1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an engine which runs notably on compressed air or any other gas, and more particularly using a piston travel control device which stops the piston at top dead centre for a period of time together with a device for recovering ambient thermal energy which can operate in mono- or bi-energy mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
The author has registered numerous patents concerning drive systems along with their installations using compressed air for totally clean operation in urban and suburban locations:
For the implementation of these inventions, he has also described in his patent application WO 99/63206, to which reference should be made, an engine piston travel control device and process which enables the piston to be stopped at top dead centre, a process also described in his patent application WO 99/20881 to which reference should also be made and concerning the operation of these engines with mono-energy or bi-energy and two or three powering modes.
In his patent application WO 99/37885 to which reference should also be made, he proposes a solution which increases the amount of usable and available energy which can be used which uses the fact that, before being introduced into the combustion and/or expansion chamber of the engine, the compressed air coming from the storage reservoir either directly or via the heat exchanger(s) of the ambient thermal energy recovery device is channelled into a thermal heater where, by increasing its temperature, the pressure and/or volume is further increased before introduction into the combustion and/or expansion chamber of the engine thus further considerably increasing the performance which can be obtained by the said engine.
In spite of the use of fossil fuel, the use of a thermal heater has the advantage of enabling clean continuous combustion to be used which can be catalyzed or depolluted by any existing means in order to obtain minimal polluting emissions.
The author has registered a patent no. WO 03/036088 A1, to which reference should be made, concerning a motor compressor-motor generator unit with supplementary compressed air injection operating in mono- or multi-energy.
In these types of engine operating with compressed air and comprising a storage reservoir of compressed air, the compressed air held at high pressure in the reservoir but whose pressure reduces as the reservoir is emptied, must be lowered to a stable intermediate pressure known as the final usage pressure in a buffer capacity known as the work capacity before being used in the engine cylinder(s). The well-known conventional pressure reducing valves using diaphragms and springs have very low flow rates and their use for this application requires very heavy poorly-performing devices; furthermore, they are very susceptible to freezing due to the humidity of the air chilled during the pressure drop.
To resolve this problem, the author has also registered a patent WO 03/089764 A1, to which reference should also be made, concerning a variable flow reducing valve and distribution system for compressed air injection engines, comprising a high-pressure compressed air tank and a work capacity.
The author has also registered a patent application WO 02/070876 A1 concerning an expansion chamber with a variable volume comprising two separate tanks one of which is in communication with the compressed air inlet and the other joined to the cylinder, which may be connected together or isolated from one another such that during the exhaust cycle, it is possible to charge the first of the tanks with compressed air then establish the pressure in the second at the end of the exhaust cycle while the piston is at TDC and before restarting its travel, the two tanks remaining in communication and releasing pressure together to carry out the engine stroke and that at least one of the tanks is provided with a means of changing their volume to enable the resultant torque of the engine to be varied at equal pressure.
The filling up of the chamber is always detrimental to the general efficiency in the operation of these “pressure reduction” engines.
The engine in the invention uses a device for stopping the piston at top dead centre. It is powered, for preference, by compressed air or any other compressed gas contained in a high-pressure storage reservoir through a buffer tank called the buffer capacity. The buffer capacity in the bi-energy version comprises an air heating device powered by a supplementary energy (fossil or other energy) which increases the temperature and/or pressure of the air passing through it.
The engine according to the invention is characterized by the means implemented taken together or separately and in particular:
The expansion chamber of the engine according to the invention actively participates in the work. The engine according to the invention is called an active chamber engine.
The engine according to the invention is favourably fitted with a variable flow pressure reducing valve according to WO 03/089764 A1 called a dynamic pressure reducing valve which feeds the work capacity at its usage pressure with the compressed air from the storage reservoir by carrying out an isothermal pressure reduction without work.
