Solar steam engine #2 new concept explanation 

It's so frustrating when people suggest that you do something that they are doing, or that everyone else is doing. You make some of the coolest shit I've ever seen, keep doing YOUR own thing bro!

There is an old patent by one Tito Romagnoli for a "Sun-Heat Motor" (US Pat 1,785,685 of 16th Dec 1930), in which he used a similar setup with a medium similar to the Butane you use. Maybe, the patent is of some use to your project.

I like the way you think! I wish there was 5 of you so we could learn and see more. Thank you!

A solar steam engine was used back in the 1800's to run a printing press for a newspaper. It is not new, but is lost knowledge. For your engine, simply drive a turbine or use an air tool substituting steam for compressed air. You'll go further, faster. If you are determined to boil butane, at least add an afterburner to make use of that energy as well. :)

Your Videos Are EXCELLENT: -- Great Sound; Lighting, Camera Angles, Concepts, Scripting, Pacing, and Content. VERY REFRESHING change as you obviously put at least as much effort and craftsmanship into the quality of your videos as your main profession. Thank YOU!

That's genious! Insted of trying to get the thing hot enough to vaporise water, use something that boils at a much lower temp!

I was also looking at using a steam style engine for a project, but it was to cool down a compressed gas actually, after quite a lot of research, I found that (for my project) the steam, engine wasn't super viable because of needing to get such low temperatures with the materials I was using.... I'm really inspired by the use of butane though... I'm really excited as to the energy storage potential, cheaper than batteries!

A fun concept would be to use geo as the cold side and solar as your hot side to cause a phase change in the refrigerant. Harness that power and we have a concept for a Rankine engine. :D

Great work. I simply glued 1 inch glass mirrors on a dish. Much more powerful than polishing...

Congrats on your success with this experiment! Should your solar steam engine prove successful then it will be huge in terms of the possibility of generating electricity for very low cost! Keep up the great work and posting videos!!!

I have been wondering about this for a long time too I have been told by someone that knows more about this than me but is by no means an expert that the big advantage of water is the huge amounts of energy needed for a phase transition also gives steam the properties that are desirable in steam engines. However, butane at 100 degrees should get up to 15 bar if i'm not mistaken, that seems very promising. PS, seems that you are Dutch. If you need something 3D printed for free hit me up, I'll gladly help in any way I can (sadly no lathe or cnc at my disposal).

Amazing!

That mini wood 🪵stove is over the top!

i like the idea but like, butane is volatile enough that you could get spontaneous ignition inside the cylinder like in a diesel engine, especially if decelerating under load, it'd compress the butane and potentially ignite it, that flash will likely get through the exhaust of the cylinder and get to the tank. so it's not only a good idea to evacuate all of the air from the system from an efficiency standpoint, but a necessity if you want to keep your engine as a steam engine, and not a combustion one! probably good if you want to keep your eyebrows, too.

You should try a Stirling engine if using heat from the Sun or any other heat source

Interesting video, I have not thought of using butane as a working fluid before, seems dangerous, but I guess like all things if the proper care is taken it should be fine...

Great idea!

How will the butane be pumped from the low pressure tank to the high pressure tank that might be anywhere from 30-100 psi with small pump? Small Mechanical fuel pumps typically only go 5-10 psi. Really cool project trying to understand it fully.

Great project. Would it be viable to use 3D printed steam turbine generator (Tesla f. ex.) in the loop to create electricity? You might need to increase the disc size to get higher heat.

Nice experiment , this is almost the same as the cryophorous cycle! Qwestion, how do you plan to seal the engine from leaking butane gas out of the system, ar you going to put it in a tight chamber or something En how can you extract the mechanical power from it whitout leaking?

Hi . as I understand for the engine to work the difference in pressure in the question, can you lay out the calculations? - the temperature is hot, and condensate, - what is the difference in pressure you plan to get - working volume of the engine, rpm - calculation of heat in water, - calculation of heat capacity of butane for evaporation - which will be the supply of energyenergy, in volume of water - interested in such a cognitive video

So you are making a steam engine and a refrigerator. Nice.

You should use a gas/liquid that boils at around 60°C so that you can condense the gas from the steam engine back into a liquid which then can be reused without using energy to condense it.

great inspiering projekt. but in this case i don´t get the part of boiling. i googled, that butane is boiling at -1 °C. does condensating work because of any pressure change? are there any security issues with butane, like fire explosivety? Thanks

oi amigo,testou o tudo a vacum de aquecedor solar,esquenta mais que o coletor comum,é usado em ate churrasqueiras solar de camping ?

I use it as hot water, bath etc. 80% off the year 👍🖐

Can you recommend a source for information for producing the steam piston rings? It would be a great benefit to having an alternative to metal rings.

