DIESEL GENERATORS - FUEL AND THE FUEL SYSTEM
A large capacity storage tank is desirable to encourage bulk purchases and minimise dirt contamination. Maintaining a full tank minimises condensation, particularly if the fuel is seldom used. It may be located either above or below ground level, but the high fuel level in any part of the system must not exceed the height of the injectors in the engine. This prevents any possibility of fuel leaking by the injectors into the cylinder.
The storage tank fill tube should be located for convenience and safety of the filling operation. A vent must be provided to relieve air pressure created by filling and prevent a vacuum forming as fuel is consumed.
If a day tank is not used, the bulk tank must be located to provide a ready fuel supply to the engine mounted transfer pump.
Copper bearing steel tanks are preferable but black iron tanks and fittings are satisfactory. Galvanised fittings or tanks should be avoided, because of possible reactions with fuel impurities clogging the fuel filter.
The delivery line for carrying the fuel to the engine mounted fuel transfer pump and the return line for carrying excess fuel back to the tank should be no smaller in size than the fittings on the engine. If the distance from the fuel tank to the engine exceeds 30' (9.15 m), or if ambient temperature is extremely low, larger fuel supply and return lines should be used to ensure adequate flow.
The fuel line may be constructed from steel, black iron pipe, or from copper tubing; galvanised pipe or any zinc bearing alloy must not be used. The overflow line from the day tank (or, if no day tank is used, the fuel return line from the engine) should be of the same material and one size larger.
The return line should enter the top of the tank and contain no shut-off valves. Avoid dips in this line so that air may pass freely and prevent any vacuum in the fuel system. The fuel suction line should be positioned to remove fuel from a point about 2" (5.1 cm) above the bottom and, if possible, at the opposite end of the tank to the return line. If the fuel line enters the top of the tank, a pipe should be provided inside the tank to extend the line to the proper distance from the bottom.
Joint cement which may be affected by fuel should not be used in any part of the system. All connections should also be made without dependence in any way on gaskets. A length of flexible fuel line should be installed between the pipe from the fuel source (bulk storage or day tank) and the engine fuel inlet and return to prevent vibration damage to the pipes and fittings.
Auxiliary Tank
Auxiliary or "day tanks" are desirable if the main fuel tanks are located more than 50' (15.25 m) from the engine, or located above the engine, or are more than 12' (3.65 m) below the engine. Total suction head should not exceed 12' (3.65 m). Although they will not aid the engine in fast starting, they do offer a convenient and ready storage of fuel. Day tanks also provide a settling reservoir so water and sediment can separate from the fuel.
The auxiliary tank is located so that the level of the fuel is no higher than the fuel injection valves on the engine. The tank should be close enough to the engine to minimise total suction lift.
Filters
Clean fuel filters ensure maximum engine life and dependability. Anything else will endanger these characteristics. The engine filter protects the fuel injection pumps and nozzles. The incoming fuel must never bypass these filters.
Primary filters with 0.012" screens are available to extend the life of the engine filter and the transfer pump. Water and sediment traps and filters can also be included upstream of the transfer pump, but pump performance must not be restricted.
In warm climates with large bulk storage, the diesel fuel may require full filtering every six to twelve months. Every two years the fuel supply should be renewed to remove water, scale and bacterial growth.
Fuel Selection
Engine Requirements
The fuel normally recommended for diesel generator sets is termed RED DIESEL.
When this fuel is also used for heating the building, a common storage tank for both the heating plant and the generator set is practical. In addition to reducing installation costs, this arrangement may reduce fuel costs, as a consequence of quantity purchasing, and also eliminate fuel deterioration concerns.
Diesel engines have the capacity to burn a wide variety of fuels. In general, the engine can use the lowest priced distillate fuel which meets the following requirements (fuel condition as delivered to the engine fuel filters), but you need clarification from each engine manufacturer.
The following additional information describes certain characteristics and their relation to engine performance.
A. Cetane Number: This index ignition quality is determined in a special engine test by comparison with fuels used as standards for high and low cetane numbers.
B. Sulphur: Since the advent of high detergent oils, sulphur content has become less critical. A limit of 0.4% maximum is used for engines, without reducing oil change periods. Oil change periods are reduced with higher sulphur fuel.
