External Combustion and Waste Heat Engine Prototypes

Looks like a brilliant idea. As noted, the chief advantage of an external combustion engine over an ICE is its ability to use any heat source as an energy source, including waste heat energy. Using heat to vaporize water to generate mechanical force, then using the waste heat energy from the condensing steam to pre-heat the incoming cooling water to reduce the energy required to vaporize it will give very high energy efficiency. And it's certainly a far more intelligent way to utilize water to power a vehicle than using the onboard electrolysis of water to generate "Brown's gas" to power a car.

This reminds me of the advantages of a sterling engine. However, not much love for the sterling outside of hobbyist groups.

I'd love to see the sterling or these cyclone engines take over for electric generation. A car's alternator sucks horse power to generate electricity for the car. Using the heat of the exhaust or at the radiator or the manifold or the ... the waste heat could be turned into electricity via this cyclone or a sterling engine.

How about nuclear waste as your heat source?

Gabe

http://blogs.ControlTheoryPro.com

ken is spot on, everywhere I went mubo jumbo

"Super-Critical Fluid - Pressures in the range of 3200 psi with temperatures of about 1200°F cause super-critical vapor to act as a fluid. Maintaining the super-critical pressure, in the centrifuge process, eliminates the turbulence, backpressure events, and heat spikes that can occur during other less efficient types of super-critical processes. At these higher temperatures and pressures, the super-critical 'fluid' carries more heat energy to the motor it powers. The Cyclone Engine is a piston engine with a special valve mechanism allowing it to operate at fluid pressures, thereby gaining multi- advantages; greater simplicity, reliability and enhanced power."

Super criticlal vapor acts as a fluid!! What do you think the maintenance will be on a 3200 psi pump. I don't care what he said, its a boiler, as soon as you have anything above its critical pressure, its a vapor, so its a boiler, running a steam piston engine, with waste heat recovery.

Efficency, you don't get the whole picture because, you have to put energy into the water before you can use it! deionized water, oh yeah, its a boiler, you need boiler feed water!

Right you are, Ken, which is why I voted you a GA on this reply. I wonder how well it runs on snake oil?

GA from my seat as well. Thanks very much for reading the sites and reporting to us others. In the Sustainable Energy Blog and other member discussions External Combustion Engines have been much discussed. We have come round to Sterling Engines very often, and one of the members exposed us to a list of companies and models. I imagine starting a company named The Mythical Sterling Company. Apparently they are right expensive and specialized at this time. There is conflict between Internal Combustion Engines and External Combustion Engines that will tip more towards External Combustion Engines than was the case during my lifetime, and for another 50 years before. For farmers with a multiplicity of possible fuels the right priced Sterling offers energy cost savings on its face, though I understand ECEs as electric generator power, and for the local farms of NC around where I live, electricity may not be the main energy cost to reduce. Of course your ideal ECE would Solar run your tractor, I suppose. Kockums is the name of a Swedish company I remember that makes Sterlings for Submarines. There was another of interest to us that I can't remember the name of. Of CR-4, I typically regard Sterling Stan as one expert to query, though as much archive writing on the subject you could just look up his posts really. For renewable and alternate fuels the ECEs are extremely important to core integrate into a complicated set of needs and resources that vary around the planet. It is a subject worthy of thought and effort. I believe the Cyclone Engine was the name of a very important Radial aircraft engine. To be worthy of the engine name Cyclone, whatever engine you produce ought not insult the name, for it was a very good and important engine.

I'm probably nitpicking, his video often returns to nitrous oxide n₂o as a combustion byproduct. I thought (and I could be wrong as I have been before)no no₂ were the primary nitrogen-based exhaust emissions, and nitrous oxide is commonly referred to as laughing gas.

However the point has been rendered mute. I've discovered the existence of a engine that will solve the worlds problems, a vaporization engine. It is multi-fuel compatible, and has the capability to produce no net carbon emissions. This capability is derived from its ability to be fired on things like finely powdered coal, substitute manure and you have a perfect engine. No net carbon emissions, fuel produced from a renewable source, in this case BS.

Wow Jack,

There was a time when these external combustion engines were used every where, even is an automobile. We just called them steam engines.

Regards, Mike

Just throwing some more ideas out there for people to look at and think about (I got sick of just seeing threads on water electrolysis). Yes I know these engines are not new, just variations on previous ones.

As I said, I doubt you will be running your cars on them (for obvious reasons such as efficiency).

Hate to burst the bubble, but there's nothing new here other than the packaging. Looks like Cyclone realized, like a few million others, that the old steam locomotive can burn anything. Water doesn't care where the energy came from to heat it. There are thousands of patents and thousands of designs for essentially the same thing - at least mechanically. Just package it verbally or physically the right way and everyone thinks it is new. One concern is that any energy transfer or energy transformation has an associated energy loss. If we are concerned over greenness, Cyclones engines will actually produce more carbon dioxide etc as it will require more burned fuel to produce the same amount of horsepower or electricity compared to burning the fuel to directly move pistons or spin a turbine since you loose efficiency with the in-between step of heating the water.

I'm sure there is a niche for them, but this is not the new interesting thing that it is being presented as in this blog - simply more of the same-old.

Hate to burst your bubble but you are wrong. The efficiency of the cyclone is way above an ICE and on the lower end of a Diesel. According to their efficiency curve it reaches its efficiency at 1000 RPM's and stays at a constant.

While the steam engine is older than the ICE and the Diesel all of the technology has progressed with new ways to do things and new materials available to allow this to happen.

And what kind of loss do you call it with the flames coming out of the exhaust manifold of an ICE? At least the external combustion gets a complete burn.