CN102377282A - A generator driven by a thermal compressor - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a generator driven by a thermal compressor, which comprises a thermal compressor system and a power generation mechanism (7), wherein the thermal compressor system is provided with at least one cylinder (1) filled with working medium, an output end which is communicated with the cylinder in a fluid manner and is connected with the power generation mechanism (7), a piston (2) which is arranged in the cylinder (1) and divides a cylinder cavity into a thermal cavity (8) and a cold cavity (9), a driving mechanism (6) which drives the piston (2) to reciprocate in the cylinder, a hot end heat exchanger (4) which is arranged at a hot cavity end (8a) of the cylinder (1) and is used for inputting heat to the working medium in the cylinder, and a cold end heat exchanger (5) which is arranged at a cold cavity end (9a) of the cylinder (1) and is used for inputting cold to the working medium in the cylinder, and the thermal cavity (8) and the cold cavity (9) are communicated by a passage in a fluid manner, a regenerator (3) is provided in the passage. The generator utilizes heat energy, particularly waste heat and the like as power sources, adopts an external combustion heating mode to drive the generator to output cold energy outwards, and has the characteristics of low-grade heat source utilization, small vibration and low noise.

Description

A generator driven by a thermal compressor

technical field

The invention relates to the field of generators driven by heat energy, in particular to a generator driven by a thermal compressor.

Background technique

Most of the existing generators need to consume high-grade energy to work, and most of the consumed energy is non-renewable resources. These generators cannot be used for the waste heat of exhaust gas discharged from general equipment, resulting in waste of resources and pollution of the environment. At present, there is a need for a generator that can use thermal energy, especially low-grade thermal energy such as exhaust gas waste heat, as a heat source, and use external combustion heating to drive the generator to output electric energy.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide such a generator driven by a thermal compressor, which drives power generation based on low-grade thermal energy, and has the characteristics of small vibration and low noise.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a thermal compressor driven generator comprising a thermal compressor system having at least one cylinder containing a working fluid and a gas cylinder in fluid communication with the cylinder and a power generating mechanism. The output end connected to the power generating mechanism is arranged in the cylinder to divide the cylinder cavity into a hot chamber and a cold chamber, a driving mechanism for driving the piston to reciprocate in the cylinder, and a cylinder arranged at the end of the hot chamber for feeding the cylinder The hot end heat exchanger for inputting heat from the working fluid in the cylinder and the cold end heat exchanger arranged at the cold chamber end of the cylinder for inputting cold energy to the working fluid in the cylinder, and the hot chamber and the cold chamber are connected by a A passage is in fluid communication with a regenerator disposed within the passage.

In the present invention, the working fluid enclosed in the system can be selected from any one of helium, nitrogen, hydrogen, air and mixtures thereof, for example. Of course, other suitable working fluids can also be selected according to specific requirements. The working fluid sealed in the thermal compressor system will not leak, so a high pressure can be obtained in the system. In addition, the regenerator in the present invention is a device commonly used in low-temperature refrigeration technology. It is composed of porous medium solid packing with high specific heat capacity and low resistance coefficient. The packing can be fine wire mesh such as stainless steel, phosphor bronze, etc. , small metal balls or particles, and magnetic materials.

According to another solution of the present invention, the passage is formed by a through hole opened along the longitudinal direction of the piston, and the regenerator is arranged in the through hole, the passage and regenerator configured in this way have the advantages of simple structure and high efficiency .

According to another aspect of the present invention, the passage is formed by a cavity between the inner wall and the outer wall of the cylinder, and the regenerator is arranged in the cavity.

According to another solution of the present invention, the passage is formed by a connecting pipeline outside the cylinder from the end of the hot chamber to the end of the cold chamber, and the regenerator is connected in series in the connecting pipeline.

According to another solution of the present invention, the passage is formed by a gap between the piston and the inner wall of the cylinder, and the working fluid in the gap functions as a regenerator.

