Autumn 1997
CONTENTS
TRIBUTE - THE LATE JIM STEWART " Mr. AJAX"
ONE A DAY - THE AJAX WAY!
DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY DIGESTER / BIOMASS GASIFIER / CHP / WIND TURBINE
GAS COMPRESSOR TO JERUSALEM
EARTH IS GETTING GREENER (AND WARMER)!
BUT SOLAR HOUSE USED ONLY 230 WATTS PER 1000 SQUARE FEET
THE LARGEST EL-NINO OF THE CENTURY?
A TRIBUTE
The late James Stewart, International field operations manager - Ajax.
It is with great sadness that we record the death of Jim Stewart who died at the end of August 1997 after a short illness - his funeral took place in Yukon, Oklahoma. Jim had an incredible depth of knowledge and a character that was a model for all who came in contact with him. His fortitude in airports when flights failed, his ability to make difficult negotiations light, his incredible sense of justice and finely developed sense of humour were just some of the qualities he exported to every corner of the globe. He loved his family first and then his work, that was plain, but in business it was the infectious love for his Ajax engines which he passed on to generations of engineers .
A graduate petroleum engineer in 1955, Jim spent some years working as a field engineer with Dome Petroleum in Calgary and moved into oil field sales. He joined Ajax in 1962 and for 35 years worked in a technical sales role. To many of us in the field Jim was "Mr. Ajax". He had a wonderful stock of stories about Ajax engines surviving in the most strange and arduous conditions. Who can forget his word portraits of the oil field flooded after a large river burst its banks - the Ajax engines pumping away half submerged, flywheels making huge fountains in the landscape for weeks on end until the water subsided - or the natural gas engines in a remote south American oil field being operated on kerosene, - or the maintenance man charging around the desert in a 'Chevy' pickup truck monitoring 400 engines with a pair of binoculars 'if the flywheel has stopped - I go take a look!" ?
For almost a decade Jim worked with the author to build Ajax engines into CHP units. Jim organised the negotiations for the AJAX contract in Europe, choose the first engine, constantly supported the project with a myriad technical details and was delighted with the result. He left a wonderfully trained group of professional engineers and administrators in his company, and formed them into a second family into which any Ajax owner felt they belonged. Jim had a pure heart and an unprejudiced mind, he was a perfect gentleman , saw the good in people and constantly encouraged everyone.
Jim will never be replaced. Myself and those who knew him will miss him. His memory and fine legacy goes on. Our prayers and condolences go to his wife Margaret and his family in Oklahoma and to everyone in the Ajax Corporation and Cooper Energy Services who knew him.
LKG
One a Day!
Sales of the immensly successful package of an AJAX reciprocating engine integrated to a gas compressor on the same crankshaft have hit a peak this Autumn. AJAX's technical sales manager John Peck has informed Practically Green News that AJAX has to ship a finished compressor package every day for the next year to meet current orders for new equipment sales. Besides the usual business one customer has ordered no less than 70 units in the past two years. The AJAX integral provides the most compression per kW input of any gas compressor on the market and has the ultra low maintenance characteristics of slow two stroke engines and a life measured in decades.
Hybrid Energy Systems
Linking Biogas to Biomass and Wind
Practically Green recently supplied a component gas bag for biogas storage in a University Digester. The scheme is much wider however and of great interest to remote areas where energy crops, wastes and wind could be integrated into a hybrid energy system. Andy Chick takes up the story :
Hybrid Energy Systems a research group is based at DeMontfort University Lincoln, School of Agriculture and Horticulture. The research group is constructing a pioneering project, believed to be one of the first of its kind in the world, which brings together eco-friendly energy sources which could revolutionise the way our power is generated.
The research group has started work on the Hybrid wind-biomass system following the award of more than £0.5 million funding from the European Commission (Joule Project No. JOR3-CT96-0110) . Co-ordinated by DeMontfort University, the research also involves Loughborough University, and partners in France and Spain.
Three of the most generally available sources of renewable energy are wind, biogas from animal or vegetable waste, and biomass produced from short rotation coppiced wood. Each has its own characteristic advantages and disadvantages, and an experiment is under way to harmonise these characteristics to provide a versatile and reliable source of power. Wind generators are now a common feature in many coastal and upland areas and the advantage is that there is no fuel cost. The disadvantage is that the power output is proportional to the cube of wind speed, and therefore the output, to an extent, is independent of the demand for power. One solution applied to sites remote from the grid has been the hybrid wind diesel system, where a diesel generator supplies the power deficiency of the wind turbine.
The objections to this combination are that the diesel oil is not renewable, the diesel engine frequently provides more energy over a year than the wind and capital is tied up in diesel oil.
The project now funded by the European Commission through its JOULE programme at De Montfort University in conjunction with partners at Loughborough University, the University of Zaragoza and Vergnet S.A., aims to optimise these three energy sources to provide a single reliable source of power which can be tailored to meet any given demand.
