Thermodynamic cyclic process

Details Thermodynamic cyclic process Thermodynamic cyclic process

1990-12-05

1992-06-16

Ostrager, Allen M.

Power plants

Motive fluid energized by externally applied heat

Process of power production or system operation

60673, F01K 2506

Patent

active

051216060

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a thermodynamic cyclic process with a gaseous working medium which is alternately compressed and expanded, in which process a working medium is employed, which experiences a volume expansion due to chemical processes at the higher temperature after the compression and a corresponding volume contraction at the lower temperature after the expansion.
In cyclic processes there exists, quite generally, the problem that they have a limited efficiency. This efficiency is, on the one hand, given by physical laws, but on the other hand, also determined by constructional details. Thus, for technical reasons, it is in most cases only possible to operate these devices with a relatively low efficiency.
A certain increase in the efficiency is to be aimed at in a process of the initially mentioned type (UK-A2,017, 226). In the cyclic process described therein, for the generation of energy, the thermal energy which is supplied is not only employed for expanding the gas due to the heating in the conventional manner. Rather, further heat is expended in order to liberate further gas on account of an endothermic chemical process, i.e. to bring about a further volume expansion. The advantage that more working gas is obtained at the higher temperature is, however, counteracted by the disadvantage that more heat is also given off to the colder heat reservoir in the course of the corresponding exothermic volume contraction at the lower temperature of the circuit.
The object of the invention consists in providing a cyclic process of the initially mentioned type, which process has a very high efficiency.
The object is achieved, according to the invention, in that the volume contraction is endothermic.
In contrast to the previously known cyclic process, there is thus no need for additional energy to be expended in order to obtain the additional gas. Rather, the appropriate chemical processes involved in the formation of the additional gas at the higher temperature are exothermic, so that these processes run automatically, as soon as the gas has actually been brought to the appropriate temperature. Thus, in a heat engine less heat needs to be supplied at the higher temperature, whereby the efficiency is increased. On the other hand, less energy also needs to be given off to the heat reservoir of lower temperature at the lower temperature, since the corresponding volume contraction is endothermic, which leads to a further increase in the efficiency. It is even feasible that, in this case, heat is absorbed from the environment at the lower temperature.
If the cyclic process is employed for a heat pump, then there is likewise an increase in the efficiency. In the heat pump, heat is withdrawn from a temperature reservoir of lower temperature and given off, by means of mechanical energy, to a temperature reservoir of higher temperature. Because of the endothermic chemical volume contraction, more heat is absorbed at the lower temperature from the environment. With an equal quantity of mechanical energy to be expended, more heat is therefore gained, and the efficiency therefore rises.
One possibility for implementing the cyclic process would be, for example, to employ a molecular gas, the molecules of which decompose at the higher temperature into individual components, in the extreme case into individual atoms. Another possibility consists, as will be stated below, in heating a metal powder which absorbs or has adsorbed a gas.
Because of the fact that the working medium occupies a greater volume at the higher temperature, the gas is able to perform more work than would otherwise be the case. At the lower temperature, the chemical reaction and/or the desorption processes then proceed in the other direction, i.e. as absorption or adsorption processes, so that the gas again occupies its normal volume and is then once again available for the cycle.
Since the working medium employed is one which heats up in the course of the volume expansion at the higher temperature, in the case of a heat engine the quantity of heat s

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patent: 4701199 (1987-10-01), Kabe et al.
patent: 4712610 (1987-12-01), Kesten et al.

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