In the present invention, driven by the driving mechanism, the piston reciprocates in the cylinder, and the working fluid flows between the hot chamber and the cold chamber through the movement of the piston. When the piston moves from the bottom dead center near the cold end heat exchanger to the When moving close to the top dead center of the hot-end heat exchanger, the working fluid heated by the hot-end heat exchanger flows from the hot chamber to the cold chamber. During this process, part of the heat of the high-temperature working fluid is stored in the regenerator. When the piston moves to the top dead center, most of the working fluid in the system is located in the cold chamber, and the working fluid in the cold chamber is cooled by the cold end heat exchanger, so that the average temperature of the working fluid in the system drops, resulting in the average temperature of the working fluid The pressure is at the lowest value; and when the piston moves from the top dead center near the hot end heat exchanger to the bottom point near the cold end heat exchanger, the working fluid cooled by the cold end heat exchanger passes through the cold chamber through the The channel flows to the hot chamber, and the low-temperature working fluid absorbs heat from the regenerator, which is equivalent to preheating the low-temperature working fluid. When the piston moves to the bottom point, heat is input to the working fluid in the hot chamber through the heat exchanger at the hot end. Most of the working fluid in the system is located in the hot chamber, and the average temperature of the working fluid in the system rises, resulting in the highest average pressure of the working fluid. In this way, during the periodic movement of the piston, the pressure of the working medium in the system also changes periodically, thereby driving the generator to generate electricity. The setting of the regenerator reduces the heating capacity of the system, thus improving the energy utilization efficiency.

In the present invention, the generating mechanism is a known generating mechanism in the prior art, such as a linear generating mechanism, a rotating generating mechanism and the like. The piston of the thermal compressor system is driven by the driving mechanism to reciprocate in the cylinder, and the thermal compressor system generates alternating pressure fluctuations to drive the power generation mechanism to generate electricity. In the present invention, the output of the thermal compressor can be connected to a linear generator mechanism and a rotary generator mechanism. In one embodiment of the power generating mechanism, the power generating mechanism is a linear power generating mechanism, which includes a cylinder, a second piston arranged in the cylinder, an air inlet arranged at one end of the cylinder, and a cylinder arranged at the other end of the cylinder. The outer generator rotor and the generator stator, wherein the second piston and the generator rotor are connected by a connecting rod extending through the cylinder wall, where permanent magnets are mounted on the generator rotor, the generator stator includes coils and iron core. During operation, when the thermal compressor system produces pressure waves with high and low changes, the second piston driving the generator moves in the cylinder, and then drives the generator mover to move back and forth to cut the magnetic force line relative to the generator stator, thereby converting kinetic energy into electrical energy. Those skilled in the art should understand that if the above-mentioned straight link is replaced by a crank link mechanism, the power generating mechanism is correspondingly configured as a rotating power generating mechanism.

According to one solution of the present invention, the driving mechanism can be a linear motor whose main shaft is arranged coaxially with the piston. The linear motor usually has a stroke limiter, and the reciprocating motion of the piston in the cylinder is realized through the control of the stroke controller. In addition, the driving mechanism can also use a rotary motor, which needs to be connected to the piston through a crank-link mechanism to convert the rotary motion of the motor into the reciprocating linear motion of the piston.

In the present invention, the number of cylinders can be selected according to needs, and a single-cylinder structure or a multi-cylinder structure can be adopted. In the case of a multi-cylinder structure, for example, the number of cylinders can be 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.; according to the specific number of cylinders, these cylinders can be arranged symmetrically or arranged in a V shape. In addition, when a multi-cylinder structure is adopted, the simultaneous action of multiple cylinders can be realized by connecting the respective pistons of each cylinder in series, which will be further described below.

In addition, the hot end heat exchanger can be heated by external combustion, and the cold end heat exchanger can be cooled by air cooling or water cooling. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that heating the heat exchanger at the hot end by internal combustion and cooling the heat exchanger at the cold end in other forms also fall within the scope of the present invention.

According to the generator driven by the thermal compressor of the present invention, it needs only a small amount of mechanical work to drive, and uses low-grade thermal energy such as waste heat to compress gas to drive the generator to generate electricity, and outputs electric energy externally. It is easy to manufacture, low in noise, and small in vibration. features.

Description of drawings

Below in conjunction with accompanying drawing and embodiment the present invention is further described, and identical reference numeral represents identical element among the figure, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a structural schematic diagram of an embodiment of a thermal compressor-driven generator according to the present invention, wherein a regenerator is arranged in a piston;

Fig. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of another embodiment of a generator driven by a thermal compressor according to the present invention, wherein the regenerator is arranged between the inner wall and the outer wall of the cylinder;

Fig. 3 is a structural schematic diagram of another embodiment of a generator driven by a thermal compressor according to the present invention, wherein the regenerator is arranged outside the cylinder;

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural view of another embodiment of a generator driven by a thermal compressor according to the present invention, wherein the regenerator is composed of the working fluid in the gap between the piston and the cylinder wall;

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural view of a generator driven by a thermal compressor of a double-cylinder structure according to the present invention, wherein two cylinders are arranged symmetrically;

Fig. 6 is a structural schematic diagram of a generator driven by a thermal compressor of a four-cylinder structure according to the present invention, wherein four cylinders are arranged symmetrically;

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural view of an embodiment of the power generating mechanism according to the present invention.

