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SUMMARY:Carbon Capture for Automobiles Using Internal Combustion Rankine C
 ycle Engines - Professor R W Bilger\, University of Sydney
DTSTART:20080508T131500Z
DTEND:20080508T150000Z
UID:TALK11719@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:8442
DESCRIPTION:Internal combustion Rankine cycle (ICRC) power plants use\ncon
 ventional fossil fuels\, but oxygen rather than air as the oxidant. They\n
 use recycled water and its vapor in place of nitrogen to control\ncombusti
 on temperatures and to act as the dominant component in the\nworking fluid
  for the cycle thermodynamics. High efficiency and specific\npower output 
 can be achieved with this cycle\, but importantly\, the exhaust\nproducts 
 are only CO2 and water vapor: the CO2 can be captured cheaply on\ncondensa
 tion of the water vapor. Capture and geo-sequestration of CO2 from\nthe co
 mbustion of fossil fuels is seen as being one of the most promising\nroute
 s for the sustainable mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.\n     
    Here we investigate the feasibility of using a\nreciprocating engine ve
 rsion of the ICRC cycle for automotive\napplications. The vehicle will car
 ry its own supply of oxygen and store\nthe captured CO2. On refueling with
  conventional gasoline\, the CO2 will be\noff-loaded and the oxygen supply
  replenished.\n         Cycle performance is investigated on the basis of\
 nfuel-oxygen-water (FOW) cycle calculations. Estimates are made for the\ns
 ystem mass\, volume and cost and compared to other power plants for\nvehic
 les. Market opportunities in the forthcoming carbon controlled\neconomy ar
 e assessed.\n         It is found that high thermal efficiencies can be ob
 tained and\nthat huge increases in specific power output are achievable. T
 he overall\npower-plant system mass and volume will be dominated by the re
 quirements\nfor oxygen and CO2 storage. Even so\, the performance of vehic
 les with ICRC\npower plants will be superior to those based on fuel cells 
 and they will\nhave much lower production costs. Operating costs arising f
 rom supply of\noxygen and disposal of the CO2 are expected to be around 20
 c/l of gasoline\nconsumed and hence likely to be a much less expensive opt
 ion than\nbio-fuels. On a carbon-control basis the operating costs are est
 imated to\nbe about $25/tonne of carbon controlled and this is much less t
 han the\nprojected price of $80/tonne that is forecast for carbon trading.
  This\ncould make ICRC vehicles much less expensive to operate than\nconve
 ntionally powered vehicles that pay for carbon credits.  Market entry\nfor
  this new system will be eased by the fact that it uses existing\ntechnolo
 gy in its development and mass production.\n        Over all\, ICRC engine
 s are seen to be a potentially competitive\noption for the powering of mot
 or vehicles in the forthcoming\ncarbon-controlled energy market." 
LOCATION:Lecture Room 6\, Engineering Department
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