Burning Liquid Fuels

[asal0312]

I burn kerosene with vaporizing burners (ex. San Joaquin). Fuel pressure is from a 6 volt 10 psi pump. The burner is a U- tube with 0.040" holes drilled in the lower tube (6 of them) for the 30" length of the burner, flame preheats and vaporizes fuel in upper portion of tube. Simply black iron threadded pipe, lower pipe is smaller diameter. Upper pipe has a rod wrapped with brass screen.

A vertical narrow flame from each orifice, sounds like a gas blow lamp. 12 volt deep cycle battery lasts multiple days before recharging.

Pros: Great when running strong, throws a lot of heat ~ 3 gallons/hr. Fairly easy to clean, I use a 0.040" flexible reamer. Makes for a dirty, oily boat. (not so much as wood though).

Cons: Sooty when running slow, hard to throttle flame low enough. Burner needs frequent cleaning. Kerosene hard to light at first, preheat burners by lighting off with alcohol.

I use the old style metal outboard gasoline tanks (3, 6 gallon tanks). Works good, easy to load fuel on board (though hard to find Kerosene in Rhode Island !).

[Lopez Mike]

Now I'm having second thoughts about burning oil. I forgot about the stink. About the last thing I want is to have my boat smell like a man cave.

As to making a mess, I'll take sawdust and a few light ashes blowing about to something that reminds me of an oil fired bat cave.

I have enough trouble getting my partner on the boat without asking her to share quarters with a smudge pot.

There has been one unexpected aspect of wood burning. I am becoming something of an expert on invertebrate wood dwelling creatures. Especially those native to the upper tidal zones of Puget Sound. I feel like Nebuchadnezzar stoking the fiery furnace.

[DetroiTug]

"Now I'm having second thoughts about burning oil. I forgot about the stink."

That only happens from incomplete combustion. If kerosene is burning anything but blue it is not burning fully and making noxious fumes and soot. I spent 8 months to get it burning right. Otherwise the fumes were too much. Burning correctly, just as the indoor kerosene heaters do (not torpedo type), there is little to no fumes and no soot at all. It is difficult to build a burner that burns blue though.

-Ron

[barts]

Burning correctly, just as the indoor kerosene heaters do (not torpedo type), there is little to no fumes and no soot at all. It is difficult to build a burner that burns blue though

Once the refractory and boiler are warm, Otter's burner just has a red haze and there's no smoke. When it's cold, you have run a bit richer and there's some smoke.

- Bart

[mtnman]

"Now I'm having second thoughts about burning oil. I forgot about the stink."

That only happens from incomplete combustion. If kerosene is burning anything but blue it is not burning fully and making noxious fumes and soot. I spent 8 months to get it burning right. Otherwise the fumes were too much. Burning correctly, just as the indoor kerosene heaters do (not torpedo type), there is little to no fumes and no soot at all. It is difficult to build a burner that burns blue though.

-Ron

It still stinks. Just the liquid has a terrible odor, heaven forbid you spill that stinking liquid. Wood or Coal, that's my choice. Marinas around here typically have campgrounds, if not part of the marina then next door. You can buy firewood at any campground. Then there's the driftwood on the shore...

[Lopez Mike]

As long as I do most of my steaming in the N.W. United States, I can stay with wood. And I can probably get a lot more wood on board with a small amount of thought and low cunning. Right now I stuff a lot of lumber cutoffs in bird seed sacks and stack it everywhere there isn't a human.

Last year I steamed seven miles each way to a gathering and back including a trip to a ferry dock maybe three miles away to pick up Barbara. Plus perhaps five miles of dorking around at the event. That's a rough figure of 25 miles and I had about five miles of wood remaining when I loaded the boat on the trailer.

This was mostly at moderate speeds and, as I said, with little thought to efficient stowage. Now if I can figure out a cool way to burn pellets, it will help the stowage issue as they are pretty much a liquid when it comes to fitting into an odd shaped space.

Coal around here here is a non starter as it is either local coal (difficult to tell from clay and slate) or imported from Wyoming and the dust and slow firing response are a put off. The up side of the low energy density of wood is that it doesn't take that long to get the fire under control when I goof off and over fire near a stop.

What I need is an inexpensive source for Dilithium crystals.

[barts]

What I need is an inexpensive source for Dilithium crystals.

Failing that...

My Dad had a small Mexican water heater that was wood fired... and it had a small oil tank and a needle valve where you could drip a little oil onto the fire. You might consider this; it's easy, no electricity required and can stretch your wood supply significantly since #2 fuel oil contains perhaps 8-10 times the BTUs/cubic foot of fir. With a length of scrap 1/4" stainless tubing and a needle valve, you're all set.
You could even get rid of the waste oil from your cars this way. Fire with wood, but add some oil for range.

- Bart

[Lopez Mike]

That does have a lot going for it. Including the fact the the one place on my island that does oil changes has responded favorably when I asked about taking away their used oil. Drain plug washers gratis.

The theory being that the part of the pipe in the heated space lets the oil get way hot and thin and ready to burn? Maybe let the hot pipe run uphill slightly? Or would it be a bad idea to let oil accumulate there?

[barts]

That does have a lot going for it. Including the fact the the one place on my island that does oil changes has responded favorably when I asked about taking away their used oil. Drain plug washers gratis.

The theory being that the part of the pipe in the heated space lets the oil get way hot and thin and ready to burn? Maybe let the hot pipe run uphill slightly? Or would it be a bad idea to let oil accumulate there?

My experience was that if the oil drops onto hot coals in a good fire, it doesn't matter much; I'd try to keep the tubing from burning up .

- Bart

[fredrosse]

So Bart, having had both vaporizing and steam atomizing, which do you think would be most combustion noise?

Seems like steam atomizing is very reliable, will not carbon buildup, and steam consumption lost to the stack is not too terribly bad, unless you want to cross the ocean.

Seems like propane startup would work with either vaporizing system or steam atomized system, what do you think of starting the vaporizer system with propane direct thru the oil vapor nozzles, probably bypassing the vaporizing (flame heated) section tubing, no need to heat the propane gas, then switch over to oil after that tubing is well heated by the startup propane?

Ron, your recent steam car vaporizing system, have you tried it with gasoline?