Gas flow and energy conversion apparatus

An apparatus comprising:

• a) a block comprised of a main cavity, an intake plenum, and an exhaust plenum;
• b) a crankshaft supported within the main cavity of the block and having a crankshaft axis of rotation;
• c) a rotating piston assembly contained within the main cavity of the block and comprised of a rotatable cylinder housing having a housing axis of rotation and comprised of a plurality of pistons contained in cylinders, the cylinder housing axis of rotation parallel to and offset from the crankshaft axis of rotation, each of the plurality of cylinders comprising a cylindrical side wall and a top wall formed in the cylinder housing, and each piston operatively connected by a piston rod to the crankshaft and reciprocable along the central axis of the cylindrical side wall, wherein for each of the plurality of pistons in cylinders, the piston and the cylindrical side wall and top wall of the cylinder form a variable volume chamber;
• and
• d) a rotating valve ring contained within the block and surrounding the rotating piston assembly, the rotating valve ring comprised of valve port sets, each valve port set comprising intake ports and exhaust ports communicable with each of the plurality of cylinders;
• wherein:
• the rotating piston assembly and the rotating valve ring are operatively coupled to the crankshaft such that the rotating piston assembly and the rotating valve ring rotate synchronously with rotation of the crankshaft;
• rotation of the piston assembly around the rotatable cylinder housing axis of rotation causes the distance from the crankshaft to the cylindrical side wall of each combustion cylinder to vary periodically, thereby causing each piston to reciprocate within its cylindrical side wall in repeated intake and exhaust strokes;
• for each respective cylinder, during the intake stroke of the piston contained therein from a distal end of the cylinder to the proximal end of the cylinder, the rotating valve ring positions an intake port for the respective cylinder so that the chamber of the cylinder is in communication with the intake plenum, thereby causing a gas contained in the intake plenum to flow into the chamber;
• and during the exhaust stroke of the piston from the proximal end of the cylinder to the distal end of the cylinder, the rotating valve ring positions an exhaust port for the respective cylinder so that the chamber of the cylinder is in communication with the exhaust plenum, thereby causing gas contained in the chamber to flow into the exhaust plenum.