C. Gravity: The measurement is an index of the weight of a measured volume of fuel. Lower API ratings indicate heavier fuel which has a higher calorific value.About the author http://www.powercontinuity.co.uk/ provide critical power protection solutions and believe failure is not an option.Source: http://www.articlesalley.com/article.detail.php/129011/191/Electronics/Technology/38/DIESEL_GENERATORS_%96_FUEL_AND_THE_FUEL_SYSTEM
Gravity Driven Electrical Generation?
If you have a 100 lb weight on a 10 foot, 45 degree incline and attached to a generator, approximately how much electricity could be generated?
How do I advance a submission for another to the Nobel Prize in Engineering/Invention?
An Engine that runs without using fuel, creates zero pollutants, runs on 5.9 volts of electricity, and can be an Electrical Generator, a Torque Engine for driving any Vehicle or Vessel – totally fuel-free, it also creates Helical Lift in spherical directions (ignoring Gravity). The device runs on Developed Centrfugal Force. More can be obtained, and verified, by checking existing World Patents granted and held in the Library of Congress, Washinton D.C. USA. The Patents cover in 128 countries. For more info use the e-mail. My name is Alfred Campbell.
If electricity could be generated using forces of Gravity, what would it mean for the inventor and world econ?
Would this gravitational generator help sought out the ‘Global Warming’ problem and also divert the use of fossil fuels ( the problem creator ) to the use of ‘almost’ free electricity?
What other kinds of natural forces (like electricity) do you think are yet to be discovered?
We’ve discovered quite a few thinks up to this point: Magnetism, Electricity, Gravity, the electromagnetic spectrum, etc…..
I would say that electricity is the biggest “discovery” that has changed our life to date. Magnetism would be second because without it, we wouldn’t have generators to generate electricity for our homes/business. I don’t consider gravity to be something that changed our lives because it was always there.
I’m just wondering what possible forces are out there that could again revolutionize our way of life?
Could “dark matter” play a role? What about man made gravity “beams” (not centrifugal forces), but Half-life 2 gravity gun type things. Time/space distortions to use as propulsion?
This is just a mind excersise, obviouly we don’t really know what’s left to discover, I just want to see what others think about this.
I don’t know or think there’s much left on basic forces to be undiscovered but certainly many phenomonae yet to discover or explain like black holes, worm holes, etc. Whatever we conceive, we eventually achieve-time travel itself will occur in some fashion as will teleportation and levitation and force fields-all sci-fi ideals right now-cloning was once a concept-now in limited success is a reality and will become more viable. Each human being and other living being emanates an aura not yet explained so thetre’s more out there to learn but the “easy” stuff is gone.
Less than it took to move the weight up there. You will always lose out in energy “generation” like this
Would a platform built off the ground all the way around the world in a ring float?
If they (whoever ‘they’ are) were to build a solid platform above the ground, but all the way around the world in one solid ring, would it float? Would the gravity of Earth keep it from pulling or pushing in a particular direction or would it crash to the ground? For it to work, would it have to be directly above the equator of Earth, or could it go at 90 degrees to the equator, ie from North pole to South pole? How would it affect Earth (gravity, magnetics, weather, mankind)?
Forget about the actual physicality of building it (I had it in my mind that there would be pillars at regular intervals during it’s construction which would be demolished simultaniously at the point of ‘launch’), or its uses (an equator road, runway, trainline, channel for water, science, massive spinning electricity generator, etc). Would it work?
Just a weird thought, but interested all the same.
hmmmm….
considering earthquakes, landslides and other natural occurances, that would be impossible to answer.
There is no Nobel Prize in engineering. The Nobel Prize Committee does not accept nominations. If someone deserves a Nobel, they already know about him.
A force does not represent energy. To create energy, a force has to do work – that is, it has to act along a distance so a falling object gains kinetic energy as gravity acts on it as it falls. While the object is stationary at a height we say it has “potential energy” – the energy it would gain if allowed to fall. But this energy is not free. We have to use energy to raise the object to the height in the first place.
A good example is hydroelectricity. We extract energy from water which is falling. But this energy is not from gravity. The water is at a height in the first place because it has evaporated from the sea or land and formed clouds, then rain ,then rivers. It is the energy of the sun that causes the evaporation, so hydroelectric energy is basically a form of solar energy