List of Reference Signs

1-cylinder; 2-piston; 3-regenerator; 4-hot end heat exchanger; 5-cold end heat exchanger; 6-driving mechanism; 7-generating mechanism; 8-hot cavity; 9-cold cavity; 8a-hot chamber end; 9a-cold chamber end; 71-air inlet; 72-generating mechanism cylinder; 73-second piston; 74-connecting rod mechanism.

Detailed ways

Referring to FIG. 1 , it shows a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of a generator driven by a thermal compressor according to the present invention. As can be seen from the figure, the generator mainly includes a power generating mechanism 7 and a thermal compressor system. The thermal compressor system includes a cylinder 1 in fluid communication with its output, and is located in the cylinder 1 to separate it into a hot chamber 8 and a cold chamber. 9 piston 2, and the hot end heat exchanger 4 arranged at the hot chamber end 8a and the cold end heat exchanger 5 arranged at the cold chamber end 9a, the power generation mechanism 7 is connected to the output end of the thermal compressor system. And the thermal compressor system is packaged with a working fluid, the hot end heat exchanger 4 is used to transfer the heat of the heat source to the working fluid in the cylinder 1, here mainly refers to the working fluid in the hot chamber 8, and the cold end heat exchanger 5 It is used to transfer cold energy to the working fluid in the cylinder, here it is mainly the working fluid in the cold cavity 9 . In this embodiment, a through hole is opened along the longitudinal direction of the piston 2, and the through hole forms a passage for fluid communication between the hot chamber 8 and the cold chamber 9, and the regenerator 3 is installed in the through hole. In the present invention, the working medium in the cylinder can be selected from any one of helium, nitrogen, hydrogen, air and mixtures thereof, for example. Those skilled in the art should understand that other suitable working fluids can also be selected according to specific refrigeration requirements. In addition, the regenerator 3 used here is a commonly used device in the field, which is composed of porous media solid fillers with high specific heat capacity and low resistance coefficient. The fillers can be fine wire mesh such as stainless steel, phosphor bronze mesh, small Composed of metal balls and magnetic materials.

The thermal compressor system according to the present invention also includes a drive mechanism 6 that drives the piston 2 to reciprocate in the cylinder 1. In this embodiment, the drive mechanism 6 is a linear motor whose main shaft is coaxially arranged with the piston 2, and the linear motor A stroke limiter (not shown) is also provided for controlling the reciprocating movement of the piston in the cylinder 1 . As an alternative, a rotary motor can also be used as the drive mechanism 6, and the rotary motor is connected to the piston 2 through a crank linkage, so as to convert the rotary motion of the rotary motor into a linear motion. Advantageously, in the present invention, the thermal compressor system utilizes the hot-end heat exchanger 4 to absorb external thermal energy such as low-grade thermal energy and the driving mechanism in conjunction with each other, and only needs to input a small amount of energy from the driving mechanism 6 to make the The operation of the thermal compressor generates alternating pressure waves to drive the generating mechanism 7 to obtain electric energy. Here, the thermal energy used to drive the thermal compressor system includes, for example, solar energy, chemical reaction energy, and thermal energy generated by liquids, gases, and solid fuels. As long as heat of a certain temperature can be generated, the thermal compressor system can be driven to work.

