Quote:
Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob
Steam engines lost out to ICE because of cost and maintenance issues. Hauling a supplemental, low-efficiency one around would not pay. I'm not talking about hauling a plain water tank, but a phase-change tank.
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OK, I'm not understanding your position, since you're effectively arguing for driving around with a boiler in your car but not doing anything with the steam once you generate it.
Thermal efficiency is not the only consideration in an engineering solution. Regular tank, phase change tank, doesn't matter. The energy density of that solution is way too low to work.
A phase change for water would release about 2,200 joules per liter of liquid water (where are you going to store the steam while you're driving, BTW?). Compare that to the WORST battery in terms of energy density, the lead acid car battery. The lead acid battery has an energy density of about 180,000 joules per liter. In other words, you'd need 80 liters of water to equal 1 liter of battery. From a weight standpoint, it's almost the same - 70 kilograms of water for every 1 kilogram of battery.
You see, even if your solution is more thermally efficient, it's simply not practical. Whereas, adding a "low efficiency" generator will still recover lost energy without turning the car into a rolling tank truck.