A Cornish Experiment in Sustainable Power
With your help, we aim to build and test an experimental engine
fuelled by wood chips to power a lightweight vehicle. We've been
developing this new concept of biomass-fuelled engine, based on a
combination of old and new ideas, and are now at the point where we can
integrate our designs into a first complete engine. This will be an
exciting next step after many years of research and practical
experimentation.
We are a small team based in West Cornwall and like many
forward-thinking people we are interested in renewable energy. With
particular regard to engine fuels, the current mainstream approach is to
grow monoculture crops that are then extensively processed into a
format suitable for existing engines. For example, sugarcane is grown
and then fermented to produce bio-ethanol as a petrol replacement fuel.
We think that a far better approach would be to develop new engines
designed specifically to run on a broad range of minimally processed
plant matter, typically woodchips.
“I can’t resist getting behind these guys,
if only so I can get a step closer to my dream of a carbon neutral
wood-chip powered flail mower for River Cottage. And maybe an eco-jet
ski to get me a bit quicker to my favourite inshore fishing marks…"
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall - River Cottage
Historically, Cornwall is the birthplace of high pressure steam
power, and a very appropriate place to develop a new form of wood-gas
fuelled steam engine. Our engine will be compatible with forestry brash,
scrap wood, hedge trimmings, crop residues, and so on, which need only
be dried and chipped. This engine could be used in all sorts of ways,
but our first one will be used to power a modified recumbent trike.
We will use our powered trike prototype for practical trials and for
demonstrations. It will be a form of power-assist vehicle but with an
important difference. Instead of having pedals, the rider will use leg
power to pump air into the engine's combustion chamber to generate the
heat needed to raise steam. The harder the rider pumps, the more steam
pressure will be created and the faster the trike will go.
As far as we know, this concept has never been explored, and is
actually more like a form of 'muscle-power amplification' (rather than
power-assist). The engine and rider will have to work together to power
the trike, and this makes for an unusually simple mechanical system.
Our engine will basically consist of:
1. A high efficiency gravity-fed wood chip gasification/combustion system of our own design.
2. A monotube boiler
3. Our unique rotary expansion motor that uses flexible tube 'muscles' instead of pistons and cylinders.
4. A steam condenser
5. A circulation pump
6. Foot-operated high-flow air pumps.
The technical spec for our engine will be:
Top operating pressure - 110psi
Combustion chamber exit temp - about 1000 degrees C (raising superheated steam to approx 250 degrees C)
Maximum power output - 1 horsepower (roughly three times more powerful than an average cyclist)
Warm up time from cold - around 5 minutes
Thermal efficiency - estimated between 15% - 20%
Fuel efficiency - we hope for about 25 miles per kg of wood chips
Given that we will be running on locally grown fuel, we expect the 'twig to wheel' efficiency to be unbeatably high!
We hope to validate this new concept as possibly the simplest engine
yet devised capable of powering a vehicle using biomass. Variations of
our engine may prove to be useful in many other ways (such as to power
small boats, or generate electricity, etc.). Wood is an important
renewable energy source - when grown and managed sensibly - and we aim
to demonstrate that when it is burned correctly and in optimal
conditions, it can also be a very clean and powerful fuel.
Your Help
Please explore the rewards offered for pledges to this project and
help us if you can. See the budget section of our project website for a
full breakdown of how we will use your money.
Our particular expertise is in the adaptation of existing and
recycled parts and materials for the building of components; a
methodology we refer to as
shoestring durch technik. We expect the building and preliminary testing of the trike-with-engine to take 4 months.
If the project is successful we hope to build bespoke engines for
anyone who wants to commission one. We may develop kits and plans to
enable others to build them too, and it may help us to find government
and/or private backing to develop our engine concept more seriously. We
also hope to encourage the involvement of universities with our ideas.
Please enjoy our film and support our project!
Thank you.
Graham Waldren, Mat Thompson & Richard Blackborow
The Zennor Phoenix Team
How crowdfunding works
You pledge using the options on the right of the screen. Only if
enough people pledge and we reach our target of £7,000 by our deadline
will our campaign be deemed 'successful'. Then pledges will be collected
and rewards distributed. We will thank and post the names of all our
funders on our website. Those of you receiving willow cuttings will be
contacted to find out when you'd like them, or if you'd like us to plant
a tree for you. We will then enjoy the midwinter festivities before
beginning our 4-month project on Monday 5th January.
January and February will be spent building the engine and adapting
the trike. Those of you taking a tour of the woodland workshops and
seeing developments will be invited towards the end of this period. In
March we aim to be testing and refining the trike and by April finish
the short film 'The Making of the Zennor Phoenix'. At this point we will
honour all outstanding rewards.
There are two ways to pledge to make this project happen, via Paypal
or Go Cardless. If you use PayPal, your donated amount will be debited
from your account immediately and held by Crowdfunder until we reach our
target, at which point it'll be given to us to start our project. If we
fail to meet our target, the money will immediately be returned to your
account. If you pay using Go Cardless, the amount you pledge is not
debited from you account until such time as we reach our target. If we
don't, the money is never debited. We hope that makes sense! Please
contact us if you need any further clarification. Both payment options
are safe and simple to use, and we thank you in advance for your
generosity.
We will keep you all updated with our progress at key stages and send you all a report on the project at the end.
You can also pledge money to help support us and opt out of the offered rewards!
International pledges are accepted but additional postage will be added.
If you would like to know more about the rewards, or want to ask for
something else, please use the 'send message' button. Let us know what
you might like and how much you can pledge, and we will do our best to
accommodate your ideas. We think that this is a really worthwhile
ecological project and aim to make it interesting and entertaining too.