In the thermal compressor driven generator according to the invention, the drive mechanism 6 is activated, which moves the piston 2 inside the cylinder 1 . When the piston 2 moves from the cold chamber end 9a to the hot chamber 8, the high-temperature working fluid in the hot chamber 8 flows to the cold chamber 9 through the regenerator 3, and part of the heat of the high-temperature working fluid is stored in the regenerator 3, which is equivalent to To pre-cool the high-temperature working fluid, the temperature of the working fluid in the cold chamber 9 decreases under the action of the cold-end heat exchanger 5. When the piston 2 reaches the end of the hot chamber 8 (this position can be considered as the top dead center of the piston) At this time, most of the working fluid in the cylinder 1 is in the cold chamber, and the temperature of the working fluid drops to the lowest value, so the pressure in the entire thermal compressor system at this position is at the lowest value. When the piston 2 moves from the end 8a of the hot chamber to the cold chamber, the low-temperature working fluid in the cold chamber 9 flows to the hot chamber 8 through the regenerator 3, and the low-temperature working fluid absorbs heat from the regenerator 3, which is equivalent to giving the cryogenic working fluid At this time, the working fluid in the hot chamber 8 absorbs the heat from the heat exchanger 4 at the hot end and the temperature rises. When the piston 2 moves to the extreme end of the cold chamber (this position can be considered as the bottom dead center of the piston) , most of the working fluid in the cylinder 1 is in the hot chamber, and the temperature of the working fluid rises to the highest value, so the pressure of the entire thermal compressor system is at the highest value at this position. At this time, the piston 2 completes a movement cycle. During the periodical movement of the piston, the thermal compressor system generates alternating pressure waves, thereby driving the generating mechanism 7 to generate electricity to obtain electric energy. In the present invention, the moving frequency of the piston can be selected according to the generating capacity of the power generating mechanism. If the expected generating capacity is larger, a higher piston moving frequency can be selected; if the expected generating capacity is smaller, a lower frequency can be selected. The piston movement frequency. In this embodiment, the lowest frequency of the piston can be 0.1 Hz, and the highest frequency can be selected within the range allowed by the mechanical structure according to needs.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the regenerator in the present invention is a device commonly used in the field, which is composed of porous media solid fillers with high specific heat capacity and low resistance coefficient. The fillers can be fine wire mesh such as stainless steel, Phosphor bronze, etc., small metal balls or particles, and magnetic materials.

In the present invention, the power generation mechanism 7 used is a power generation mechanism well known to those skilled in the art, which may be a linear power generation mechanism or a rotary power generation mechanism. Referring to Fig. 7, an embodiment of the power generating mechanism 7 employed in the present invention is shown. In this embodiment, the power generating mechanism is a linear power generating mechanism 7, which includes a cylinder 72, a second piston 73 arranged in the cylinder, an air inlet 71 arranged at one end of the cylinder, and an air inlet 71 arranged in the cylinder 72. The generator rotor 76 outside the other end and the generator stator 75, wherein the second piston 73 and the generator rotor 76 are connected by a straight connecting rod 74 extending through the cylinder wall. In order to reduce the friction between the second piston and the peripheral wall of the cylinder block of the generator, the second piston is preferably coaxially arranged with the generator rotor 76 .

In this embodiment, the generator rotor 76 is equipped with permanent magnets, and the generator stator 75 includes an iron core and coils wound on the outer casing of the generator rotor 76 . In addition, those skilled in the art should understand that there may be a close fit or a loose fit between the second piston and the cylinder wall. In order to control the movement of the second piston in the cylinder block 72 of the generator, the chambers at both ends of the piston can also be communicated with the fluid through the connecting pipe 78. The connecting pipe 78 is also equipped with a valve 77 for controlling the connecting and closing of the connecting pipe. closure. Where the chambers at both ends of the piston communicate, the piston may be attached to the side wall at one end of the cylinder by means of a spring, such as a column spring, such that the spring pushes the piston back when the pressure in the thermal compressor system decreases. Therefore, during operation, driven by the pressure wave from the thermal compressor system, the first piston can reciprocate in the cylinder, and then drive the generator mover to cut the magnetic field line back and forth relative to the generator stator, converting kinetic energy into electrical energy. Those skilled in the art should understand that if the above-mentioned straight link is replaced by a crank link mechanism that converts the linear motion of the piston into the rotary motion of the mover, the power generating mechanism is correspondingly configured as a rotary power generating mechanism.

In addition, the heat exchangers used in this embodiment are also common heat exchangers in the field, including tube heat exchangers, tube-and-tube heat exchangers, fin heat exchangers, and plate heat exchangers.

Fig. 2 shows another embodiment according to the present invention, wherein except that the passage connecting the hot chamber 8 and the cold chamber 9 in fluid communication is formed by a cavity provided between the inner wall and the outer wall of the cylinder 1, the other structures are similar to those in Fig. The thermal compressor-driven generator shown in 1 is similar, where the regenerator 3 is arranged in the cavity between the inner and outer walls of the cylinder. Fig. 3 shows another embodiment of the passage according to the invention connecting the hot chamber 8 and the cold chamber 9 in fluid communication, in this embodiment, the passage is arranged outside the cylinder from the hot chamber end 8a to the cold chamber end The connecting pipeline of 9a is formed, and the regenerator 3 is connected in series in the connecting pipeline. Another embodiment of the passage connecting the hot chamber 8 and the cold chamber 9 in fluid communication is shown in FIG. The working fluid can function as the regenerator set in the above embodiments. The running process of the generators in these three embodiments is similar to that shown in FIG. 1 , and will not be repeated here.

