Building a Steam-Driven Generator

From a practical standpoint, i'll agree with Mr 'Georgia Adobe"s comments.

Smallish wood (or coal, for that matter) boilers are a fulltime job. That's why trains employed a 'FireMan'.

The research to investigate the merits of this, G.A.'s 'wood gas', & the possibilities of Stirling Cycle to power your alternator will be satisfying in its own right.

24 hours, and much reading later I've already abandoned the steam idea. One very good article went through the energy requirements to weight of wood.

My next topic will be on the use of a Sterling engine as a circulation pump.

Thanks

... I mean Stirling.

I have been doing some research into using an Organic Rankine cycle for low quality heat recovery. I have read several DOE and University papers on its applications to waste heat and geothermal. You should check out one particularly interesting application by some MIT students in Lesotho, Africa. The Lesotho project and many of the geothermal project were designed to provide both Heat/Hot water and Electric power. I am spending some hobby time working out the major engineering elements for a junk yard (or Ebay) heat recovery engine using over-the-counter R-134A as the working fluid for an automotive power application. Sort of a "Hybrid" Heat Recovery combined cycle machine.