Modern car with a steam engine? Where would I find such an engine, and could I fit it to a modern car?

Question

I just read an article at http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=669#mo... and found other articles about steam cars, including modern attempts by a British car club at breaking the world speed record for steam powered cars. Where can I get a high-powered engine like the one in the article? (and how much would it cost?) As fascinating as this revival of steam technology is, is it really feasible? Has anyone actually done this in the recent past for a car used daily for normal driving? Convince me.

Answer 1

A modern steam engine can be easily fitted to a current car design, and there's no waiting for the boiler to fire up, either. The reason this isn't done commercially is simply that the underlying thermodynamic process of the steam engine results in an efficiency only about 1/3 that of an internal combustion engine. (Steam engines are classified as EXTERNAL combustion).
Also, for a given power output, the engine and its ancilliary equipment (boiler, condenser etc) weigh about 2-3 times as much as a current I/C engine.

Answer 2

A steam driven car is not practical because of the it's size. Picture if you will a car large enough to hold fuel to burn to heat the water to make steam. Then add to that the size of the tank necessary to hold the water used to make steam. Then you need a steam turbine and reduction gears to convert the steam energy to mechanical energy at the correct speed to drive the car. Then you need a condenser to convert the low pressure, unused steam back to water to feed back to the boiler. I would think you could make one that would fit into an 18 wheeler trailer, but which is more efficient - a car burning gasoline or deisel versus an 18 wheeler hauling a steam plant filled with water?

Answer 3

Well aside from the practicality of the whole thing (who wants to go fire up the boiler on their car 45 minutes before they leave, in sweltering heat or freezing cold) that would be ridiculously expensive to do. I don't know the exact numbers, but you can't just buy one, and if you had someone do it, plan on taking out a big loan.

Answer 4

Your idea is good but it will not be economical. Many years before people used Steam in railway . Now a days people are not using in that purpose.

Answer 5

That should be an interesting experiment! Good luck!