United States Patent [191' [11] Patent Number: 4,864,826 Lagow [45] Date of Patent: Sep. 12, 1989 [54] METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR 4,156,343 5/1979 Stewart . GENERATING POWER FROM A VAPOR 4,209,992 7/1980 chlh'Kang - 4,285,201 8/1981 Stewart . [76] Inventor: Ralph J. Lagow, 2511-B NASA Rd. 4,354,565 10/1932 Latter er a1, , 1, Ste. 102, Seabrook, Tex. 77586 4,424,678 1/1984 Kizziah . 4,603,554 8/ 1986 Lagow . [21] APPI- N°-= 36,891 4,693,087 9/1987 Lagow ............................ .. 60/692 x [221 Fi1ed= Aug- 18’ 1987 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Related U_S_ Application Data 20771 5/1882 Fed. Rep. of Germany . ' 41477 4/ 1887 Fed. Rep. of Germany . [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 844,583, Mar. 27, 46619 5/1889 Fed, Rep, of Germany _ 1986, Pat, N0. 4,693,087, which 15 a eontinuation-in- 51433 6/1889 Fed_ Rep, of Germany , part of Ser. No. 664,792, Oct. 25, 1984, Pat. No. 132091 3/1929 Switzerland _ 4,603,554. ‘ 140063 of 1919 United Kingdom . [51] Int. Cl.4 ..................... .. F01K 11/00; F01K 21/00 OTHER PUBLIC ATIQNS [52] US. Cl. ...................................... .. 60/670; 60/669;6o/692 Skinner_ Reeiproeating, _ Steam Engines,_ reprinted_ from [58] Field of Search ............... .. 60/651, 670, 671, 669, Mame Engmeenng/L0g (11° date gm“) 60/690’ 692’ 508’ 509, 512, 515 Skinner’s High Efficiency Compound Engine, Reprint _ from Marine Propulsion International (no date given). [56] References C‘ted Catalog entitled, “Skinner Marine Conversion Unit” U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS (no date given). 130,685 8/ 1872 Adams . Primary Examiner-Allen M. Ostrager 451,342 4/1891 Susini . Attorney, Agent, or Firm-—Arnold, White & Durkee 514,573 2/ 1894 Susini . 670,829 3/1901 Windhausen . [57] ABSTRACT 756,785 4/ 1904 Fraley . There is provided an apparatus and method for generat 982,449 1/ 191 1 Timmins . 3,287,901 11/1966 Tauer . ing power from a working ?uid wherein the working 3,531,933 10/1970 Baldwin . fluid is a saturated vapor or superheated vapor gener 3,950,949 4/ 1976 Martin et a1. ated in a high pressure zone where the working ?uid is 3,967,450 7/ 1976 Girardier . used to impart work to a working shaft by means of 4,018,581 4/ 1977 Ruff et al. directly linked high and low pressure cylinder piston 4,033,136 7/ 1977 Stewart . assemblies located in the high pressure zone and a lower 4,068,476 l/ 1978 Kelsey . 4,102,133 7/1978 Anderson . pressure zone, respectively. 4,106,581 8/1978 West et a1. 4,109,468 8/ 1978 Heath . 9 Claims, 14 Drawing Sheets US. Patent Sep. 12,1989 Sheet 1 of 14 4,864,826 US. Patent _Sep. 12, 1989 Sheet 2 of 14 4,864,826 l/hllll/I/l/l/ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOQOOOOOQOOOOOO _U.S. Patent Sep.12,1989 Sheet 4 of 14 4,864,826 0 no 00000 .0000“ 000000 00 US. Patent Sep. 12, 1989 Sheet 6 0f 14 4,864,826 ( REJECTION FIG.7 VALVE OPENS CORRECTED WEIGHT FLOW REJECTION W VALVE C LOS E S CRITICAL (PC) llllllilllllll 1(MAX.) O(MIN.) LOW/HIGH PRESSURE RATIO (P) CI-IOKED UNCHOKED FLOW .I. FLOW CYLINDERS "A" AND "B" PRESSURE DIFFERENTIALS(PSI A) 400 350 300 A4in;wmDmmwmm 2211 50505 O 0000 ) O 170 190 210 230 250 270 290 310 330 350 CRANK ANGLE ( DEGR EES) LEGEND : A=A PB F96. 8 US. Patent Sep. 12, 1989 Sheet 7 of 14 4,864,826 68 203 76 6 8 FIG-9 218 212 I I /S7 89 206 5 6 205 5 /L /w 2 IN 100 216 2% 204 105 218 88 FIG- I0 218 206 205 100 216 214 204 105 218 US. Patent Sep. 12, 1989 Sheet 8 of 14 4,864,826 cor 08 mg mm mg US. Patent Sep.12,198_9 Sheet 9 0f 14 4,864,826 WASTE DIRECT HEAT FIG-I2 HE AT (NAT URAL GAS) 310 312 I “\f“ |l r302 + IVS-.rm T_->--r"n'w\303 / 304 I 324 EXPANSION TANK A 322 PRESSURE CELL WITH SUPERHEAT | (BOILER) COIL. INJECTOR PUMP 328 4 -w|< TWO-STAGE ’3O5 +Wkt ' TRANSFER ] EXPANDER ___-T-> 320 313 314 LOW W301 330 CONDENSER PRESSURE | + 328/ a W 06 L___________ __ _____________| 316 (T)TEMPERATURE 402 ENTROPY (S) Fig-73 US. Patent Sep. 12, 1989 Sheet 10 of 14 4,864,826 33wgmm? 552£522: @25229% E .m.95.28 N2 02. aw 2N“mag::21 =33E925, US. Patent Sep. 12, 1989 Sheet 11 of 14 4,864,826 + 21h "A US. Patent Sep. 12,1989 Sheet 12 of 14 4,864,826 CYL A CYL B TOTA L zopusczou A3v:mmoq2w: Fig; 1a CONDUCTION HEAT LOSS/ @ TANDEM COMPOUND CONDENSING ENGINE GAIN COMPARISON (CYLINDER A8. B TORLON) @ PRESENT VAPOR POWER ACTUATED GEN. SYSTEM (CYLINDER A8,B TORLONI @ PRESENT VAPOR POWER ACTUATED GEN.SYSTEM CC YY UL Nm DD EE RR AB \.1 CT 00 PR PL E0 RN US. Patent Sep.12,1989 Sheet 13 of 14 4,864,826 7Au5 O _ 59379 WORK OUTPUT (CYL.