EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7-29-11
THE REGENERATIVE CYCLONE RANKINE CYCLE ENGINE IN MODERN
TRANSPORTATION AND POWER TECHNOLOGY.
The demand in this decade to reduce global warming is becoming a most serious matter. Depending on foreign oil and unstable and often hostile foreign governments encourages the use of fuels made in the United States. It also demands that the burning of these fuels be as carbon free as possible and highly efficient for the consumer. These two demands are often at cross purposes and the inclusion of digital electronic systems has been mandatory to meet the ever increasing Government mandates with the present internal combustion (IC) engines, often leading to some reliability issues..
Two IC engines are used in motor vehicles and in large trucks. The spark ignited gasoline engine and the compression ignited Diesel engine. Both demand expensive pollution control systems to meet government mandates.
In the motor vehicle, these demands for clean and efficient operation have now imposed highly complex and costly coordinated digital electronic systems for fuel management, engine operation and transmission control. All have seriously increased the purchase and maintenance costs of the automobile or truck for the purchaser.
A most serious need for some reliable and cost effective alternate power source has not been the subject of massive corporate investigation and investment. The path pursued by the auto industry is to adapt known technology to the gasoline engine at increased cost, added weight and reduced reliability. Management has again chosen the path of minimum technical risk and minimum corporate cost. A reasoned and dispassionate investigation of what is actually available and adaptable for their long term need has not been accomplished.
In the case of the Rankine cycle engine, the lack of accurate and available data has guaranteed the loss of any guidance and the serious lack of education and experience with this power source has been noted in the United States and in Europe and Asia.
The present attempts to satisfy Government mandates has produced solutions that are more panic driven and easily accomplished than any long term sensible solutions for the automotive industry. Management has again taken the path of least resistance and cost.
Palliatives such as hybrids of all kinds, unsatisfactory fuel choices, electric additions and such are the result of the industry needed something in rapid short order to satisfy these Government mandates and to stay in business. Misinformed political interference is no substitute for sound engineering decisions and practice and should be soundly rejected by the automotive industry. Another path management is reluctant to pursue.
The goal should be a power source that is reliable, compact, efficient, powerful and cost effective in both the manufacturing costs and in long term use for the consumer. It should also be able to use any light liquid or gaseous fuel available in a totally pollution free manner with no hardware or control additions being required.
The Cyclone Rankine cycle engine satisfies all these requirements when burning pure bio fuel oils from plant and algae sources.
Due to the failure of past efforts during the Clean Air Car Program, sponsored by the Federal Government during the 1959-1985 period, any attention being paid to the Rankine cycle steam engine as a potential power source has been totally avoided and rejected by one and all. The consummate failure of all these programs meant a serious and total rejection today of any consideration of the Rankine cycle engine.
This program was designed by the Government and greatly assisted by the automobile industry, to fail and the critics succeeded. The entire program was a failure, not one usable steam car emerged. Only two private constructions saw use on the road.
These previous Rankine cycle systems were not remotely competitive then; but today that situation has been drastically reversed and changed for the better.
The new and advanced Rankine cycle steam engine, invented and developed by Cyclone Power Technology Inc. has amply demonstrated a much improved modern steam engine power source that can successfully be sized to power anything from a few horsepower to over a thousand horsepower. The basic principals and designs upon which the engine operates are identical no matter what size is contemplated, from a simple lawn mower engine to a massive locomotive, industrial or marine engine.
The Cyclone engine has already demonstrated and confirmed a 32% net cycle efficiency that exceeds the usual averaged automotive spark ignited IC engine fuel consumption rate when in combination with the mandatory automatic transmission.
If corporate manipulation of fuel prices is prevented, a vehicle engine version will demonstrate a superior fuel mileage, clean operation and reduced cost to the manufacturer and to the consumer.
The fuel burner in this engine is literally pollution free when using the oils obtained from plant material and algae. This fuel is carbon neutral and the Cyclone engine thus has a neutral carbon footprint. This burner, when using these oils, shows no excess CO2, no unburned hydrocarbons, no CO, and no NOx, using calibrated test equipment. A most singular and notable achievement of immense value today.
The Cyclone engine's burner system can use any light liquid fuel that can be fed to the fuel pump without any change in the operation or hardware. As it has been demonstrated in testing, no pollution hardware or control systems are used or wanted. This clean burning is inherent in the design. The Cyclone engine has been tested with every conceivable liquid and gaseous fuel from gasoline, propane, kerosene, alcohol, Diesel oil, to orange peel oil and even the oil collected from the Gulf oil spill.
The Cyclone engine is also successfully operated on the deionized water working fluid for bearing and piston ring lubrication. No injected oil for this need is employed. This is the most significant development seen in Rankine cycle engine technology in the past eighty years. This development greatly extends the upper limit of the working steam temperature and thus the cycle net efficiency. It is now operational reality, not wishful dreaming.
The use of very high steam pressures in the Cyclone engine has also demonstrated a serious improvement in both power and packing density of the entire power plant. The complete engine now takes up no more room, nor adds any additional weight to the modern automobile engine of identical power output as seen in the latest vehicles.
The moving parts count in a vehicle system is drastically reduced from that of the IC engine with an automatic transmission. The massive starting torque of the Cyclone steam engine means that for some uses, no transmission whatever is required. This ability is shared only by the electric motor; but that vehicle power source is seriously supply limited to a very short duty cycle. No gasoline or Diesel engine offers this huge advantage and cost savings to the vehicle manufacturer.
The engine is simplicity personified, demonstrating that even in limited production, a substantial cost savings will be seen.
The Cyclone steam engine is inherently much quieter than the equivalent horsepower IC engine. As it has a drastically reduced moving parts count and can operate at a slower speed to develop it's full power, the Cyclone engine will demonstrate a very long service life.
The Cyclone Rankine cycle engine has demonstrated that the steam engine is most certainly no dead issue. It well deserves further investment and development to bring it to it's full potential. The system offers far too many advantages in all fields of investigation to be sidelined any longer.
It virtually alone will satisfy all Government pollution and efficiency standards.
As is known today, there is no other firm or developer working on the Rankine cycle engine to the extent that the Corporation has done. There is no competitor in the field of Rankine cycle steam automotive power systems.
Only the advanced features of the Cyclone engine offer these combined important advances and the engine must be given the most serious consideration. The manufacture and use of this engine solves too many problems to be ignored any longer.
The good features of the Rankine cycle engine are inherent in the basic cycle; but it takes some high level engineering and a fresh viewpoint to bring them to reality. This is what Cyclone Power has accomplished with operating hardware.
The white paper written on behalf of the Cyclone Power Technologies Company goes much further into greater detail about the system and it's advantages.
J. D. Crank. Advisory Board, Cyclone Power Technologies, Inc.