I was involved in testing two gas truebine, 24MW generator sets (for Shell Gannet in the North Sea). They could run on natural gas from the well, but for startup (and for our testing) they ran on diesel ... we burned 1/4 million litres of red diesel during testing - peak rate was
120 litres per minute.
Pretty well, but IIRC they use lower compression than diesel only engines and are less efficient.
And not only B52s.
Google "tractor 12 bore cartridge start"
Fairchild C-82As, see 'The Flight of the Phoenix'
Figures like that tempt me into a back-of-the-envelope calculation. Say diesel is approx 10 kWh/L then 120 L/min is
(120 * 10 * 3.6e6) / 60 = 72 MW. So if that's one turbine generator about 33% conversion (or 67% if it's both of them)?
nib
Dozens of WWII era and later engines used cartridge starts.
33%. Only CCGT get to 66%.
In general an OCGT should max out at 37% or so. But during warm up they use more fuel
And this fact is why when gas is used as renewable backup, you ned up using just as much fuel as if they had run as baseload and no renewable energy had been deployed.
They used a specially designed engine, the Leyland L60 which was a multi-fuel 2-stoke with opposed pistons (no cylinder head) and a big blower. It was a 19L engine.
No cylinder head meant no gasket which could fail. So the early engine cylinder liners failed instead ! Towards the later years lots of improvements to the engines made them a lot more reliable.
Being a two-stroke diesel, yhey wouldn't meet today's emissions requirements ;-)
Anyone seen the film 'The Flight of the Phoenix'? The 1965 version...
The 1965 version. Not sure about the remake.
in 1965 yes. The stunt pilot was killed flying that thing. Rather took the enjoyment out of it
I think the engine management system was made by Motorola at the Stotfold factory.
John
I remember the Commer
Graces Guide
Yes, I remember they made a very characteristic (and loud) noise.
The other two stroke diesel lorries back then which made a much more two-stroke type of noise were Fodens.
A great sounding engine!
Don't forget the Napier Deltic locos.
Not lorries really though! :-)
But, two stroke engines never the less.
Me! The later film was a pale imitation.
Reading this made me remember the van owned by a friend's father in the '50's.
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