$25,000 National Geographic Contest - Compressed Air (Ambient Heat) Energy

[memoryman]

Actually, Simon Derricutt has been running a thread on revolution-green on how to do this in his kitchen. He expects real results this year.
Using some form of heat engine can work, but requires the cold sink; not always doable. Have you looked at Nitinol engines? Not very efficient, but they do work.
Personally, I have had an interest in converting heat to electricity for many decades.

[lancaIV]

Hello memoryman,
related "...Simon Derricut has been running.." :
is he ready with his re-/search  and can he demonstrate his functional results pro-to-type-ly ?

Is there a need for a "cold sink" or in reality an "heat sink" ?
What is about RT=room temperature as metrical NN,base-line ?l

He have this,his, affords later by and with altrustic mention/man(n)er (to stay in remind):
https://www.google.pt/search?q=wilhelm+haeberle+heat+patent&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=rV2fWezUFKGp8weinrXIDA


Sincerely
             OCWL

[memoryman]

Hi, lancaIV.
He does not have a demonstration prototype: hopefully this year.
No cold sink; direct conversion of infra red to electricity.
There won't be a patent on the principle but may be on part of the manufacturing process.

[Tom Booth]

Actually, Simon Derricutt has been running a thread on revolution-green on how to do this in his kitchen. He expects real results this year.
Using some form of heat engine can work, but requires the cold sink; not always doable. Have you looked at Nitinol engines? Not very efficient, but they do work.
Personally, I have had an interest in converting heat to electricity for many decades.

I've browsed around on revolution green for some time but haven't been able to locate the thread you mentioned. Is this a blog?

Could you provide a link to the thread?

We've had some discussions on this previously. Regarding Tesla's "Self-Acting Engine". The heat engine or device proposed actually does not REQUIRE a "sink" or "cold resorvuor". At least not in the traditional thermodynamic sense. If I might try to explain.

Tripler for example, compressed air into pipes which ran through a water cooling jacket. Without the water jacket the heat of compression would have reached THOUSANDS of degrees F.

The water in the cooling jacket, most probably, or at least at times would have, or could have been well ABOVE the ambient air temperature. Nevertheless, water has a tremendouse capacity for heat absorption, and being RELATIVELY cold, compared to the compressed air, could draw off the heat of compression at a prodigious rate. Likewise, any heat pump or refrigeration system operates similarly, by manipulating the RELATIVE temperature diference between the COMPRESSED and therefore HOT refrigerant and the ambient. Tripler, by boiling liquid air with ambient heat in a steam engine realized a "surplussage" of about 3x. That is he could manufacture 10 gallons of liquid air by boiling just 3 gallons in his steam  engine used to power his compressor BECAUSE the tepid water, though above ambient could yet absorb the heat of compression at a prodigious rate.

In otherwords, this is not a below ambient "sink" but rather simply one method of discarding excess heat. He realized a surplus of energy although discarding enormouse volumes of heat energy. Not only did his method make the heat of the ambient available, it did so by making hot water from the discarded heat of compression.

Now back then the only heat engine known primarily was the steam engine. Thus the necessity for cooling the air to the point of liquefaction. Otherwise how could you BOIL the air with ambient heat in a conventional steam engine? You, of course, could not. This was the same premis Tesla and others strived for in that era. Liquid Air to boil in a steam engine with ambient heat to somehow come up with a Self Acting Engine. What they failed to take into account was the necesity for dumping enormous quantities of excess heat. In otherwords, for such an engine to be "self acting" it needs to also make lots and lots of hot water ( or hot air).

But today this whole process can be greatly simplified by using a low delta T Stirling engine. A Stirling engine does not require liquid air to be boiled to create internal pressure to operate. Further, it can utilize at least SOME of the excess heat of compression to augment its operation. (increase the temperature difference).

The purpose of compressing the air, it must be remembered however, is to COOL it. That the process of cooling the air also throws off heat is largely incidental.

A freezer makes ice essentially by compressing a "fluid" or gas so as to increase its temperature RELATIVE to the ambient at which point the heat dissipates to the ambient "sink" on its own accord with nothing more than convection of sometimes quite warm ambient air.

So, if Tripler could realize a surplus of energy though discarding ALL the generated heat of compression, an even greater surplus can be realized by applying the same process but using the temperature difference created to run a Stirling engine which is capable of utilizing both extreem cold as well as extreem heat.

[memoryman]

There are several articles, sometimes under Mark Dansie's name. Her is one:
http://revolution-green.com/defining-flow-energy-real-quest-free-energy/
Understand that we want WORK done; ENERGY is the means to get WORK.