[Gasification] most thermally efficient gas driven heat engine ever built

[gfwhell at aol.com]

Bob
I always thought the Humphrey pump would have been well suited for marine propulsion.
A couple of patents existed from before or at the turn of the last century which precede the Pump that Humphrey developed.
It has been established that world shipping produces more than one third of the worlds, so called green house gasses, said to be responsible for global warming.
I can see the construction of a ships hull could easily encompass the play pipes necessary for a multi bore propulsion system along Humphries design.
I feel inclined to fabricate one of these pumps on a small scale and run it on gas produced from crude oil. Which I believe still possesses the most bang for the buck
I could try chopped up scrap tires as fuel.?
The pump itself is quite simple and much of the plumbing could be fabricated from PVC tube. the pump too probably, as it never gets hot even though it contains the explosion.
Regarding the storage of energy in water pumped to a higher level. The most efficient of these installations work on a fairly high head pressure.
I do not think this pump would provide the head to achieve any noteworthy improvement of the status Quo.
Experimenting with this pump connected to a water ram might be fun. Boring a vertical hole in the ground and installing a coaxial play pipe, and hermetically sealing it. who says it cant be an external heat engine. a super heated steam coil inside the top of the pump could produce the oscillating column of water?  in fact this was discussed at the proceedings of the IMECHE they were discussing running the pump on electric elements. 
It would make a fine sun powered refrigeration device.who said it had to pump water?
It lays forgotten, and needs to be resurrected.

GF


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Stuart <bobstuart at sasktel.net>
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <gasification at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 8:12 am
Subject: Re: [Gasification] most thermally efficient gas driven heat engine ever built




n 12-Aug-07, at 4:06 PM, gfwhell at aol.com wrote:
>
 Bob

 Most of the inefficiency of an I.C. engine is waste heat.
 When the explosion occurs. maximum pressure is applied to the  
 PISTON. which usually has a fixed stroke. The exploding gasses are  
 expanding and the pressure is dropping as the piston moves toward  
 Bottom Dead Center.
 Before the gasses have fully expanded, the piston has reached BDC  
 and these gasses have to be discarded,  released to atmosphere by  
 the exhaust valves. causing two thirds of the available expansive  
 energy to be wasted. This happens more so, on modern "square  
 engines" Where the width of the piston is the same as the stroke.
 A long stroke engine is more fuel efficient but  far bulkier. The  
 Humphrey engine is about as bulky as they come,  because the  
 plumbing and water delivery system is included in its design.
 The exploding gasses are not discarded when they reach atmospheric  
 pressure. in fact the pressure dips below atmosphere within the  
 ignition area
 There for most of the energy released by exploding the fuel is used  
 to propel the water piston. some heat must go into the piston and  
 surrounding chamber,some of this is reclaimed on the compression  
 stroke.
 I found all of the information regarding the thermal performance on  
 this pump, extremely interesting, Because the gas was generated on  
 site and stored in a small gas holder, The fuel being anthracite,  
 was carefully weighed before each test.

 How about working out how many miles you can get, out of a freshly  
 slurped barrel of crude oil?

 At the turn of the 19th century there were several patents  
 preceding Humphries invention. intended for the propulsion of  
 ships. providing a jet drive which dispenses with propellers and  
 were reversible.

 GF
I'm still curious about the effect of valve timing and/or throttle  
estrictions to produce a cooler exhaust.  If the performance of the  
umphrey engine can be replicated, it would seem ideal for providing  
umped storage  for hydro power, which would only loose about 10% in  
he generation.  Overall, the system would be far more efficient than  
ny current power plants.
Best,
ob Stuart

 n 11-Aug-07, at 10:47 PM, gfwhell at aol.com wrote:
>
  The engine performed with over 90% efficiency.

  How could this be?

  If you could French kiss the exhaust pipe of an internal combustion
  engine running at full load without discomfort, you have found one.

  The Exhaust gas temperature was less than 100f

  If you could build a four stroke engine with a stroke long enough
  to cause a partial vacuum at bottom dead center you might be on to
  something.
   This is the website of the "preserved" engine in Australia:
  ttp://members.fortunecity.com/freeenergy2000/humphreypump.htmÂ
 Perhaps the thing to do is to raise the cubic capacity and
 ompression radically, but close the intake valve very early, to keep
 he combustion charge and temperature the same.  How far down can we
 et exhaust gas temperature just by running on part throttle?
 Best,
 ob Stuart


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