Your work inspires me. I was thinking about trying your low temperature rig with a thermal solar setup using the pressure to lift a balanced arm to the top of a swing and collect the energy off the fall. resetting the system to raise the arm again. If this didn't work I was thinking about using HHO and solar electric to accomplish the same thing. I'm not sure what the pressure can get up to with a few volts and a sealed container of water =) My goal would be to build a working piece of art for my yard so people can enjoy the mystery of science.

this is an awesome idea, i am trying to create hot water with solar for my sink, i have encased a black radiator inside a frame with plexiglass and insulated it, within 20 min of sun the water is too hot to touch which amazed me, hope your butane design works out, pls show how you will insulate the tank and with what material ?

Can the butane also condense in the bottle even when the room temp. (condenser temp.) is for example 25C° or higher, beqause of the pressure difference from the two different temperatures?

The problem of having a lower boiling point means that you will need a bigger condenser, so it is really hard to make any changes on the fluid, although you could use an compressor.

This is very much like the way modern refrigerators use isobutane (R600a) - except backwards :D Was this your inspiration?

awesome design

is there a way to have a constant flow boiler in a steam engine? Nuclear reactors constantly put in new water, but i have never seen a small boiler tank that can automatically top itself off as it lowers.

I'm sure butane is probably better for the environment than r22 or r134 as a working fluid.

why not a closed cycle tesla turbine? still runs on steam, efficient and easy to build.

Hi interested when there will be a video- about calculation working engine, pressure heat capacity propane. butane-propane mixture o produce higher vapor pressure at lower temperatures.... very interesting I'm waiting very much

I had not considered butane before - now I need to... seriously - I have been planning to do a Stirling engine project, and this is it. BtW. Just a guess, but I bet you could use a butane-propane mixture to produce higher vapor pressure at lower temperatures. Have you looked into that?

look at PEM-WE instead of alkaline electrolysers. much more efficient, even above 96% at 200mA/cm2, dropping to 70% above 1A/cm2 cathode deterioration via H2O2 is also avoidable with PtFe nanomaterials. PFSA as membrane, alternative are Nafion or AEM i haven't researched those.

Make a small pressure cooker or use the pressure cooker itself...

Stumbled upon your channel and like the experimental stuff you are doing. I have a question you may know or point me in the rite ri direction. Is there a simple way to pump out air from a chamber, to make lower pressure, that is driven from circular motion. Ie directory hook up motor to remove air from a container

Would you recommend any books that would help with learning the subject matter (thermodynamics/design concepts)?

Could a steam motor or Stirling engine drive a car alternator or generator motor?. Then the excess energy from alternator stored in battery while some of the other leftover energy used for lights in home or tv, etc? From sun to engine to alternator to battery and home use?

Why not heat sand?

👍👍

Het water is puur voor warmte opslag. Kun je daar niet beter minerale olie voor gebruiken? Olie kan veel meer warmte opslaan en verdampt haast niet. Groetjes,, Kitty.

Interesting

dude what if you put put it in a vaccum that will lower the boiling point

Or you could just have a closed-loop vacuum system and work with degassed distilled water at 30C.

Stirling engines are really cool, sadly they just don't put out the power

Instead of butane under pressure in your boiler, what about water under a vacuum.

A better, and still cheap, alternative to water as the thermal mass is Eco - PCM. Phase Change Material. You can buy in kg bulk amounts on alibaba. High quality and they hold more thermal energy per kg than water does. A potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate eutectic salt as the solar - thermal transfer fluid is also better. Have a reservoir for the cold molten salt, cycle it through the solar collection system, dump it into a storage tank that has an embedded PCM layer. Integrate water boiler into the molten salt "hot" reservoir. This will extract more thermal energy per m2 of surface area from due to the high heat capacity and low volatility of the salt mixture. Your water then only needs to be pumped between the "hot" reservoir and your point of use, instead of through the entire solar setup. Ideally use the PCM like a battery to store energy that the salt mixture gives off as it cools. This insulates and captures the "waste" heat and gives it back to a water pipe embedded into the PCM layer. You can make the system small and consolidated while increasing power and efficiency. Your butane steam engine is really great, i am a steam head myself and love the idea of re-creating a butane steam engine. Look forward to more!!

Need to do the math for Temp variance, for many gases.. I thought of this idea years ago, but no way to test. Propane, butane, and many others have a short range in our Avg heat in the country.. it can naturally do this, with nothing special... NOW to make a closed loop that goes threw a motor.. Just like an Air conditioner..

Using butane to create work to move a dynamo has got my imagination flowing. anyone have an elegant solution?

Try using some aluminum beer bottles.

man i have to ask you if you have voice chat But why not use salt?

Ik heb net een "aha' moment voor mijn eigen kleine stirling.

What about a turbine?

Great idea!