Quote:
Originally Posted by C3H8
i hate to be a doubter, however you would be better off pointing some little steam nozzle out the back of the car and using it for its tiny thrust output. that way the energy could be used to do something directly instead of using it to spin a shaft, which has air drag, and bearing drag, and converting mechanical energy to electrical via a 3 phase alternator, which then converts 3 phase a/c into dc, etc etc.
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I like it ... less complex ... fewer conversion steps and losses ... and directly pushes the car.
The bad news ... you will likely quickly vent a considerable amount of water ... which means you have to carry with you that much water ... which is a weight penalty.
However ... One example of what has been achievable ... A Steam powered 'rocket' produced ~1,333 Pounds of trust for ~6 seconds from 200 pounds of steam ... the weight is the same liquid water or stream ... the volume changes.
Primary Propulsion
~200 pounds of liquid water would be ~24 Gallons of water ... or a scale of ~333 Pounds of thrust per second per gallon of water vented as steam ... assuming equal efficiency / performance could be achieved from an automotive waste heat exhaust steam jet engine... it might be able to be improved ... but at least that is an example of what has been achieved.
Ideally nothing is put in directly in the exhaust stream ... just the heat is used on the outside of the exhaust pipe .... thus extremely little back pressure ... only the small amount caused by extracting heat from the exhaust gasses... just enough water to feed the steam jet.
However some of the other options being discussed ... while maybe less efficient and maybe more complex ... they do have the potential of eventually being turned into a closed system ... which would mean a fixed amount of water / working fluid is used ... and would not need to have more refilled or added regularly ... which would be a negative of the automotive exhaust waste heat steam jet engine... AEWHSJE ??? I need a different acronym.