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Carnot
Rankine
Equilibrium

The best possible thermodynamic conversion cycle has it's limits defined by the area inside the rectangle. 

  And who can argue with this?  Let's see, Otto, Diesel, Brayton/Joule, and others...  On the agreeing side are Stirling, Rankine, Ericsson, and their followers...

  Why the "Who's Who" of thermodynamics?  Because they were the pioneers, So were Lewis & Clark, But how many of us travel by "expedition party" today if we want to see the Pacific Ocean?

  Carnot described a cycle, and that's great for analyzing the theoretical performance of a device.  But one of the problems we face today, is caused by the fact that our society operates these machines in a way that is not cyclical.  If we obeyed the rules of the "cycle" your car wouldn't have a tailpipe, you'd empty a tank of dirty soda water when you filled up with gasoline (or bio-diesel); but we don't.

  We're not calling for a value judgment here, just asking that you understand a basic truth.  Carnot was and is right, we may not be able to play outside the box, but we can think outside the box.  Perhaps we can fold it a little; maybe even cut a section out of the middle and push-n-pull it to the edge.

  Has anyone mentioned here actually beat Carnot?  Nope.  Will we?  Nope (gasp can I admit that without scaring folks away?).  So what's the point?  We can achieve a significant fraction of the area inside the box, and not dump any CO2 or other undesirables into the air.

 

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Updated: 09/11/10 19:32