Power plants – Motive fluid energized by externally applied heat – Process of power production or system operation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-20
2001-10-23
Nguyen, Hoang (Department: 3748)
Power plants
Motive fluid energized by externally applied heat
Process of power production or system operation
C060S668000, C060S039600
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305171
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to land vehicles and more particularly to those equipped with engines that are free of pollution or that reduce pollution with independent or otherwise combustion chambers operating with the injection of additional compressed air and comprising a high-pressure compressed-air reservoir.
In his published patent application WO 96/27737, the author has described a depolluting method for an engine with an independent external combustion chamber, operating on a two-mode principle using two types of energy, using either conventional fuel such as gasoline or diesel oil on the highway (single-mode air/fuel operation) or, at low speed, particularly in urban and suburban areas, using an addition of compressed air (or any other non-polluting gas) into the combustion chamber to the exclusion of any other fuel (single-mode air operation, that is to say operation with the addition of compressed air). In his patent application FR 96/07714, the author has described the installation of this type of engine in single-mode operation, with the addition of compressed air, on service vehicles, for example town buses.
In this type of engine, in air/fuel mode, the air/fuel mixture is taken into and compressed in an independent intake and compression chamber. This mixture is then transferred, still at pressure, into a constant-volume independent combustion chamber where it is ignited to increase the temperature and pressure of said mixture. Once a transfer port connecting said combustion or expansion chamber with an expansion and exhaust chamber has opened, this mixture will be expanded in the latter chamber where it will produce work. The expanded gases are then discharged to the atmosphere through an exhaust pipe.
When operating on air plus additional compressed air, this being the mode of most interest in the context of the invention, at low power, the fuel injector is no longer operated; in this case, a small amount of additional compressed air from an external reservoir in which the air is stored at high pressure, for example 200 bar, and at ambient temperature is introduced into the combustion chamber appreciably after the (fuel-free) compressed air from the intake and compression chamber has been let into this chamber. This small amount of compressed air at ambient temperature heats up upon contact with the mass of air at high temperature contained in the combustion or expansion chamber, expands and increases the pressure prevailing in the chamber so as to allow motive power to be delivered during expansion.
This type of dual-mode or dual-energy (air and fuel or air and additional compressed air) engine can also be modified for a preferred use in town, for example, on all vehicles and more particularly on town buses or other service vehicles (taxis, garbage trucks, etc.), in air/additional compressed air single-mode operation by dispensing with all the elements whereby the engine operates with the conventional fuel.
The engine operates only in single mode with the injection of additional compressed air into the combustion chamber, which thus becomes an expansion chamber. Furthermore, the air taken in by the engine can be filtered and purified through one or more charcoal filters or using some other mechanical or chemical method or molecular sieve or some other filter so as to produce a pollution-reducing engine. In the current text, the use of the term “air” should be understood as meaning “any non-polluting gas”.
In this type of engine, the additional compressed air is injected into the combustion or expansion chamber at a service pressure that is determined according to the pressure prevailing in the chamber and appreciably higher than this pressure, so as to allow its transfer, for example 30 bar. To do this, use is made of a pressure-reducing expander of conventional type, which performs work-free expansion without absorbing heat, and therefore without lowering the temperature, thus allowing expanded air (at about 30 bar in our example) and at ambient temperature to be injected into the combustion or expansion chamber.
This method of injecting additional compressed air can also be used on conventional two- or four-stroke engines in which said injection of additional compressed air into the combustion chamber of the engine is performed approximately at top dead center on an ignition stroke.
The method according to the invention proposes a solution which makes it possible to increase the amount of energy available and which can be used. It is characterized by the means employed and more specifically by the fact that the compressed air, before being introduced into the combustion and/or expansion chamber, is routed through a thermal heater where its pressure and/or volume increases, thus considerably improving the performance that can be achieved by the engine.
In his patent application No. 9700851, the author has also described a method for recovering heat energy from the surroundings for this type of engine in which the compressed air contained in the storage reservoir at very high pressure, for example 200 bar, and at ambient temperature, for example 20°, prior to its end use at a lower pressure of, for example, 30 bar is expanded to a pressure close to the pressure needed for its end use in a variable-volume system, for example in a piston in a cylinder, producing work which can be recovered and used by any known means, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic or the like. This expansion with work has the consequence of cooling the compressed air which has been expanded to a pressure close to the service pressure to a very low temperature, for example −100° C. This compressed air, expanded to its service pressure, and at very low temperature is then sent into an exchanger with the ambient air, is heated up to a temperature close to ambient temperature, and its pressure and/or its volume thus increases, recovering the thermal energy taken from the atmosphere.
Another feature of the method according to the invention proposes a solution which involves the method for recovering heat energy which has just been described hereinabove and which makes it possible to further improve the amount of energy available and that can be used. It is characterized by the means implemented and more particularly by the fact that the compressed air, having passed through the air/air heat exchanger and before being introduced into the combustion chamber, is routed into a thermal heater where it once again increases in pressure and/or in volume before being introduced into the combustion and/or expansion chamber, but considerably improving the performance that can be achieved by the engine.
The use of a thermal heater has the advantage that it is possible to use clean continuous combustion which can be catalyzed or cleaned by any known means, it can be supplied with a conventional fuel such as gasoline, diesel oil, butane gas, propane gas, LPG or the like, just as it may use chemical reactions and/or electrical energy to produce the heating of the compressed air passing through it.
The person skilled in the art will be able to calculate the amount of very-high-pressure air to be supplied to the expansion-with-work system, and the characteristics and volumes of the latter so as, at the end of this expansion with work, and bearing in mind the heating power, to obtain the chosen final service pressure and the temperature which is as cold as possible, and to do so according to the use of the engine. Electronic management of parameters makes it possible at every instant to optimize the amounts of compressed air used, recovered and heated. The person skilled in the art will also be able to determine the engineering details and characteristics of the thermal heater which can employ any concept known in this field without altering the method of the invention.
According to one feature of the invention, the thermal heater used to heat the compressed air from the high-pressure storage reservoir, which may or may not come via the system for recovering heat energy from the ambient surroundings, is also used
Negre Cyril
Negre Guy
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
Nguyen Hoang
LandOfFree
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