Condensing: Another fundamental design flaw of Cyclone engines
I agree with Tom's points that Harry Schoell has been peddling technobabble that takes no account of the Laws of Physics.
I've now come to the conclusion that Cyclone insiders have known fully well for years that the Mark 5 engine concept can never work, yet they have continued to omit that fact and have materially misrepresented to investors that there is a possibility of making the engine work.
The condenser section of the "Schoell cycle" is one smoking gun. Regardless of the patent Harry got for his "centrifugal condenser", and all his claims about how great it works, the thermodynamics are fundamentally wrong.
Let's see how some numbers work here.
The Mark 5 is rated at 100 hp and 30% efficient. Let's suppose that's true.
Heat input from fuel = 100hp/0.3 = 333hp. Let's suppose ambient temperature is 100F and the combustion gases are heated to 2500F. That's a 2400F temperature rise from 333hp.
Some of the heat goes out the exhaust. The flue gas temperature on an efficient non-condensing home furnace is about 300F, and let's suppose the Mark 5 with all its regeneration is just as good at taking heat out of the combustion gas. The exhaust at 300F is 200F above ambient. If it takes 333hp to raise the combustion air 2400F, it means 200F/2400F x 333hp = 27.8 hp of heat energy is going out the exhaust.
The Law of Conservation of Energy tells us:
Heat_In = Power_Out + Exhaust_Heat_Out + Condenser_Heat_Out
Energy doesn't go in or out anywhere else. Rearranging:
Condenser_Heat_Out = Heat_In - Power_Out - Exhaust_Heat_Out = 333hp - 100hp - 27.8hp = 205.2hp
This is the heat the condenser has to continuously dump from the engine.
Now we'll look at the heat transfer from the combustion gas to the boiler tubes, and from the condenser surfaces to the cooling air. In both cases it is a forced air convective heat transfer.
Newton's Law of Cooling says the rate of heat transfer between two substances is proportional to the temperature difference between them. We also know the rate of heat transfer is proportional to the surface areas.
If we look at the hot end of the boiler tubes, the hottest combustion gas (2500F) passes the tubes with the hottest steam (1200F) The temperature difference is 2500F - 1200F = 1300F.
The Mark 5 is rated for atmospheric pressure inside, so it condenses steam to water at 212F. With our 100F ambient air, temperature difference is 212F - 100F = 112F.
Total heat transfer from a surface is Surface_Area x Temperature_Difference x Heat_Transfer_Coefficient,
The boiler has 333hp of heat going in and 27.8hp of heat going out the exhaust. The rest (333hp - 27.8hp = 305.2hp) goes into the boiler tubes.
Making a ratio:
(Condenser_Heat_Transfer) / (Boiler_Heat_Transfer) = 205.2hp / 305.2hp = 0.672
And substituting the values of the heat transfer:
(Condenser_Area x Condenser_TempDiff x Heat_Transfer_Coeff ) / (Boiler_Area x Boiler_TempDiff x Heat_Transfer_Coeff ) = 0.672
Because both places are forced air convection, the heat transfer coefficients are about the same and cancel. Then:
(Condenser_Area x 112F) / (Boiler_Area x 1300F ) = 0.672
And solving for Condenser Area:
Condenser_Area = 0.672 x Boiler_Area x (1300F/112F) = 7.80 x Boiler_Area
So, for the condenser to dump its 205hp of heat on a 100F day means it needs to have about 7.8 times the surface area of the boiler tubes.
Now look at a cross section of the Mark 5. If you take surface area of all those tubes in the boiler section, it's quite a bit more than the area of the outside of the condenser. From the Cyclone drawings, I'm getting the the condenser surface area is only about half that of the boiler tubes, when it needs to be 8 times as much.
So the Mark 5 condenser is way too small. This is one of the things the experienced steam people on the steam car club forum politely asked Harry about years ago, and he assured them he had it working.
