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US 2014/0311147 A1Published application
High performance steam power topping cycle
AssigneeFirestar Engineering, LLC
InventorGregory S. Mungas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Implementations described herein provide a high efficiency steam cycle that includes a steam turbine cycle coupled to output of a high performance steam piston topping (HPSPT) cycle. The HPSPT cycle includes a piston-cylinder assembly that extracts work from an expanding fluid volume and operates in a thermal regime outside of thermal operational limits of a steam turbine. The steam turbine cycle utilizes heat, transferred at the output of the HPSPT cycle, to generate turbine work.
Claims24
A topping piston engine comprising:
- a thermal energy input adapted to receive a quantity of thermal energy from a heat source at a first input temperature;
- a reciprocating piston that converts a portion of the received thermal energy into work;
- and
- a first heat exchanger coupled to an input of the reciprocating piston, the first heat exchanger adapted to flash-heat a fluid volume to generate work.
1 more element
A method for producing high efficiency power, comprising:
- receiving, at a first heat exchanger, a quantity of thermal energy from a heat source at a first input temperature, the first heat exchanger adapted to flash-heat a fluid volume;
- and
- operating a reciprocating piston to convert a portion of thermal energy of the flash-heated fluid volume into work.
A system comprising:
- a heat exchanger adapted to flash-heat a pressurized fluid;
- and
- a reciprocating piston with an input coupled to an output of the heat exchanger, the reciprocating piston adapted to accept the pressurized fluid at a first temperature and to release the pressurized fluid at a second temperature, the second temperature lower than the first temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.