Ingenuity Engines

Introduction

Providing and utilizing electric and fuel for residential, transportation, commercial and industrial use in a people friendly, economical and environmentally safe way is challenging. Work is being done to develop and bring to fruition the following projects as a contribution to help solve these issues.

An innovation to contribute to fuel production is proposed and written about first because fuel is used in many applications and is required for an internal combustion engine or an external combustion engine to operate, both these type engines are heat engines. There are many concerns involved with the use of fossil fuels typically used for fuel because of its carbon dioxide and pollution emissions. People see the fuel energy we now use and typical heat engines and their issues as requiring fossil fuels, so fuel energy and heat engines use are tarnished. The biomass in biomass fuels removes carbon dioxide from the air so when the fuel is combusted the carbon dioxide emissions may be carbon neutral or even carbon negative. Methane can be derived from biomass; this may be called RNG Renewable Natural Gas and can be cleanly combusted. Natural gas is mostly methane. Propane can also be derived from biomass and is called renewable propane, this fuel has benefits in that it may be easily and efficiently liquified to a high BTU per volume state and easily transported in an inexpensive tank. Another renewable fuel is biokerosene which is stored as a liquid and very transportable.

Much thought went to the issues of fuel energy, the internal combustion engine and our electric / heating / mechanical power needs. Electric is very useful in powering many different products, machines, equipment, and charging electric vehicles, but fuel energy is more storable, portable and accessible for on demand use. Electric has to be generated in some way which is typically by a mechanical means turning an AC generator and some by solar panels. A system for fuel, engines and electric generation was sought that is cost effective, sustainable, efficient and emits a minimum of harmful emissions.

Energy, Biomass Fuel, Collecting and Processing

Many people are concerned about greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere with “carbon” emissions being a major concern which is carbon dioxide. Scientists say carbon dioxide levels in the air have risen substantially since the time of the beginning of the use of fossil fuels. The amount of carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere is much higher than the rate it is being removed from the air, it is increasing in concentration so it makes sense that it will cause issues. At some level of carbon dioxide in the air people feel tired. There are concerns that carbon dioxide will at some level start to combine with water to form carbonic acid which will raise the acidity of the environment. Methane and water vapor are also greenhouse gasses of concern. Scientists say atmospheric greenhouse gasses trap heat from the sun from reflecting back out to space and this trapped heat increases the earth’s temperature. A warmer average temperature may mean higher levels of water vapor in the atmosphere adding to the problem. There are scientists that say the earth’s temperature is increasing on average over time which would mean more energy in the earth and the atmosphere, potentially causing more issues with severe weather and warming which would melt more existing ice towards the North and South poles raising water levels. There is concern for climate change having negative effects. The earth’s temperature has fluctuated in the past for different reasons which are studied and the answers of why are sought. Oil, natural gas and coal from the earth consist of molecules of hydrogen and carbon atoms and when they are combusted, heat, carbon dioxide, water vapor and some other pollutants are released into the atmosphere. This oil, natural gas and coal to be combusted are considered fossil fuels. If the oil, natural gas, and coal are not extracted from the ground or not combusted the carbon atoms in them would remain pretty much contained, not being converted to carbon dioxide.

Many products that we use are made from the natural resources of oil, and natural gas. These products mostly do not release carbon dioxide atoms into the atmosphere. Oil and natural gas are used to make various types of plastics and synthetic rubber for use in many products. Other products are also made including asphalt which contains a product of oil. Natural gas / methane is used to make synthetic oil. So, a thought is the oil and natural gas natural resources used for products are not actually fossil fuels unless they are meant to be and are combusted.

Combusting biomass fuels may be considered to be "carbon" neutral and on average over time not to add “carbon” (carbon dioxide) to the atmosphere because “carbon” (carbon dioxide) was taken out of the atmosphere during the growing of the biomass or the replacement of the biomass. When biomass is processed into biogas, carbon dioxide may be generated but it may be captured and stored and there is believed an economical way to accomplish this. There are articles that say when the carbon dioxide from the production of methane from biogas is stored the total carbon cycle is actually carbon dioxide negative. Biomass fuels may be combusted with minimal pollution emissions.

Plants (trees and vegetation) take carbon dioxide out of the air and combine the carbon atoms from carbon dioxide (CO2) with the hydrogen atoms from water (H2O) to make sap and the sap feeds the tree to grow the tree, vegetation or seed, which are biomass. This process plants use to make sap is by the chlorophyl in the plant through photosynthesis when the sun light shines on the plants. There are also other nutrients the tree or vegetation needs. The oxygen atoms from the carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen atoms from the water (H2O) are released to the air in the process. The sap contains hydrocarbons which feed the tree growing carbon rich wood. When plants are left to rot or burned carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere, also methane may be immitted.

