Why I hope to have a 6/1 listeroid in the next 30 days:
Because I am still searching for the hobby that remains a hobby.
Sadly, the Listeroid project won't do that, but it's a step in the right direction, especially if it gets much more expensive than it should, doesn't work as well as it should, or takes 10X more time than it should. If the hobby pays, then it's a job. I'm shooting for this one to break even. If it starts chewing up too much money, then I just won't operate it, and keep it around for a secondary use. In the mean time, it will be a really nice low tech distraction away from the high tech world of internetworking, being a router-rat, ISP duties, and keeping a building full of servers running.
Primary use:
I have a data center that has a large, fast start high speed diesel generator, some gas turbines, and 2 weeks of fuel stored on site. (3N generation capabilities, 2N fuel stores, 3N day tanks... Overkill? Yes.) I have a need for medium temp heat, a need for multiple system isolation (eg, can't use HVAC waste heat) and I also have a need to burn through fuel stored on site every couple of years to keep the fuel fresh, regardless of how much biocide I use, and how often I pull fuel samples from the storage tanks. So with a source of fuel that needs to be disposed of, and a demand for power that needs to be met, and a need for heat, this is kind of a no brainer.
First, the need for heat: Since the big generator is fast start, it has a 6KW block heater that turns on at 100 degrees, and turns off at 120 degrees. Keeping a 600HP monster sized engine block warm is not easy when it's in an uninsulated, and very ventilated outdoor enclosure. Insulating would lower reliability due to possibility of fire, increased chances to provide habitat to rodents, etc. The only way to have a reliable fast start diesel genet is to have it outdoors, and that takes lots of electric heat. That's where the roid comes in. It's a glorified fuel oil burning boiler! The plan is to pour in place a cement powerhouse to mount a 6/1, with enough room for a future engine as well. It will be built semi bunker style, about a foot below finished grade, with tall walls for spill containment since it will also house some fuel handling/filtration/and storage. It will also have a prefab concrete roof overhead to contain a fuel fire. Exhaust heat exchanger will recover exhaust heat, to help heat lister engine coolant. A coolant loop (pumped with a fract hp circ pump for efficiency and reliability) will push heat around to a fuel/engine oil heat exchanger to heat both, flow through insulated underground pipes to the a heat exchanger on the large genet to keep the coolants isolated. I hope to seriously offset the block heater usage by dumping all of the roid's waste heat to the genet. I'm going to go with 50% of a gallon of input fuel's BTUs as my recovered engine+ exhaust heat goal. The roid will have no backup radiator. On a hot summer day, worst case, the big genset’s thermostats will open and thermosyphon enough heat away through the massive radiator. I doubt that will ever happen, even on the hottest of summer days.
Using the "waste" horsepower,

the roid will drive an induction motor, and will grid tie on the "load" side of the transfer switch. That way the big genet's transfer switch will give me all the utility isolation I need. Undervoltage, overvoltage, underfrequency, overfrequency, it covers it all. Also, I will place a drop out contactor on the lister powerhouse, with fuel solenoid on the lister, and in the event that the grid drops out for more than a few cycles, the listerplant will self isolate, and coast down. I will do the same with a couple of heat/smoke detectors, oil level, excessive head temp, and the like. Anything goes wrong, and the powerhouse isolates itself, the listeroid coasts down, the event is reported to facility SCADA, and someone will know about it before the roid coasts to a stop. I will never ever back feed, as I use about 20X more power than the roid can produce at any given time. In the event that strange things happen and we end up on gas turbine internal power and externally, diesel genet power, and lister power too, the roid would end up being connected connected to the big genet during an outage with zero facility power use. In that case, the big genet will easily absorb the KW of the roid. (The genet is rated to absorb 40KW of load... 10X more than the roid's output!) If the belt on the roid breaks, then it'll just sit there and put put along until it gets checked on. No harm, no foul. The amount of power the roid will produce at a given instant is miniscule compared to the other things going on around it. But running 24/7/365, it will add up to significant amounts of energy. In the event the roid breaks, catches on fire, or the like, the block heater on the big genet will operate as normal, no coolant will be lost from the big genet, and the distance will be far enough that a fire will pose no problems to the facility or the big genet. If the roid breaks and ends up motoring off the grid, no problem. It’s just some power lost until it gets checked on. Even the energy to motor a roid for a week is minor compared to everything else being used on site.
Sound like a winning power plan(t)?
The spreadsheet math to back it up:
Assuming.......
6/1 listeroid, 1 quart per hour of fuel consumed, 50% heat reclaimed for a gallon of fuel consumed and a gallon of fuel at 120,000 BTU/hr, and an actual roid electrical output of 3KW.... (like my conservative numbers?)
BTU per gallon 120,000
Gallons/hr 0.25
BTU/hr 30,000 KW/hr 3kw elec
Heat Efficiency 0.5
BTU/hr heat 15,000
Elect heat offset KW 5kw heat 3kw elec.
Power Price $0.06/kw
$$ per hr $0.30heat $0.18 elec.
$$ Per gallon $1.2 $0.72
Total Heat & Power $$ offset per gallon of fuel consumed $1.92
At 6 cents per KW hour, the roid will turn a gallon of fuel in to $1.92 worth of heat and power. At 7 cents per KW hour, the roid will turn a gallon of fuel in to $2.24 of heat and power. At 8 cents per KW hour (summertime) the roid will turn a gallon of fuel in to $2.56 of heat and power.
Assuming 50% average operating hours over the course of a year, worst case is that I "dispose" of fuel at the rate of:
Avg. Operating Factor 0.5
Avg. Gallons/hr 0.125
Avg. Gallons/day 3
Avg. Gallons/Month 91.3125 <----Incidentally, an old fuel oil tank I'll be using as a day tank is 250 gallons, so one month 100% operation will still not drain a full day tank)
Avg. Gallons Year 1,095.75
At 50% plant operation, 50% heat reclaimed per gallon, and 6 cents per KW/hr, that's $2,103.84 per year. Assuming my time is free (it’s not!) hopefully over enough years, (10?) that will eventually pay for the listeroid, the accessories, and the powerhouse. And provide me with some deep levels of satisfaction, and DISTRACTION, in the process. As an uptime guru, I do enjoy seeing just how long things can remain in constant operation without human intervention. And that’s worth something.
It might take me a year of work to get it in operation, but overall, it’s probably one of the easiest projects I’ve ever tried to take on.