Refrigeration – Using electrical or magnetic effect
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-21
2004-05-25
Doerrler, William C. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Using electrical or magnetic effect
C062S467000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06739137
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
For hundreds of years engineers and scientists have recognized that the ambient thermal energy of the natural environment that is heated by the sun contains essentially unlimited amounts of free thermal energy. Unfortunately, all prior attempts to harness this natural heat energy and convert it into mechanical work with high power densities by a closed cycle condensing heat engine utilizing the natural environment as its high temperature heat reservoir have failed. As a result of all of these unsuccessful attempts, thermodynamicists have concluded that such engines are impossible. In fact, thermodynamicists are so convinced that such engines are impossible, they have categorically labeled them as “perpetual motion machines of the second kind.” It is important to point out however, that this negative conclusion is not based on any fundamental physical law of nature but rather on the unsuccessful attempts to construct such engines. Although the “second law of thermodynamics” is usually cited as the basic reason why such engines are believed to be impossible, the second law itself is based on unprovable “postulates” laid down by Kelvin, Clausius and Planck over a century ago when the principle of conservation of mass and energy was accepted without question. (See
Thermodynamics
, Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., Columbus, Ohio, pages 147-153 by Joachim E. Lay.) The Kelvin-Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics is: “It is impossible to construct an engine which, operating in a cycle, will produce no other effect than the extraction of heat from a single heat reservoir and the performance of an equivalent amount of work.”
By designing a cyclic heat engine that falls outside the operating conditions of the second law of thermodynamics (the premise) it is possible to harness the natural thermal energy of the environment at ambient temperature and convert a portion of it into useful mechanical work. One such heat engine is a simple toy called the “drinking bird” that can be found in almost any novelty shop. Although this engine is a closed cycle condensing heat engine and uses the ambient environment as its high temperature heat reservoir, it operates by generating an artificial low temperature heat reservoir by evaporating water. Hence, it does not operate according to the prescribed conditions of the Kelvin—Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics and therefore cannot violate this law.
The basic thermodynamic operating principles of the drinking bird engine were analyzed by Carl Bachhuber in his paper, Energy From the Evaporation Of Water,
American Journal of Physics
, Vol. 51, No. 3, March 1983, pp. 259-264. In particular, Bachhuber has shown that ordinary water can be used to extract an unlimited amount of natural thermal energy from the surrounding environment and convert it into mechanical work. Moreover, the specific energy of the water that can be converted into useful mechanical work by this engine is approximately twice the specific energy available in automotive storage batteries. In a technical report issued by the Rand Corporation in August 1966, entitled
A Simple Heat Engine of Possible Utility in Primitive Environments
, Rand Corporation Publication No. P-3367, Richard Murrow proposed constructing larger versions of this engine for pumping water from the Nile river. A scaled up model of the basic drinking bird engine was constructed to a height of seven feet and found to be able to extract a considerable amount of natural heat energy from the ambient environment and convert it directly into mechanical work. In particular, the engine would be capable of extracting an unlimited amount of natural heat energy and convert it into an unlimited amount of mechanical work. (See, “The Research Frontier-Where is Science Taking Us,”
Saturday Review
, Vol. 50, Jun. 3, 1967, pp. 51-55, by Richard Murrow.) Obviously, engines such as these which operate by converting the natural heat energy of the environment at ambient temperature into an unlimited amount of mechanical work are not “perpetual motion machines.” In principle, larger engines of this type could be used to propel ocean going vessels indefinitely using ordinary sea water for generating an unlimited amount of mechanical work. Although this possibility is generally believed to be thermodynamically impossible, it is clearly not impossible. The existence of these engines proves that it is indeed possible to convert the natural heat energy of the environment at ambient temperature into an unlimited amount of mechanical work by creating an artificial low temperature heat reservoir below ambient. What has to be emphasized here regarding the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics is the creation of an artificial low temperature heat reservoir. If any cyclic heat engine produces such a low temperature heat reservoir while it operates it is, “strictly speaking,” operating outside the domain of the second law and therefore, cannot logically be subject to this law. However, this is a moot point because the second law of thermodynamics is not really a fundamental law of physics as pointed out in the book cited above. However, it should also be emphasized that the present invention is not a heat engine, it is a condensing system.
In order to better understand the basic operating principles of the invention and its distinguishing operating characteristics that make it uniquely different from anything it the prior art, it will be useful to review the fundamental operating principles of prior art condensing heat engines, and, in particular, the operating principles of their condensing systems.
Prior art condensing heat engines such as the steam engine operate by compressing liquefied working fluid (such as water in the case of steam engines) to high pressure by a hydraulic compressor and feeding it into a boiler maintained at high temperature by burning fuel. Since a liquid is nearly incompressible and has very low specific volume, the amount of mechanical work consumed in compressing the liquefied working fluid is relatively low. When the compressed fluid is circulated through the boiler it is heated and vaporizes to high pressure gas (steam). This results in a several hundred fold increase in its specific volume. This high pressure gas is then fed into an expander which converts a portion of the heat absorbed in the boiler into mechanical work which is usually used for turning an electric generator. Since the specific volume of the high pressure gas expanding through the expander is many times greater than the specific volume of liquid, the mechanical work generated by the expander is many times greater than the mechanical work consumed by the compressor. After leaving the expander as low temperature vapor, this vapor is fed into a condenser where it is re-liquefied by utilizing the natural environment as a low temperature heat sink to extract the heat of vaporization. After the liquefied working fluid is discharged from the condenser it is recompressed and the cycle is repeated. The condenser is therefore just as important as the boiler because it reduces the specific volume of the working fluid so that the work consumed in recompressing it is a small fraction of the mechanical work generated by expanding it.
The most efficient cooling system (i.e., refrigerator) is known as a “Carnot refrigerator.” The amount of mechanical work W required to transfer a quantity of heat Q from a low temperature T
L
to a high temperature T
H
is given by
W
=
Q
(
T
H
-
T
L
T
L
)
The natural environment at ambient temperature plays a key role in the design of condensing heat engines and refrigerators. It represents a temperature zone which divides the operating temperature regimes of cyclic heat engines and refrigerators. This is because the environment at ambient temperature represents the low temperature heat reservoir for condensing heat engines which operate by absorbing heat energy from a high temperature reservoir above ambient temperature and generating mechanical work, while in re
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Doerrler William C.
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