![]() |
Heat Engines | ||||||||
|
Heat engines convert heat energy into mechanical energy. Examples include steam engines, steam and gas turbines, spark-ignition and diesel engines, and the "external combustion" engine or Stirling engine. Such engines can provide motive power for transportation, to operate machinery, or to produce electricity.All heat engines operate in a cycle of repeated sequences of heating (or compressing) and pressurizing the working fluid, the performance of mechanical work, and rejecting unused or waste heat to a "sink." At the beginning of each cycle, energy is added to the fluid forcing it to expand under high pressure so that the fluid "performs" mechanical work. The thermal energy contained in the pressurized fluid is converted to kinetic energy. The fluid then looses pressure, and after unused energy (in the form of heat) is rejected, it must then be reheated or recompressed to restore it to high pressure.
The "waste" or rejected heat (to the "sink") can be used for other purposes, including pressurizing a different working fluid, which operates a different heat-engine (vapor turbine) cycle, or simply for heating. Renewable sources of heat or fuels, such as solar or geothermal energy and biomass (as well as fossil fuels) can power heat engines. The following is a brief description of four types of heat engines, the Rankine, Stirling, Brayton, and the newly developed, and highly efficient, Kalina, that can be used or are being investigated for converting renewable sources of energy to useful energy. |
||||||||