| 摘要 |
Engines can never be 100% efficient and some waste thermal energy is always produced that needs to be removed from the engine and is currently dumped into the Earth's biosphere. This invention relates to systems for capturing, storing, transporting and utilising the unused thermal energy produced in engines. For example, having cooled a ship's engine, fig.1, the liquid coolant, eg sea water, may be stored in insulated tanks 7 for removal and transfer for sale or use. The cooling liquid may be taken from on-board tank(s) (11,16, figs.2,3). A road or rail transport vehicle, fig.4, may have a storage tank 11 filled initially with cool liquid 13 which passes through the engine 5 and is stored as hot liquid 14 in an insulated tank 7. Alternatively, cool liquid may be taken from and returned as hot liquid to a single tank (16, fig.5). An i.c. engine/electric hybrid vehicle may be connected, when stationary, to a storage tank (16,fig.6) which receives hot fluid from the engine. Electricity generated in the vehicle is stored in batteries (36) and/or transferred to a remote location via wires (41). Instead of large power station(s), each house (52,fig.8) may have a parked car (53) which forms part of a combined heat and power (CHP) system or a tri-generation system for a number of houses. |
