I need help with used motor oil. Very urgent!

[TripleSElf501]

I am now looking into an idea on finding a way to use used motor oil to create a new source of power. I want to use used motor oil to power a solar panel. I know that I can burn the motor oil to power a steam engine which can then power a electric generator. I think that the amount of energy it can create might be too little to power a solar panel though. Can anyone give me any ideas or websites that can tell me the amount of energy that used motor oil can produce or how I can fix my project.

[deleted-2131]

Hi TripleSElf501,

Welcome to the Ask an Expert forums.

Solar panels are powered by the radiant energy emitted by the Sun. The idea of a solar panel is to harness some of the energy coming from the Sun and use that energy to do work. So, using motor oil to power a solar panel seems a bit backward. Your idea of using used motor oil to power a steam engine has legs, however. The heat of combustion is the energy released when a substance undergoes complete combustion with oxygen at standard temperature and pressure (i.e., "room temperature" conditions). You can calculate the heat released by combustion if you know the heat capacity of the substance (or, to be completely accurate, of the entire calorimeter) and the temperature change. This website has examples of how you can do this calculation:

http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh ... metry.html

And, this Science Buddies Project Idea has directions for building your own simple calorimeter:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p092.shtml

Let us know if we can help you with anything else!

[TripleSElf501]

Thank you Terik. I have decided not go with that route for the reason that too much energy is lost to transform heat energy into electricity. I am going to stick with my concept except I will use the heat in a heat ex-changer and then Use the steam to power a turbine which I want to use to create a vaporizer. It may take some time but I think I can do it. I did check the energy of the oil I will be using with a calorimeter though it was with one I made. I will us an electrical one instead for the second time just to be accurate. I'm just unsure though how to measure the initial energy I will begin with and the resultant energy so that I know i'm not using 10 gallons of oil to power 2 little puffs of steam.

[deleted-2131]

Hi TripleSElf501,

Sounds like a plan. By initial energy, I think you mean the amount of energy in your fuel, correct? To calculate how much energy you put into your machine, multiply the energy per mass (i.e., J/kg) of the motor oil by the mass of motor oil you use as fuel. That is the amount of energy you put in - just keep track of how much motor oil goes into your machine. I’m guessing you’re measuring oil by volume, not mass, so you will need to use the density of motor oil to convert that volume to mass.

The amount of useful work you get out of your machine will be less than what you put in, because some of the energy goes to waste heat. You can calculate the efficiency of your machine by dividing the useful work you get out by the energy you put in. As far as calculating the useful work you get out of your machine, I'm afraid I can't give you a solid answer without knowing some more details about your machine. Are you using the turbine to disburse the steam? Any details you can provide about your machine's design would be very helpful.

Let me know how else I can help - I look forward to hearing some more about your machine!