The system is now under construction at the De Montfort University School of Agriculture at Caythorpe, near Grantham Lincolnshire. The facility is to be completed by the Summer of 1998 and will provide valuable information on the technology and the economics of renewable energy. It will also remain as a centre for the demonstration and investigation of these technologies by way of educational courses and conferences.
The Major Components of the Hybrid System
The Wind Generator.
A 25kW wind turbine will be purposely designed and manufactured to meet the needs of the system. The unit will incorporate an asynchronous generator with speed control being maintained by a mechanical blade pitch regulation system. The wind turbine manufacture by Vergnet S.A. will be installed on site, and will provide the main base load for the hybrid system.
The Anaerobic Digestor.
Anaerobic digesters can produce biogas (60 - 70 % methane) which can fuel an internal combustion engine operating continuously at about 10kW per 100 cubic metres of digester volume. If a Combined Heat and Power engine is used then heat from the unit can be used to warm the digester. The problem here is that the biogas must be produced at a constant rate for good biological action of the digester, and thus the engine output must be relatively constant with only short term variations catered for by gas storage. The anaerobic digester is being constructed by De Montfort University.
The Gasifier.
Biomass gasification is capable of producing yet another internal combustion engine fuel by the incomplete combustion of wood. Unlike the anaerobic digester. it can be started and stopped to provide power when it is needed, but there is a start-up period of up to an hour when the gas is too weak in carbon monoxide and too contaminated by tar for use in an engine. The gasification unit is being built in Spain, by the University of Zaragoza and will arrive on site after testing. A sophisticated gas cleaning system will ensure that poor quality gas will not contaminate the CHP units.
The Control System.
A custom made control system built by Loughborough University will integrate the wind turbine, anaerobic digester and gasifier unit into the system. There will also be a wind turbine simulator and a controlled load to increase the range of experiments which can be carried out.
Further Information from the author at De Montfort - Andy Chick (apchick@dmu.ac.uk)
Published with permission copyright Hybrid Energy Systems
Gas Compressor to Jerusalem
Practically Green has won a contract to supply the gas compressor for the Jerusalem Sewage works. The Scandinavian contracting engineers, RUST worked with Practically Green's specialist biogas engineering department to design a suitable system with a blower that will operate at high ambient temperatures and tolerate the corrosive effects of H2S and the rigours of continuous operation. The solution was neat, simple and very robust. The unit will pressurise the biogas lines at the sewage treatment works to enable new CHP units to operate at peak performance. The delivery pressure is 800mm WG a lift of 700mm WG across the biogas booster at a flow rate of 200-800 m3/hr.
The Earth is Getting Greener
GLOBAL WARMING EVIDENCE
Plant growth in Earth's northern regions increased by 10 per cent from 1981 to 1991, and by the end of this period spring-time began about eight days earlier, according to new NASA funded research published in the recent issue of scientific journal Nature.
The full scientific paper here
Solar House
Space Heating with less than 1/4 kW per 100 square meters
The latest energy analysis of Solar House, the Headquarters of Practically Green Environmental Systems is very encouraging. Whilst we have had a slightly warmer Autum than normal, there is the glimmering of evidence that the structure may be drying out and the performance has improved with the Autumn energy consumption for space heating equating to 230Watts per 1000 square feet or in Metric Units less than 1/4 kW of continuous power input per 100 square meters. See the full details here.
The Biggest El-Nino?
The last El - Nino caused the world $13 Billion in damage, droughts, storms, lost crops, buildings washed away or cracked by subsidence when soils dried out. The next El Nino has begun and governments are putting millions of dollars aside to prepare for natural disasters over the next year. What is El Nino? The sun heats tropical water in the Pacific. Trade winds blow West and warm sea water is normally observed in a hot pool around Indonesia and Australia. However, once or twice a decade, the trade winds become unreliable and the hot water pool floats across the cold ocean towards South America. Here it comes up against the coast and can move up the coast towards California as well as down the South American coastline. The higher water temperatures heat the air and load it with water - it rains and Pacific hurricanes are more intense. Global Warming is said to enhance the effect of an El-Nino event. Enormous amounts of energy are moved around the earth's atmosphere and instability increases in weather indices. Australia and Indonesia dry out if the warm water moves away from their coastlines - recent fires in tropical forests have been attributed to the El-Nino induced dry spell. Australia is expecting major drought conditions. Watch it all happen every hour on the hour at CNN! El Nino is also being tracked at the International Institute for Climate Prediction.
Practically Green News is the newsletter of Practically Green Environmental Services. Practically Green, Practically Green News and Practically Green Environmental Services are trade marks belonging to Dr.L.K.Gornall. AJAX is the trade mark of Cooper Energy Services. The articles in this newsletter represent the views of Practically Green Environmental Services. Whilst every attempt is made to represent products and services accurately, errors can occur and no liability can be accepted for errors and omissions. This newsletter is not a contract.