The thermodynamic cycle according to the invention is characterized by an isothermal expansion without work enabled by the dynamic pressure reducing valve followed by a transfer accompanied by a very slight quasi-isothermal expansion—for example a capacity of 3,000 cubic centimeters in a capacity of 3050 cubic centimeters—with work using the air pressure contained in the work capacity while the expansion chamber is filling, then a polytropic expansion from the expansion chamber into the engine cylinder with work and lowering of the temperature to finish by the exhaust of the expanded air into the atmosphere.
According to the invention, the thermodynamic cycle therefore comprises four phases in compressed air mono-energy mode:
It its bi-energy application according to the invention and in supplementary fuel mode, the compressed air contained in the work capacity is heated by supplementary energy in a thermal heater. The arrangement enables the quantity of usable and available energy to be increased due to the fact that before being introduced into the active chamber the compressed air rises in temperature and increases its pressure and/or volume enabling increases in performance and/or autonomy. The use of a thermal heater has the advantage of enabling clean continuous combustion to be used which can be catalyzed or depolluted by any existing means in order to obtain minimal polluting emissions.
A thermal heater can use fossil fuels such as petrol, diesel or vehicle LPG, bio fuels or alcohols—ethanol, methanol—thus achieving bi-energy operation with external combustion where a burner is used to increase the temperature.
According to a variant of the invention, the heater favourably uses thermochemical processes based on absorption and desorption processes such as those used and described, for example, in patents EP 0 307297 A1 and EP 0 382586 B1, these processes using the evaporation of a fluid, for example liquid ammonium, into gas reacting with salts such as calcium or manganese chlorides or others, the system operating like a thermal battery.
According to a variant of the invention, the active chamber engine is fitted with a thermal heater with a burner, or other, and a thermochemical heater of the type previously cited which would be able to be used jointly or successively during phase 1 of the thermochemical heater where the thermal heater using the burner is used to regenerate (phase 2) the thermochemical heater when the latter is empty by using the heater with the burner to heat its reactor during the continuation of operation of the unit.
Where a combustion heater is used, the active chamber engine according to the invention is an external combustion chamber engine called an external combustion engine. However, either the combustions of the said heater can be internal in applying the flame directly to the operating compressed air, the engine then being said to be “external-internal combustion”, or the combustions of the said heater are external by heating the operating air through a heat exchanger where the engine is said to be “external-external combustion”.
In operating mode with supplementary energy, the thermodynamic cycle comprises five phases:
All mechanical, hydraulic, electrical or other devices used, as far as the engine cycle is concerned, to carry out the three phases of the work cycle of the active chamber, i.e.:
For preference, the variable volume expansion chamber known as the active chamber is made up of a piston known as the pressure piston sliding in a cylinder and linked by a connecting rod to the crank of the engine, a classic design which determines a two-phase sequence: downward travel and upward travel.
The engine piston is controlled by a device for stopping the piston at top dead centre which determines a three-phase sequence: upward travel, stop at top dead centre and downward travel.
To enable the engine to be set according to the invention, the travels of the pressure piston and the engine piston are different, that of the pressure piston being longer and predetermined such that when during the downward travel of the pressure piston, the volume chosen as being the “actual volume of the expansion chamber” is reached, the downward travel of the engine piston starts and that, during this downward travel, the pressure piston continues and terminates its own downward travel—thus producing work—then starts its upward travel while the engine piston with a shorter and quicker travel, catches it up in its upward travel so that both pistons reach their dead centres at roughly the same time. It should be noted that during the start of its upward travel, the pressure piston is subject to a negative work which, de facto, has been compensated by an additional positive work at the end of its downward travel.
During operation in compressed air mode, on a vehicle running in an urban location operating without pollution for example, only the pressure of the compressed air stored in the high pressure reservoir is used; in bi-energy operation in supplementary energy mode (fossil or other), on a vehicle running on the open road with minimal pollution for example, the heating of the work capacity is then required to increase the temperature of the air passing through it and consequently its usable volume and/or pressure thus giving better performance and/or autonomy.
According to the invention, the engine is controlled as regards torque and speed by controlling the pressure in the work capacity, this being favourably achieved using the dynamic pressure reducing valve. When it operates in bi-energy mode with supplementary energy (fossil or other) an electronic computer controls the quantity of supplementary energy provided according to the pressure in the said work capacity.