“A") TANDEM COMPOUND CONOENSING ENGINE WED:.85.vac;_ //___\\~L / \\ / PRESENT VAPOR POWER‘ ACT UATEO GENERATING SYSTEM ___ 0 30 60 90 T20 T50 T80 2T0 211-0 270 300 330 360 CRANK ANGLE (DEGREES) O000000000000 Fig- 20 WORK OUTPUT mus") .___ __. TANDEM compouwn \\/CONDENSING ENGINE / . / PRESENT VAPOR POWER ACTUATEO GENERATING SYSTEM 0 30 6O 90 T20 T50 T80 2T0 2L0 270 300 330 360 CRANK ANGLE (DEGREES) US. Patent Sep. 12,1989 Sheet 14 of 14 4,864,826 // / K.I .lNI ~SU .-Mm\RL 2UUG\ / IET \NT! I 0U\EE / /l \/T1F.S \DDw WG00a\.mB \PE- b.__/_. /PA / RC 1 / RNW\ ..!\ 0.)ON\ \ONE \PA .AIHCEG\ \\DM1I J8EE.EmaNE03 \SAv" \PwuET - REM\ /\\WW / EA D R / I1 0T.1 / / / /l Oo / \ / 1‘ 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 2L0 270 300 330 360 wwwmmmwommabws CRANK ANG LE (DEGREES) \ ‘ES \\ ‘INTO \\mm 26/2 \NN lATlvlG 2m)//0 m.mw5mw OMW0 oOo 0 MN\ ..I+RE \\1% S\PGEN 1OE WE\REE /ADUR2 /3 -NILIIIrIII-IIOh- \DDQ1 DIES/ID. F_1M ERR\ONA U6l-b S MUNDE_ ER/RUE12 //BS0 .11a /\\1w \EF.10 \0G1wD-WN \EA_HNW0 (Ucu 1|Wf 1% VAS -m/ :w/ 3 1% w CRANK ANGLE (DEGREES) 4,864,826 1 2 working ?uid from the ideal as well as frictional, rota METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING tional and other losses, such as due to leakage. Further POWER FROM A VAPOR inefficiencies can result from the con?guration of the particular process. These may include one or more of BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 5 several inef?ciencies for a given cycle or engine. For This is a continuation-in-part of a patent application, example, many devices fail to develop a suf?cient mean Ser. No. 844,583 ?led Mar. 27, 1986 entitled METHOD effective pressure. Here, the term “mean effective pres OF GENERATING POWER FROM A VAPOR U.S. sure” may be defined as the pressure which, if acted on Pat. No. 4,693,087 which is a continuation-in-part of a piston during the entire power stroke, would do an patent application, Ser. No. 664,792 ?led Oct. 25, 1984 amount of work equal to that actually done on the pis now U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,554 entitled METHOD AND ton. The work for one cycle is found by multiplying this APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING USEFUL EN mean effective pressure by the area of the piston and by ERGY FROM A SUPERHEATED VAPOR ACTU the stroke’s length. ATED POWER GENERATING DEVICE. In other devices the maximum pressure differential The past two hundred years have seen the develop occurs at less than favorable crank angles for exerting ment of numerous work-producing devices or heat forces on the offset of the crank shaft. As such, there is engines. Among these are internal combustion engines produced a limited amount of energy at the torque such as the diesel engine or cycle, the gasoline engine or producing position(s) of the crank angle. For example, Otto cycle and the Wankel rotary engine as well as the maximum pressure differential may occur at or near turbines such as the steam turbine engine or the Rankine dead center of the piston’s travel with concomitant poor cycle and the gas turbine engine or Brayton cycle. The crank angle position to produce torque. Stirling engine and other cycles have also been de?ned. Other devices or methods require relatively high Many work-producing devices or engines utilize a operational temperatures. Still other methods and de working ?uid in the form of a gas. The spark-ignition vices have limited thermal ef?ciency in relation to the automotive engine is a familiar example, and the same is Carnot cycle. Other devices and methods require rela true of the diesel engine and the conventional gas tur tively high mass ?ow per unit of power produced, bine. In all of these engines there is a change in composi while others suffer from inef?cient fuel consumption tion of the working ?uid, because during combustion it and incomplete fuel combustion. Other devices and changes from air and fuel to combustion products. For this reason these engines are called internal combustion 30 methods have lower efficiencies under partial loads or engines. In contrast to this the steam power plant may at lower speeds while others suffer energy losses due to be called an external-combustion engine, because heat is condensation.