| Generating Power From a Lister Engine using Vegetable Oil. |
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| The Lister CS diesel engine was built in the UK between 1930 and 1987, and is now being produced in India by independent manufacturers. It is a slow speed, water cooled diesel engine, ideal for powering an emergency generator, or running an off-grid power system. This ruggedly built engine will outlast almost all modern engines, and some have been reported to run for excess of 100,000 hours. This page looks at my project of installing a Lister driven generator set in a suburban house in the South of England, and how the engine is adapted to run on waste vegetable oil obtained from a local restaurant. The engines shown here are examples of the Lister CS 5-1 engine, both built in 1950. They can often be obtained from farm sales or ebay for under £300. A DIY installation, such as this can be done for under £1000, and it will run in complement to your existing central heating system. Using Lister technology, updated to the 21st Century, it is now possible to generate your own power for 1/3rd of the current utility price, and heat your home using the waste heat from the coolant and exhaust. Waste vegetable oil is available from pubs, restaurants and chip shops all over the UK. Often they will be glad to give it to you free, or for a small contribution to charity. This site is still under construction. Below there are some pictures of the project during the construction of the trailer and genset. Please visit again in a few days for an update. |
| The 1950 Lister CS engine and dc generator mounted on wooden bearers with 25 gallon cooling tank. Purchased from Ebay for about £250 (US$ 500) |
| A 1950 Lister CS 5-1 engine in original condition, bought from a farm in Somerset for about $500. |
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| The Lister CS 5-1 is a slow speed diesel engine, fitted with a governor to permit constant speed running. This is ideal for applications such as pumping water or generating electricity, where the rpm needs to be fairly constant. When generating, any increase in electrical load on the generator, will cause the governor to open up the throttle rack on the injector pump in an attempt to maintain constant speed. The massive flywheels fitted to the CS, help to minimise the effect of sudden changes in load, and allow brief overload currents, such as encountered when starting a large motors on pumps and compressors. When running at idle, the Lister CS 5-1 consumes approximately 200ml of fuel per hour. Under these conditions the rise in coolant temperature is minimal, and the exhaust gas temperature barely exceeds 50 centigrade. When running under 2/3 load, the Lister uses 1litre of vegetable oil per hour and generates 2kW. The conversion efficiency of vegetable oil to electricity is about 21%, and much of the waste heat can be recovered from the exhaust, where temperatures can reach about 300 C.. The CS was designed to be one of the first diesel engines to reliably start from cold, without the aid of a blowlamp or ignition taper. CS actually stands for cold starting. It uses a special cylinder head which has two compression settings. High compression is used forstarting and light loads, and low compression can be used when the engine has reached its correct working temperature and for peak loads. The compression is changed using a handwheel on the cylinder head. For starting it should be wound fully in to select high compression. The ease of starting and the remarkable fuel economy, earned the Lister CS a fine reputation as being a dependable workhorse and as such it became very popular for remote properties and farms used for lighting sets pumping and a whole range of agricultural applications that requires modest amounts of horsepower. Many Lister CS engines were exported to tthe Middle East, India and Asia, and so a local servicing and spare industry grew up in India to meet the demands of the market. When the engine was discontinued finally in 1987, several of the spare parts manufacturers set up manufacturing unlicensed copies of the original Lister engine. These engines are affectionately known as Listeroids, and a wealth of information can be found at UtterPower. |
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| Lister and Generator mounted on a custom built trailer The Lister and generator have a combined weight of about 450 kg. A small trailer is essential for moving these stationary engines around. |
| Lister Genset ready for demonstrating at Kew Bridge Steam Museum. An old butane tank is used to hold cooling water. |
| An aerial view of the Lister Genset at Kew Bridge Steam Museum. A kettle and deep fat fryer were used as electrical loads for the generator. Visitors were treated to cups of coffee and french fries at lunchtime! |
