Low temperature high efficiency condensing heat engine for propelling road vehicles

Publication number: US 2011/0277476 A1

Abstract:
A non-polluting, closed-cycle condensing heat engine and operating method is provided for propelling road vehicles at high efficiencies and high power densities by using a phase-changing working fluid having a critical temperature close to the natural ambient temperature of the surrounding atmosphere and shifting the high temperature heat reservoir downward by several hundred degrees by creating an artificial low temperature heat reservoir below ambient temperature by evaporating water. By isentropically compressing the liquefied working fluid at sub-ambient temperatures to very high pressure utilizing the fact that water has an unusually high latent heat of evaporation, and heating it to a compressed gas at a relatively low temperature in the high temperature heat reservoir by burning small amounts of fuel, it is possible for the engine to operate at high power densities by expanding the compressed gas back to the initial sub-ambient temperature where it is re-condensed to propel road vehicles several hundred miles on a tank of water holding only 40 gallons using a small fraction of the amount of fuel used by vehicles propelled by conventional internal combustion engines.

Application US12/780,198 events
2010-05-14: Application filed by Individual
2010-05-14: Priority to US12/780,198
2011-11-17: Publication of US20110277476A1