Heat energy recovery apparatus
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorShinichi Mitani
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat energy recovery apparatus include a compressor which has a piston for compressing sucked-in working gas; a heat exchanger which makes the working gas compressed by the compressor absorb heat of high temperature fluid; an expander which has a piston to be moved under pressure by expansion of the heat-absorbed working gas; and an accumulator which stores the working gas compressed by the compressor when required output is low or heat receiving capacity of the working gas is small. The apparatus preferably include a blocking unit which blocks discharge of the working gas from the expander when the heat receiving capacity of the working gas is small and the compressed working gas to the accumulator is being stored.
Claims6
A heat energy recovery apparatus, comprising:
- a compressor which has a piston for compressing sucked-in working gas;
- a heat exchanger which makes the working gas compressed by the compressor absorb heat of high temperature fluid;
- an expander which has a piston to be moved under pressure by expansion of the heat-absorbed working gas;
- an accumulator which stores the working gas compressed by the compressor;
- and
- a compressed working gas supply unit which switches a supply of the compressed working gas from the compressor either to the heat exchanger or to the accumulator,
- wherein the compressed working gas supply unit switches the supply of the compressed working gas from the compressor to the accumulator when a required output of an engine power, a temperature of the fluid, or a pressure of the fluid, is low.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.