As another comparison point, let's look at a semi-truck with a 400hp diesel engine that is 40% efficient. The heat input from the fuel is 1000hp, 400hp comes out as mechanical power and let's say the other 600hp is divided evenly between coolant and exhaust. So the radiator is rejecting 300hp of heat from coolant at about 212F to air at 100F on a hot day. Look at the size of the radiator in these trucks. That's what it takes to dump that much heat. The Mark 5 only needs to dump 205hp and not 300hp, but 2/3rds of that truck radiator is still far bigger than the whole Mark 5 engine.
Ever wonder why there are a bunch of videos of the WHE engine running and not the Mark 5? The WHE uses an external water-cooled condenser, so it can condense all its exhaust steam and keep running. The Mark 5 can't condense its exhaust steam, and the pressure and temperature inside the engine would quickly build up. It just can't run very long without overheating and blowing a safety relief valve.
Raytheon ordered two Mark 5s, but ended up with two Manta 36s. The Manta 36 uses an external water cooled condenser, so they could be made to run for a while.
The latest video of the Mark 5 with a rotary valve doesn't have the Mark 5 condenser on the engine. The exhaust steam is going somewhere else.
There was one video of a test run of the Mark 5, Youtube video ZGRxqHiYCaQ from March 10, 2010. Towards the end the camera pulls back some and you can see there's nothing under the engine. The output shaft comes out the bottom, and it's not connected to any load. So this engine was only producing enough power to overcome its internal friction. (The curtain just behind the engine is hiding the blowers and pumps, which are being powered from some outside source.) In this case the engine only needs a small amount of power so only a small amount of fuel is being burned. The condenser may be able to dump the small amount of heat. (Or maybe not as the engine is only seen running for 57 seconds.)
Then there's the Mark 5 for the Land Speed Record car. Harry had insisted that a completely stock Mark 5 would be used so it would prove his Mark 5 was able to power a car. Chuk Williams was promised an engine, and built his car to specifically fit the Mark 5. After years of excuses he never got the engine and found something else.
A funny thing happened then. Harry hired Nelson Hoyos, created the Performance Division and reputedly spent half a million dollars to build a car to beat Chuk. Suddenly the engine went from a stock Mark 5 to a special design. Why?
The new LSR engine was going to be non-condensing. I think Harry knew the Mark 5's condenser is far too small, and if he tried to use a Mark 5 in the new car, he would never be able to beat Chuk. This forced his hand. If he tried to run his car with a stock Mark 5, it would be a failure, and a failure that people would see. So the switch to the non-condensing non-Mark 5 for the car.
Now let's look at what James Landon wrote in the Letter to Shareholders in January 02, 2013:
"The development path for the Combilift engines follows the LSR engine; however, the complexities and operational requirements for Combilift engines are greater. To assist us in moving this project towards completion, we have recruited contractors with expertise in certain areas such as condensing systems. "
It's not that the Mark 5 for Combilift was extra complicated, the LSR engine was a much simpler engine.
And Mr. Landon, the soon to be ex-CEO of Cyclone, hired contractors with expertise in "condensing systems". Why would they do that? Because they knew the Mark 5 will never work with the condenser it has.
So Cyclone is all about the Mark 5. Harry dreamed it up down to the last detail, then patented it. He built a number of really attractive non-functional prototypes and let people think he had a working engine. He even accepted awards for the engine that never yet ran. He sold licenses to companies, without having even tried to build the engine, and he sold stock to numerous people on the pretense he had a working engine.
Eventually he built prototypes of the Mark 5 and discovered they can't come close to condensing the steam they need to. But he's continued with the pretense that the engine works.
The Mark 5 will need a big external condenser to be able to run. It will require a fan and motor and a pump to send water back to the engine. The patents only cover an engine with an integral condenser.
And Harry would have to admit his design was flawed. Rather than do that, he has decided to intentionally misrepresent this material fact to investors. Eventually he will force Cyclone into bankruptcy and blame the Mark 5's failure on others.
