I have a notion in my head that I have been unable to write off, or have anyone consider it seriously as to see if there is anything useful in it. It really lies in the field of thermodynamics and chemical engineering for the creation of synthetic fluids with the right properties to make it work.
I have a idea for a heat engine to try and remove heat from the air . That is to take heat out of the air and turn it into mechanical energy ( probably to drive a generator to make electrically). Modern thinking and teaching is that the maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine is the Carnot efficiency which = temperature of heat source-temperature of heat sink/temperature of heat source. This is true for the engine itself but I believe a system incorporating a engine (driven by pressure. ie. turbines or piston engine) and a different way to create the pressure difference to drive the engine other than just a simple heat source and heat sink can be made to exact power from the ambient temperature around us. The problem is there is no colder heat sink to reject waste heat so I have come up with the following idea.
My background is in refrigeration and basically the idea ( this idea I'm thinking about, there are patents on it but no one has the thought of the application I have to take heat from ambient ) is like a absorption refrigerator. The first thought was to use common substance ammonia and water but this will not work as the pressures and temperature (thermodynamic properties of the fluids) are not good , particularly the freezing point of water . In reality synthetic fluids would have to be made for the job like they have developed synthetic refrigerants.
In absorption refrigerators ammonia would be the working fluid and water the absorber. If ammonia and water were used it would be like this, Ammonia is driven out of the ammonia water solution by heat(ambient heat from the air through a heat exchanger).the solution with lower ammonia in it then passes through the pumping energy reclaim turbine to the low pressure side of the system where through sprayers it mixes with very cold ammonia. Here ammonia is absorbed into the solution ( a process which produces heat)and the resulting mix of the warm solution, cold working fluid and heat of absorption producers a solution cold enough to have enough solution strength difference between the generator and absorber. The ammonia enriched solution is then pumped back to the high pressure side of the system (the generator) Meanwhile ammonia forced from the solution by heat goes from the high pressure side to the low pressure side by way of the engine where heat energy is exacted from it resulting in the ammonia leaving the engine very cold. Of course ammonia and water would not be used but synthetic fluids that work at lower temperatures (if any such fluids could be made)

5Richard
A difference of energy potential must exist naturally or be created to extract useful amounts of energy from a system. In your case the difference is a difference of temperature, which must be enough to produce useful work after overcoming the resistance within the system.

Heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigerators, all remove ambient heat from a system but require energy input into the system to accomplish this task, whether mechanical or thermal. Solar power and geo-thermal heat are two energy sources that are used to power such a system to produce useful thermal/mechanical energy output.

The system you propose is a perpetual motion type device as the energy produced by a chemical reaction within a closed system is going to be insufficient to power the separation process, which is part of the resistance within the system, much less produce any usable excess of heat or mechanical energy.
Keeponathinking!

I'm just trying to understand your reply, I think you are saying the energy to power the separation is too low a grade to produce enough high side pressure to be able to exact enough energy to get the temperature difference and to have a efficient enough engine to overcome its resistance. Or perhaps the efficiency of the engine due to its low temperature differential ( as one can really only go down to about 70 Kelvin) does not matter as the energy is all free anyway. I guess the engine process having such a low temp. difference and efficiency there will be a whole heap of low temp. working fluid arriving at the absorber to be pumped back, producing heaps of resistance in the form of pumping power. I don't really know anything about chemistry I thought the heat from the ambient powered the separation process as well as providing the energy to be exacted by the engine. Thanks for replying to me I appreciate it. Perhaps I should stick with repairing leaks in refrigerators.

I have managed to make a simple calculation using Carnot's law and a % efficiency of Carnot's law the engine would have to run at and balancing the results against the energy left over by joules law to find a possible temperature range it could work in. According to me the efficiency of the engine as a % of the Carnot efficiency would have to be 90% compared to a normal steam turbine which I think is about 37%. Working at a temperature difference of around 30 degrees so there would be a lot of heat circling around producing bugger all even if a engine efficiency compared to the Carnot one of 90% were possible. So it is a load of ***.

Hello5 Richard,
I have just read your post As a refrigeration engineer you would know a fridge workings. You may be aware of new refrigerant R744 (CO2)

Carbon Dioxide the weirdest gas ever. Begins as a block of Dry-Ice. Heat increase changes to gas, then to liquid, then to gas, then to Dry-Ice. It’s the only gas that behaves like liquid.
CO2 gas at temperature above 31.2* will not convert to liquid no matter what compression is applied.
The energies of CO2 are thousands time greater than Steam.
Energy as a force is measure in bar, one bar being the equivalent of 14.2 PSI or one atmosphere.
One litre of Water, Steam or Gas per second at 9 bar pressure passing through a turbine generator produces 720 watts. Any increase in bar pressure or volume per second increases the wattage output.
Working from a base line of 0* Celsius Steam is beginning to format 100*C whilst CO2 has already reached 7,000 bar.
The attached diagram operates in two different mode, the first below 31.2*C using the cooling loop of a fridge to cool the hot gas before going to the compressor which squeezes the gas into liquid before feeding it back in heating point.
The other uses a boiler and exploits the fact CO2 at temperature above 31.2*C formats into Dry-Ice. At 100*C it’s 50/50. 50% Dry-Ice coats boiler ceiling and wall and the other 50% remains high pressure hot gas.
This design does away with the fridge cooling loop and instead exploits the Dry-Ice field constant in the boiler. CO2 though gas but behaving like liquid is force drained from the bottom of the Boiler then piped back through the Dry-Ice field which cools the CO2 gas back to liquid. Hot gas exiting the Boiler forces the cold liquid at the same pressure of the gas exiting the boiler. The cold liquid at force then drives a Hydro turbine which empties into a screw pump Boiler feed. The technology is fully sealed and 100% recycling.


http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee397/DaSEnergy/DAS.png

There actually are clocks which are powered by fluctuations in the air due to minor pressure changes, such as while a frontal system is passing, or from a person opening and closing a door during the day. The clock will run "forever" without electricity or any fuel whatsoever.

However, the amount of energy we're talking about here is pathetic, as in less than a watt most of the time.

In order to build a scaled up device that could power a home, it would probably need to be very tall, or else have nearly an acre of land area, and the price tag and maintenance costs would likely be colossal.

At any rate, it's a pressure wave engine, and I believe it somehow stores the energy in a spring or an internal gas for later retrieval, but I don't exactly remember.


Thing probably keeps better time than the digital clock on your stove or microwave oven, and it won't lose time if the power goes out either...


Research it, optimize and miniaturize it for direct energy production rather than time keeping, maybe you get rich.

Ultimately It's a heat engine in the wind power category though.