Power plants – Fluid motor means driven by waste heat or by exhaust energy... – Having fluid motor motive fluid treating – controlling or...
Patent
1995-06-01
1999-08-10
Kamen, Noah P.
Power plants
Fluid motor means driven by waste heat or by exhaust energy...
Having fluid motor motive fluid treating, controlling or...
F02G 300
Patent
active
059340762
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to heat engines and heat pumps, and in particular to those for providing power and/or heat appropriate to domestic appliances, service industries, commerce and manufacturing industry.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The attainment of high thermal efficiency is nearly always an important consideration in the field of power generation for the reason that the fuel cost is generally responsible for about two thirds of the cost of the power produced. In addition to the cost incentive, enviromental considerations require that greater effort be directed towards the achievement of higher efficiencies in order to minimise the production of carbon dioxide and other undesirable emissions.
In general it is possible to achieve a higher thermal efficiency and fewer emissions in large generating units than in small ones. This is partly because of heat losses, friction and leakage flows which tend to be proportionally less significant in large units than in small ones. Also economies of scale make it possible to have more sophisticated equipment in large units. In small units, the cost of such equipment may be prohibitive.
In spite of these factors, there are circumstances where small generating units are needed and it is important that they should be as efficient and enviromentally benign as possible. This situation arises in the many parts of the world where no electricity grid is available. It may be that construction of a power station to supply electricity is beyond the financial capacity of the local population or it may be that the electricity demand is too small to justify its construction. The former situation arises in many less developed countries. The latter situation applies in many remote or thinly populated regions and on offshore islands.
Another application for small efficient engines arises in connection with combined heat and power (CHP). The use of heat and power together usually results in a higher overall energy efficiency than the use of mains power from the electricity grid. Since heat cannot be transported economically over any significant distance, CHP systems have to be sized for the local heat load. This usually implies generating units of modest size.
The invention described here can be applied either as a heat engine or in modified form as a heat pump. Heat pumps transfer heat from a low temperature heat source to a high temperature heat sink. For example, in cold weather a heat pump can extract heat from the atmospheric air and pump it to a higher temperature in order to heat a building. Alternatively, in hot weather, the heat pump can operate as an air conditioning unit to extract heat from the internal air of the building and reject it to the outside atmosphere, even though the outside temperature is higher than the inside temperature. The heat pump may also be used to cool air in order to condense the water vapour in it. The heat rejected from the heat pump may then be used to restore heat to the air. In this case the heat pump is used to de-humidify the air. As with CHP, heat pumps have to be sized in accordance with the local heat load. Consequently, most heat pump capacity will be required in the form of small rather than large units.
Most types of heat pump, air conditioning unit or refrigeration system require the use of an evaporating/condensing fluid which boils at an appropriate temperature such as one of the chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFC's). These substances are known to deplete the earth's ozone layer which protects human and animal life from harmful ultra-violet radiation. Although certain alternatives to CFC's are known, some of these also cause ozone depletion, but to a lesser degree. Other alternatives have disadvantages such as flammability, toxicity, high cost, poor thermodynamic properties or a tendency to increase global warming.
Engines and heat pumps based on the Stirling Cycle are well known. One form of Stirling engine includes a compression chamber and an expansion chamber connected together via a regenerative heat exchanger forming a gas space wh
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Kamen Noah P.
National Power PLC
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