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New designs for burning light oil have to be developed because there are none present today. Therefore heating coils can be eliminated from the design allowing the engine to be light weight and reduce energy consumption. Unlike heavy oil, light oil does not need to be preheated for use. There is a proposal of using extra light oil as a fuel for modern steam engines.

Now, let us look at how individual parts can be modified to give us a steam engine for the 21st century. Thus the steam engine can be more efficient and cause lesser pollution. It should also provide clean and efficient combustion of fuel, good insulation and should incorporate interchangeable parts. For the engine to be efficient it should not only provide high thermal efficiency but also be light weight. Features such as one man operation, minimum servicing requirements and short starting time are desirable from a modern steam engine. Notice the clean burning of fuels in the modern steam engine below.Д«y making good use of modern technology we can build an efficient and clean steam engine. However all this is to change with the introduction of the modern steam engines. The image above describes a steam engine, as portrayed by the media: polluting (notice the black smoke) and suitable for carrying industrial goods only. In addition, environmental concerns such as excess smoke and heavy emission of NO2, CO2, SO2 plagued the steam locomotives as mentioned in the previous section.

Also high risk, stand-by losses and lack of inter-changeable parts made it obvious that these locomotives could not compete in the modern world. Analysing these problems and devising solutions will enable us to make efficient вЂmodernвЂ™ steam locomotives that can compete with the diesel or electric locomotives of today.ДЇrom the economical point of view the old steam locomotives were not desirable because of high footplate staff costs, maintenance costs and high fuel consumption due to low thermal efficiencies and high carbon loss in the combustion process. There were indeed many problems вЂ“ both economic and environmental вЂ“ with the old steam locomotives. Where We Left It and Where We Can Take It We are then going to look at the new designs proposed by engineers which incorporate modern technology to improve these century-old locomotives for a better future. In this section of the report, we are going to look at the factors that led to the replacement of steam locomotives in the early 20th century. A dedicated group of engineers, around the world, firmly believe that steam locomotives can indeed make a comeback and prove to be beneficial both economically and environmentally.

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However, with the help of the scientific advancements in the past, the steam industry can be revived today and operate at its full potential. Instead of making improvements in the existing steam technology, engineers were more attracted towards its replacement by diesel or electric traction. The lack of development of steam locomotives led to the demise of this good old technology. By Ved Vyas, Sanket H Deshpande & Tianze Guo

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