Today's Potential
The Ericsson cycle (and the similar Brayton cycle) receives renewed interest today to extract power from the exhaust heat of gas (and producer gas) engines and solar concentrators. An important advantage of the Ericsson cycle over the widely known Stirling engine is often not recognized: the volume of the heat exchanger does not adversely affect the efficiency. For medium and large engines the cost of valves can be small compared to this advantage. Turbocompressor plus turbine implementations seem favorable in the MWe range, positive displacement compressor plus turbine for Nx100 kWe power, and positive displacement compressor+expander below 100 kW. With high temperature hydraulic fluid, both the compressor and the expander can be liquid ring pump even up to 400°C, with rotating casing for best efficiency.
Read more about this topic: Ericsson Cycle
Famous quotes containing the words today and/or potential:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone; You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
“Not many appreciate the ultimate power and potential usefulness of basic knowledge accumulated by obscure, unseen investigators who, in a lifetime of intensive study, may never see any practical use for their findings but who go on seeking answers to the unknown without thought of financial or practical gain.”
—Eugenie Clark (b. 1922)