Cyclic process in a steam engine for the purpose of increasing the thermal efficiency, in particular for steam power stations

摘要

According to the invention, a description is given of a cyclic process in a steam engine, in which process the condensation of the exhaust steam is achieved by virtue of the fact that the still pressurised exhaust steam emerging from the actual engine (e.g. the steam turbine or the reciprocating steam engine) is, on the one hand, passed in part via a throttling section while the remainder is passed via a further engine, the steam emerging from this engine, which has cooled further due to the performance of work, effects the condensation of the steam passed through the throttling section by absorbing the heat of condensation. The condensed and the uncondensed portion of the steam are pumped back separately into the cyclic process. The differential work from the two work processes (expansion work minus return pumping work) can be passed to the outside to perform useful work; it is equivalent to the heat fed in on the primary side. An improvement in thermal efficiency up to a theoretical figure of 100 % ( eta = 1) is thereby possible. The higher outlay on machinery required for this purpose can be more or less offset by the elimination of the power station condenser and the cooling towers. The advantage over current steam power stations consists in the saving of approximately 50 % of primary energy with an equivalent reduction in environmental pollution by pollutants and waste heat and the same power output of the power station.