Constructive criticism needed.

[SpaceOddacy]

I was thinking to myself the other day.

Solar water heater collectors get hot but not hot enough to boil the water? -irrelevant.

Using alcohol OR ammonia - lower boiling temperatures (not sure about ammonia)
Could you construct a solar heater collector that would

Heat the liquid to boiling point but under slight pressure
Have a pipe to a container that is essentially a 'Flash boil tank' - liquid enters at pressure and is sprayed similarly to how fission reactors work. Turning all the liquid to vapor and pressurizing the container which leads to a turbine that spines - vapor then goes to a pump which (here I may be wrong about how it works) re pressurizes the gas to fluid or Cools it rapidly and returns it to the heat collector.

Basically replace the consumables IE: coal\NG\propane\fusion material with sunlight.... is this possible or am I nuts?

[Mike90250]

ammonia refrigerators were outlawed, because they carry a lethal dose. you may still get a mini one for a camper.
Good idea though. Propane for a working fluid has been tried too.

[SpaceOddacy]

ammonia refrigerators were outlawed, because they carry a lethal dose. you may still get a mini one for a camper.
Good idea though. Propane for a working fluid has been tried too.

So this idea isn't insane? And the 'idea' of the set up has been tried before with success? I haven't found anything on the googler....

[SpaceOddacy]

bump

[MarineLiner]

bump

[RifRaf]

MarineLiner, the urbandictionary defines it as, In message board terms, to move a post to the top of the forum with a pointless reply, usually to one's own thread.

[MarineLiner]

Thanks @RifRaf

[SpaceOddacy]

talk about a thread hyjack haha. Its cool =D

[MarineLiner]

To put my ducks in a row

talk about a thread hyjack haha. Its cool =D

[SpaceOddacy]

[QUOTE=MarineLiner;15797]

[MarineLiner]

Similar in have no response

..., I apologize for posting a somewhat duplicate thread.
I honestly hadn't seen yours, this idea came to me a few months ago when it was still sunny out and I was curious to know what people thought of it or if it had been tried.

[mountain]

I was thinking to myself the other day.... is this possible or am I nuts?

This is possible AND (perhaps) you are nuts. Watch the movie "Mosquito Coast" (fun with ammonia hydroxide). Not overly factual, but afterward, you might ask yourself "What could go wrong?"

If I ever go really really nuts, I think I would like Harrison Ford to portray me in the movie.

[peakbagger]

What you are sort of talking about is a organic rankine cycle. You are considering taking a lower boiling point liquid turning it to vapor than running it through a turbine. There are commercial units out there on a large scale. Many use an HFC for a working fluid. Its still a Rankine cycle and constrained by the carnot cycle efficiency so the conversion to electric is quite low. Razor Technologies uses the technique to generate power from low temp geothermal fields in Nevada. There is no good reason why a similiar system wouldnt work with solar. Unfortunately, I think the efficiency of the conversion would be lower than commerical solar cells with a heck of a lot more moving parts.

There is at least one company that did sell a small scale experimental unit on the web but it was quite expensive.

[SpaceOddacy]

Yeah, explosions are always a risk and I hadn't taken that in to consideration!

It is far over my level of engineering to try and build one of these, at least I was on to something that was already made even if it isn't that efficient. It was based upon a theory that proved practical and totally doable, I may be slightly nuts but genius and crazy are a fine line apart.

[ionized]

Note that ammonia cooling is still used on an industrial scale. It is more efficient than the less toxic refrigerant gasses.

Sodium is a good high temp heat transfer liquid. There are some issues.