According to a variant of the invention, to enable autonomous operation of the engine during its use with supplementary energy and/or when the compressed air storage reservoir is empty, the active chamber engine according to the invention is connected to an air compressor to supply compressed air to the high pressure compressed air storage reservoir.
The bi-energy active chamber engine thus equipped operates normally in two modes by using, as an in-town vehicle for example, zero-pollution operation with the compressed air contained in the high pressure storage reservoir, and on the open road, still as an example, in supplementary energy mode with its thermal heater supplied by a fossil fuel or other energy source while using an air compressor to re-supply air to the high-pressure storage reservoir.
According to another variant of the invention, the air compressor feeds the work capacity directly. In this case, the engine is controlled by controlling the pressure of the compressor and the dynamic pressure reducing valve between the high pressure storage reservoir and the work capacity remains blocked off.
According to another variant of these arrangements, the air compressor feeds either the high pressure reservoir or the work capacity or both volumes in combination.
According to the invention, the bi-energy active chamber engine has de facto three main operating modes:
The active chamber engine may also be produced in mono-energy with fossil or other fuel when it is attached to an air compressor feeding the work capacity as described above, the high pressure compressed air storage reservoir then being simply removed.
In the case of operation in supplementary energy mode with use of external-external combustion, the exhaust from the active chamber engine can be recycled to the compressor inlet.
According to a variant of the invention, the engine is made up of multiple expansion stages, each stage comprising an active chamber according to the invention. A heat exchanger is positioned between each stage which heats the exhaust air from the previous stage for mono-energy operation using compressed air and/or a heating device using supplementary energy for bi-energy operation. The displacement of each following stage is larger than that of the preceding stage.
For a mono-energy compressed air engine, the expansion in the first cylinder having lowered the temperature, the heating of the air is done favourably using an air-air heat exchanger with ambient temperature.
For a bi-energy engine using supplementary energy, the air is heated using supplementary energy in a thermal heater, for example using fossil fuel.
According to a variant of this arrangement, after each stage, the exhaust air is directed towards a single heater with several stages in order to use only one combustion source.
The heat exchangers can be air-air exchangers or air-liquid or any other device or gas producing the desired effect.
The active chamber engine according to the invention can be used in all terrestrial, maritime, railway or aeronautical engines. The active chamber engine according to the invention can also and favourably find applications in emergency electrical generator sets and also in numerous domestic cogeneration applications producing electricity, heating and air conditioning.
Other aims, benefits and characteristics of the invention will be shown upon reading the descriptions of various possible, but non-limiting, configurations shown in the appended diagrams, where:
A device controlled by the accelerator pedal controls dynamic pressure reducing valve 21 to regulate the pressure in the work chamber and thus control the engine.
The active chamber engine also works autonomously in bi-energy mode with supplementary energy provided by fossil fuels or other fuels (
The operation of the active chamber engine is described assuming the use of compressed air. However, any compressed gas could be used without changing the invention described.
The invention is not limited to the examples of configurations described and represented: the materials, control means and devices described may vary, while remaining equivalent, to produce the same results. The number of engine cylinders, their arrangement, volume and number of expansion stages may vary without changing in any way the invention described.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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03 13401 | Nov 2003 | FR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/FR2004/002929 | 11/17/2004 | WO | 00 | 1/17/2007 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2005/049968 | 6/2/2005 | WO | A |
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4149370 | Ayala Vargas | Apr 1979 | A |
4444024 | McFee | Apr 1984 | A |
4696158 | DeFrancisco | Sep 1987 | A |
6305171 | Negre et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
6568186 | Zaleski | May 2003 | B2 |
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195 15 325 | Oct 1996 | DE |
2 769 949 | Apr 1999 | FR |
2 779 480 | Dec 1999 | FR |
2 831 598 | May 2003 | FR |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20070101712 A1 | May 2007 | US |