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate a thermal compressor system with multiple cylinders. The thermal compressor system in Fig. 5 is a double-cylinder structure, and the two cylinders 2 are symmetrically arranged, and the driving mechanism 6 is configured to enable the pistons in the two cylinders to move synchronously. This configuration improves the force balance effect, and then also improves the work efficiency. As an alternative, different from what is shown in Figure 5, the two cylinders of the thermal compressor system can also be arranged such that the pistons of the two cylinders are connected by a connecting rod arranged between the two cylinders, and the cold chamber of one of the cylinders close to the connecting rod, while the hot chamber of the other cylinder is close to the connecting rod, and the cold chambers of the two cylinders are in fluid communication through a line, which in turn communicates to the vascular device. When the driving mechanism drives the connecting rod to drive the piston to move, the pistons in the two cylinders can reach the top dead center and the bottom dead center at the same time, and because the pressure at both ends of the piston is equal, the driving mechanism only needs a small power. This method can also be used when the thermal compressor system is a three-cylinder or four-cylinder structure. The thermal compressor system shown in FIG. 6 is a four-cylinder mechanism. Compared with the two-cylinder mechanism in FIG. 5, this configuration has better force balance effect and higher work efficiency.

These and other modifications and variations of the present invention can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is more particularly set forth in the appended claims. It should also be understood that aspects of the different arrangements may be fully or partially substituted for each other. In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the foregoing description is exemplary only and does not limit the content of the present invention which is further described in the appended claims.

Claims (10)

1. A generator driven by a thermal compressor, comprising a thermal compressor system and a power generating mechanism (7), wherein the thermal compressor system has at least one cylinder (1) with a working medium and is in fluid communication with the cylinder The output end that is connected with the generator (7) is arranged in the cylinder (1) and the piston (2) that separates the cylinder chamber into a hot chamber (8) and a cold chamber (9) drives the piston (2 ) a drive mechanism (6) reciprocating in the cylinder, and a heat exchanger (4) arranged at the hot chamber end (8a) of the cylinder (1) for inputting heat to the working fluid in the cylinder and arranged At the cold chamber end (9a) of the cylinder (1), the cold end heat exchanger (5) is used to input the cooling capacity to the working fluid in the cylinder, and between the hot chamber (8) and the cold chamber (9) There is fluid communication between them through a passage in which a regenerator (3) is arranged. 2. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to claim 1, characterized in that, the passage is formed by a through hole opened along the longitudinal direction of the piston (2), and the regenerator (3) is arranged in the through hole. in the hole. 3. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to claim 1, characterized in that the passage is formed by a cavity between the inner wall and the outer wall of the cylinder (1), and the regenerator (3) is arranged at within this cavity. 4. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to claim 1, characterized in that, said passage is formed from the hot chamber end (8a) to the cold chamber end (8b) outside the cylinder (1) A connecting pipeline (8c) is formed, and the regenerator (3) is connected in series in the connecting pipeline (8c). 5. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to claim 1, characterized in that said passage is formed by a gap between the piston (2) and the inner wall of the cylinder (1). 6. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, the driving mechanism (6) is a linear motor arranged coaxially with the piston (2). 7. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, the driving mechanism (6) is a rotating electrical machine, which is connected to the piston through a crank linkage mechanism. 8. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the number of said cylinders is at least two, and these cylinders are symmetrically arranged according to the specific number of said cylinders Or arranged in a V shape. 9. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to claim 1, characterized in that, the power generating mechanism (7) comprises a cylinder (72), and the second piston (73) arranged in the cylinder (72) ), the intake port (71) arranged at one end of the cylinder, and the generator rotor (76) and generator stator (75) arranged outside the other end of the cylinder (72), wherein the second piston (73 ) and the generator rotor (76) are connected by a linkage (74) extending through the cylinder wall. 10. The generator driven by a thermal compressor according to claim 9, characterized in that permanent magnets are mounted on the generator rotor (76), and the generator stator (75) includes a coil and an iron core.

Images