RE: GAS-L: Wasted throttle power

[Peter Singfield <snkm@btl.net>]

You can do like Cadillac once did -- simply turn cylinders off an on.

Peter / Belize


At 11:27 AM 2/19/2001 -0400, you wrote: 
>>>>
Dear  Tom  In a  standar Otto Cycle, power and speed control is attained by
varying the fuel  addition. Same as the Diesel Cycle. However, to do this,
because fuel is  premixed with air, one has to reduce the air also. The
consequence of htis is  that the cylinder does not get a full volumetric
charge, and as a consequence  the absolute compression ratio is reduced.
Then, the efficiency  drops.  The  conceptually simple way to make an Otto
Cycle engine efficient over a range of  loads is to vary the engine
displacement, rather than keeping displacement  constant, and varying the
compression ratio. One way to do this is  disable/enable cylinders in a
multi cylinder engine, while keeping fuel/ flow to  the operating cylinders
constant.  This  conceptual solution has ugly practicalities, but thats the
only way I can see it  working.    Kindest regards,  Kevin  Chisholm
size=2>-----Original Message-----
From: Reedtb2@cs.com    [mailto:Reedtb2@cs.com]
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 10:32    AM
To: gasification@crest.org
Subject: GAS-L: Wasted    throttle power

Dear Prof. Parikh and All: 

While looking for new sources of    energy for the next millenium, please 
consider "wasted throttle power".      

1)  Spark and diesel engines are both "hot air machines"    (with <= 6% fuel 
thrown in to heat the air). 

2)  The    diesel engine does not throttle the air - only the fuel, so
there are 
no    "throttle losses" and the diesel burns from lean to very lean and so
is    
very efficient. 

3)  The spark ignited engine requires a close    to stoichiometric mixture,
so 
must throttle the mixture from near    atmospheric to very small values to 
control power.  The butterfly    throttle is a MAJOR waster of power. 

4)  Can't one of you clever    gals or guys invent a "working throttle" (like 
the exhaust turbo) to    recycle some of this energy?  How much energy is
it to 
take the    mixture from a power producing near atmospheric pressure to a
power    
wasting 25 inches vacuum?  (Probably related to R ln (p2/p1)).    

Too busy to figure it myself... 

Cheers,        TOM REED 




In a message dated    2/19/01 2:34:23 AM Mountain Standard Time, 
A.Weststeijn@epz.nl writes:    

  FAMILY="SANSSERIF">
     TYPE="CITE">

Hi Peter, 

  face=Arial lang=0 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF">

  face=Arial lang=0 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF">Dr. Thomas B. Reed,
President, The    Biomass Energy Foundation, 1810 Smith Rd., 
Golden, CO 80401 
Email    reedtb2@cs.com; www.woodgas.com; 303 278 0558 home; 303 278 0560
Fax    

Dr. Thomas B. Reed, Principal Scientist, 
The Community Power    Corporation, Reedtb2@cs.com; www.gocpc.com;  303 278
0558