remark on Steam Efficiency
The Quasiturbine efficiency is theoretically the one of a
positive displacement engine with a geometric compression ratio of about 10:1,
running without intake cut-off (a device could be installed eventually see
www.quasiturbine.com/EProductQTCutOffValve.htm).
Remember that the Engine Power is proportional to the
TORQUE time the RPM. Power is zero at maximum torque (because rpm is then zero),
and Power is also zero at free spinning rpm (because the output torque is then
zero). Maximum Engine Power is near midway, when the rpm is "half the free
spinning rpm", and the torque "half the maximum zero rpm torque". Running in
excess of "half the free spinning rpm" requires a high air/steam flow for little
torque and power output, a non-efficient engine regime which must be avoid.
Quasiturbines are supply without intake synchronization valve or
cut-off device, which can be installed by the buyer looking for high efficiency
overall system. An high efficiency pneumatic/steam motor does not guaranty the high
efficiency of the entire system. The cooling steam effect during
relaxation must not be under-estimated. For high pressure drop (not allowed with
this unit), intermediary heating is a must to keep up the pressure and
avoid condensation. No steam circuit is easy to design and operate.
Since water requires an important quantity of latent
vaporization heat (which is not generally recovered in the condenser or in the
atmosphere open circuit), operation with saturated steam will likely give low
efficiency (unless with a cogeneration application), because of the
important volume of water which needs to be evaporated to maintain the pressure.
Even if the Quasiturbine can accept saturated steam, it is not suitable from the
energy efficiency stand point, that the steam stays saturated
during all the cycle. In fact, in all expansion thermal machine (the
Quasiturbine being one of the most efficient), increase in thermal efficiency is
linked to steam overheating (without having to increase the pressure), since one gets the same pressure effect with less molecules, wherein making
a substantial reduction in the quantity of water needed to be vaporized
(... and saving of the corresponding latent heat energy, while some more
calories are lost in the exhaust). Conclusion: Water is not necessarily the
most efficient fluid for low temperature steam cycle.
From the steam engine point of view, no more need for very high pressure steam to be efficient! The conventional
steam turbines require very high pressure in order to generate the high flow
speed permitting the turbine to be efficient. This is not the case with the
Quasiturbine which is very efficient (engine efficiency, not necessarily the
system efficiency) at all pressures, all load levels and all RPM, and can
produce substantial power with sustained intake pressure as low as 20 to
60 psi peak and at only 500 RPM. In those two cases however, the super-heated steam
increases the efficiency of the steam cycle, and the lower pressure operation
may lead to larger equipments for the same power...
Hydraulic Notice
This is a steam engine only. Steam Quasiturbine has
provision for thermal expansions and some corrosion resistance that are not
incorporated in the pneumatic. Must not be use with incompressible fluid (liquid
hydraulic mode) - Avoid excessive internal liquid condensation. This unit can
however be occasionally use in pneumatic mode.
Cascade Expansions?
Because the Quasiturbine has 2 independent circuits which can be used in serial,
many could suggest that a single Quasiturbine can acts as a dual equal-size
stages expander with an intermediary heat exchanger (with reduced specific power, unless the intake
pressure is raised). This is not likely to be the case, because the serial
interconnection of the chambers makes the exhaust volume of the first stage to
move into the exact same volume of the intake chamber of the second stage
without making any net additional torque or work (at constant pressure, or even
if an intermediary heat exchanger increases the temperature and the pressure
during the transfer). Because the exhaust and the intake chambers stay at the
same pressure during the transfer, that pressure would not be a constraining
back pressure to the first stage. The final result would be equivalent to give
heat to the exhaust without getting any work out, and would give a neutral role
to the second stage. Characteristics would be similar to the one circuit only
steam mode.
However, experimentation with inter-stages check-valves, intermediary tank, Venturi
pressure phase shift... and super-heater could make it a worth avenue to
explore.
The
Quasiturbine can further make internal gas expansion if the dominant restriction
is made to be at the intake, such that the flow is not sufficient to keep the
internal pressure at the level of the pressure intake line. This internal
expansion can then be done without any synchronization valve (cut-off intake). Efficiency
increases as the involved gas pressure is lower. The present possibilities have
not yet been tested.
Steam Engine Lubrication
Periodic oil spray needs to be injected into motor
intakes steam flow. The best is oil injection within one of
the intake port using a small pulsed pump (electrical or pneumatic). A
convenient way is to keep the oil reservoir pressurized (with air?)
slightly over the QT intake pressure, and to simply control the oil flow
through a needle valve.
Standard product recommendations start at steam
pressures of 150 to 200 psig (366 to 388 F). The grade of recommended steam
cylinder oil for these conditions is ISO 460 which contains 4% tallow oil.
This is the grade of oil that the “ride-on” locomotive community uses. It
is generally available in 55 gallon drums, but Sulphur Springs Steam
Models sales@sssmodels.com
provides it in quart cans. Chevron USA has a relatively new steam cylinder
oil on the market that is lighter in viscosity than ISO 460 by about half
(1103 SUS vs. 2335 SUS @ 100 F). Other steam oil may do as well, search "steam
cylinder oil"
on the web for local suppliers. It does
not require much oil, and large steam units generally use a separator in
the condenser, and recycle this oil.
Never use motor oil or inappropriate lubricant (avoid
additives), as it
will oxidize and degrade into solid or viscous material under steam
contact. If this happen, attempt cleaning the engine with a glass of
kerosene in the intake, while turning the engine slowly by hand. Re-oil
properly.
(The following are non-tested possibilities...)
Rotary Pressure Regulator
What about an "energy recovery rotary pressure regulator" ? An
interesting application of the steam Quasiturbine is to recover the high pressure energy at
pressure reduction stations. Instead of using a
conventional cooling station,
a steam Quasiturbine will rotate under the
pressure differential and the flow will be controlled by the rpm, i.e. the
torque applied on the Quasiturbine shaft. This way, the Quasiturbine can
transform the pressure differential into useful mechanical work to run pump,
compressor, ventilator, electricity
generator or locally convert the energy in high grade heat. Because
conventional turbines can not be widely modulated in rpm and load, they are not
suitable for gas flow and pressure control, while the Quasiturbine is
essentially a closed valve at zero rpm (subject to appropriate construction), and has high efficiency at all torque
and all flow rpm. All
experimental demonstration has to be done only by steam
experts and under all current rules and regulations.
ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle)
Engine suitable for ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) in Solar, Geothermal and Waste
Heat Recovery.
