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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Livestock Nutrient Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #95254
Title: WIND/DIESEL AND WIND/BIODIESEL PERFORMANCE OF THE USDA HYBRID SYSTEM

Author
item Eggleston, Eric
item Clark, Ray

Submitted to: Wind Diesel Workshop Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/10/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The research wind/diesel hybrid at the Wind/Hybrid Research Laboratory (WHRL) of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, located in Bushland, Texas, has been run a total of 1050 hours over the past year. The simple configuration was AC bus, high penetration, no storage, with the diesel running continuously. Testing was broken into three stages: shake down, wind/biodiesel tests, and wind/#2 diesel tests. System shake down and commissioning took 253 hours of operation. Biodiesel, provided by the National Biodiesel Board, fueled the system for 346 hours. And a further 451 hours of data were collected while operating on #2 diesel fuel. An 18% fuel saving was realized using either biodiesel or #2 diesel fuel. Use of biodiesel showed much cleaner exhaust and slightly higher fuel consumption due to biodiesel's lower volumetric energy content. While the use of biodiesel fuel makes for a completely renewable energy system, an unexpected bonus is improved droop frequency control by the diesel governor. Problems of turbine motoring and operating upwind have been identified and offer opportunity for increased wind power for a minimal effort in control improvement. In addition, there is potential for much increased fuel savings by shutting down the diesel when adequate wind power is available to cover the entire load.