The most common electrical generating plants burn coal in a very complex boiler to heat water to steam and the steam to a very high temperature and presure. The super heated steam expands in a very complex turbine to turn an alternator that produces very high voltage electricity. All of this requires almost constant attention from highly skilled operators. Our power companies, if we leave them alone, are doing a fine job of providing us with safe, clean, dependable and economical electric power. These are the facts.
The use of water as an operating fluid limits these system thermal efficiencies to a little over 30 percent.
In an open system, where the exhaust steam is released to the atmosphere, water is the only choice. In a closed system, where the fluid remains in a loop, other materials have obvious advantages over water.
The first public record of the discovery of this fact is a US patent No.781,481 issued in 1905 to Franz Windhausen Jr. of Berlin Germany. He proposes ammonia, sulpheric acid, or carbonic acid as liquids that have a boiling point below freezing and an advantageous pressure to temperature ratio. The latent heat required to change the state from liquid to gas is already in the fluid.
These pressure to temperature ratios are pretty simple. Temperature goes up, pressure goes up. Pressure goes down, temperature goes down. Use power to put pressure into the system and control how it is released and you have refrigeration and air conditioning. Put temperature into the system and control how the pressure is released and you have power. Many refridgeration and air conditioning systems used ammonia as a operating fluid until recently, but we now have fluids that are much less corrosive and have better temperature to pressure ratios.
Many patents issued since 1905 have specified fluids of this type with many methods of extracting power. Most of the patents employ complicated methods and machinery. None of the systems are available to the public.
What If- we could design a system that would use existing skills and hardware to allow wide use of these facts?
What If- the system could use any fuel?
What If- the system would be more efficient than any in use?
What if- the system could use waste heat from many sources?
For my proposed system---