| Introduction. In 1900, at the Paris Exhibition, Rudolph Diesel demonstrated his new engine running on peanut oil. As a philanthropist, he believed that his engine would liberate farms and rural villages, by providing an affordable source of mechanical and electrical power, and allow them to compete with the industrial cities, by growing oil rich crops and achieving energy self sufficiency, through farming and manufacturing industry. Diesel died in 1913 under mysterious circumstances, and some suggest he was assassinated to prevent his engine technology from falling into the wrong hands in the eve of WW1. German U-boats relied on diesel engines for their attacks on Allied shipping. After WW1 the diesel engine was modified to allow it to run on the less viscous petroleum distilates we now call Diesel fuel, and was incorporated into motor vehicles. The early vegetable oil fuel technology has been widely forgotten, until enthusiasts started to run their diesel cars on bio-diesel and waste vegetable oil. The Lister CS is a rugged stationary engine designed in the late 1920s. Its simple fuel injection system is very tolerant to vegetable oil, and as such it can be used to run a 3kW generator set. Waste vegetable oil is easily obtainable from restaurants for approximately £0.10 per litre ($0.75 per US Gal), and as such in the UK, it is 25% of the cost of the next cheapest fuel. |
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| A 1950 Lister CS engine to be installed as part of a domestic combined heat and power system. Natural gas prices have risen in the UK by 33% in the last 4 years, and the cost of cental heating oil has almost doubled. Using a Lister generating set as the basis of a domestic combined heat and power system, will liberate you from the price rises imposed by the reckless gas and electricity companies, whilst remaining carbon neutral by burning a renewable fuel. My requirements are 10 to 12kWh of electricity per day, to run my home, office and business. Additionally I require approximately 100kWh of heat for the domestic central heating. The Lister can provide this by running for 5 to 6 hours per day to charge a bank of 220Ah lead acid batteries, with the peak load being drawn through a 3kW modified sine wave inverter. The Lister engine will consume between 5 and 6 litres of waste vegetable oil, with an additional 5 litres being burned directly to provide extra direct heat. Domestic energy costs will fall from currently £2.50 per day to about £1.00. |
| The Fuel Facts: Vegetable oil contains between 3392kJ and 3700kJ per 100ml - as read off the side of the bottle. This approximates to about 9 or 10kWh per litre. A litre of vegetable oil will generate about 2kWh of electricity and about 6kWh of recoverable heat. Unfortunately some of the fuel energy will be inevitabley lost as waste heat. Fuel consumption from waste vegetable oil will be approximately 1 litre per hour when running a 2kW electrical load. New vegetable oil can be bought from supermarkets for around 45p per litre - almost half the cost of diesel. However the real economies are achieved by using waste vegetable oil available for less than £0.10 per litre. Waste vegetable oil should be first filtered using a 10um cartridge filter. Allow the oil to stand for some time so that debris and water can settle to the bottom of the can. Decant only the top 75% of the oil from the top. The oil should be pre-heated before it enters the injector pump. This can be done by making a coil of 6mm copper tubing around the hot exhaust and passing the fuel through this, before it enters the injector pump. Waste vegetable oil is widely available from pubs and restaurants, they will be glad to let you have it. Tell the chef what you want it for and offer him/her a couple of quid (or a pint) per 20 litre drum! Having trouble with your Listeroids? Lister CS engines can be bought in the UK for about £300 in reliable working condition. Spare parts are readily available. Check the classified advents in "Stationary Engine Magazine" for engines and spares for sale. New "Listeroids" which are copies of the original Lister CS can be bought from India, see Utterpower Website These engines are heavy but durable. Lifting and handling should be done carefully using an engine crane capable of at least 500kg. A trailer will be required if you wish to move these engines around. A Lister CS 5-1 (6hp at 650 rpm) will generate a maximum of 3kW of electricity, but should be best used as part of a complete off grid system using batteries and an inverter. The waste heat from the coolant can be used directly for central heating purposes. An additional heat-exchanger can be used to extract further heat from the hot exhaust. |
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| Custom trailer constructed from scrap steel box section tubing and Indespension suspension units. 4 x 20 litre cans of waste veg-oil in the background! |
| A bit of green paint transforms the trailer. |
| A hired 7' x 4' trailer is used to collect the second Lister CS engine from a farm in Somerset. Note that it is sitting on a pallet and is very well strapped down!! |
| A 1/2" belt drive is used to drive the generator. A 500W security lamp is used as the electrical load. The belt will handle 2.5kW. |
| A coil of 8mm microbore copper tubing is wound around the exhaust pipe to act as a fuel pre-heater. The fuel should be heated to 80 or 90 centigrade, to lower its viscosity, before it enters the injector pump. |
| For More Information: Ken Boak can be contacted by email by anyone wishing further information on this project. The "Listergen" will be visiting shows and exhibitions around Southern England during the spring and summer of 2005. |