Exhaust Heat Recovery - Steam Power

[mpgx2]

Folks,

I've given this topic a bit more thought.

For instance, using a CNG/LPG bottle to store the steam.

It's easy to boil water and generate steam in a vacuum.

Using the hybrid principle, you make steam under acceleration
when you are fueling the engine, by a boiler system on
the exhaust manifold.

You pump/capture the steam in a CNG/LPG storage bottle
made for high pressure.

At traffic lights, idle, whenever you want, you pump the
captured steam back into the inlet manifold.

Now, see the problem?

Where will the steam go?

Not into the cylinder, but out your inlet manifold and
blow your air-filter onto the road - lol.

The showstopper to me seams to be that the ICE
draws air in by induction.

Unless you do really heavy engineering on your inlet
manifold to stop the steam 'going-the-wrong' way
then it just will never work.

Apart from that, the idea is good.

[jdgFirefly]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

The se-saw logic of eliminating the cost of accelerating and decelerating reciprocating masses, is something I would tend to believe would make Newton laugh out loud.

Actually a se-saw is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. One kid pushes up send the other down, no laws of physics broken and no measurable inefficiency in the mechanical linkage (the plank).

Yes a se-saw is a lever and yes a crank is also a lever that is able rotate

In situations when you have few pistons or only one, a fly wheel becomes increasingly necessarily as stored energy is needed to change the direction of the piston.

What I'm talking about doesn't break the laws of physics but upholds it. You have to ask your self when the piston is decelerating where does the energy go, because the laws of physics doesn't let it disappear. To find out you simply have to look at what is resisting its inertia. If its some hind of friction loss that's stopping the piston then yes the energy is wasted as heat but that's not the case, its simply changed into rotational momentum via the con rod and crank, and same rotational momentum will be used for accelerating the piston or the other pistons.

[jdgFirefly]

Check out this organic Rankine cycle Organic Rankine Cycle - Camosun College - Hacked Gadgets - DIY Tech Blog

Is organic because it uses refrigerant rather than steam, they do this because it boils at lower temp so waste heat can be captured easier. It also sound like they are using a Tesla turbine.

[jdgFirefly]

Also a short article in Popular mechanics about some MIT students making a organic Rankin cycle out of old car parts. MIT Team Turns Auto Parts Into Green Power for Remote Regions - Popular Mechanics

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by mpgx2

Folks,

I've given this topic a bit more thought.

For instance, using a CNG/LPG bottle to store the steam.

It's easy to boil water and generate steam in a vacuum.

Using the hybrid principle, you make steam under acceleration
when you are fueling the engine, by a boiler system on
the exhaust manifold.

You pump/capture the steam in a CNG/LPG storage bottle
made for high pressure.

At traffic lights, idle, whenever you want, you pump the
captured steam back into the inlet manifold.

Now, see the problem?

Where will the steam go?

Not into the cylinder, but out your inlet manifold and
blow your air-filter onto the road - lol.

The showstopper to me seams to be that the ICE
draws air in by induction.

Unless you do really heavy engineering on your inlet
manifold to stop the steam 'going-the-wrong' way
then it just will never work.

Apart from that, the idea is good.

Well I don't think anyone was talking about running the steam back into the primary engine. The idea was to use a separate steam-powered engine of some type to turn an alternator to keep the battery charged and eliminate the alternator load on the primary engine.

[user removed]

The Museum of RetroTechnology

A lot of interesting designs here.

regards
Mech

[user removed]

The Parsons Epicyclic Engine.

An interesting comparison of the same engine, one operating as a fixed block reciprocating version, the other operating as a fixed crank rotary version.

regards
Mech

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

The Parsons Epicyclic Engine.

An interesting comparison of the same engine, one operating as a fixed block reciprocating version, the other operating as a fixed crank rotary version.

regards
Mech

Wow. 40.7 lb of water per brake hp per hour. That's about 5 gallons an hour for a 1-hp engine.

[user removed]

The Still Steam-Diesel Engine

And another.

regards
Mech

[Daox]

What about something like this? It was my original idea, but I had discounted it a while ago. Just throwing more ideas out there. I'd like to keep this idea going.