Biomass can be turned into many different hydrocarbon fuels, including methane (RNG) Renewable Natural Gas, renewable propane and biokerosene. There are many ways to generate and harvest different types of biomasses and turn this material into easily useable fuel energy.

A way to plant and / or harvest biomass is with machines that are remote operated that can collect biomass to be converted into an easily useable fuel such as propane or methane. Sending a lot of people into brushed or wooded areas or a forest cutting and collecting dead branches, trees and underbrush has safety issues and / or may not be practical. Trees and limbs fall and are dangerous, there are many types of risks in this type of work and may be far from where people live but a machine could do this. Some of the features of this machine are. It may be a four-wheel drive aggressive tire vehicle which could have a controllable long travel suspension and turntable wheels on its base structure. A machine would have an articulated arm(s) which may be able to extend and / or bend. This arm would be able to be rotated as desired. This arm may have changeable attachments that their position and motion is adjustable. There may me replacement attachments such as saw attachments to change out a saw / worn saw blade with a sharpened one. The saw attachment possibly combined with a grabber / jaw would be meant to cut biomass to sizes that are best for the purpose the biomass in this step of its processing. The same arm or a second different arm may have a grabber / jaw or scoop or other attachments. The grabber / jaw attachment may pick up biomass and place it in an aggressive tire dumpster transport vehicle, meant to transfer a dumpster with biomass to a road to be picked up by a truck and delivered to a processing facility. Each of the machines could be remotely controllable so they may be operated by people in a wide range of situations. With the internet’s capability and computers / keyboards / attachments and possibly a joystick(s), real time camera / video and possible microphone / speaker and control interaction is possible. In addition, computer / programing could be developed that people could mark on a screen the biomass (specific biomass or biomass in general area) to collect and have the machine figure the actual moves of the machine. The machine could have lights to extend its daily use time. The machines different functions may be electric motor powered with battery electric storage and an engine powered electric generator. There may be many of each type of model designed for different circumstances, engine powered with/ and/or electric motor machines. There may be a very large number of machines and operators, it is possible one operator could work more than one machine. These machines may move through an area at about five-to-seven-year intervals.

These machines and operators would manage trees and vegetation by removal, pruning and planting in many locations. This would improve the quality and quantity of the best trees and plants increasing tree mass growth and also would increase removing carbon dioxide from the air. This plant management would reduce undesirable trees, vegetation, vines, dead trees and branches which would reduce wildfires and the need for controlled burns. The leaves and roots which are a substantial amount of organic matter would be left for soil erosion control and for compost. Some of the trees may be used for the wood products industry so the carbon dioxide captured by the tree would remain stored in the wood. Wildfires do much damage to people, animals, the built environment and the forests. Wildfires produce very large amounts of polluting emissions into the air and release much harmful and wasted heat energy. A wildfire is an unplanned fire. It is reported about 6 million or more acres a year burn from wildfires in the United States alone, in 2021 there were about 7.1 million acres of wildfires. Insurance companies pay out a large amount in claims and the total damages to people, property, the environment and lost productivity is greater. These wildfires fires put out something like 320 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air, there would also be water vapor and other harmful other pollutants. There is reported an additional 3 million acres burned in controlled burn or also called prescribed burn fires each year which also put out emissions. There is reported about 800 million acres of forests in the United States, also there is a lot of unmanaged woods and trees in other places. It has been studied and calculated that there are about 228 billion trees in the United States.

Places for animal creatures may be designed that are suitable dens / nests for them, made and placed appropriate distances apart it the forests and at recorded GPS locations. Trees may be selected and planted that are native to the area and provide food for animals.

There are numerous other sources of biomass such as from cut grasses, plants and trees along roads, left over stalks from harvesting, pig farms and cattle stock yards.

Collected biomass may be used to make methane and propane from the methane. Methane can be made by decomposing biomass with anaerobic bacteria in the absence of oxygen, there are several types of bacteria in a several step process. This anaerobic bacteria produced compost becomes acidic, but after methane production is over the PH of the compost may be brought back to a plant friendly state by an aerobic bacteria phase of being exposed to oxygen in the air. Biomass may be piled high in rows. A biomass processor along with a conveyer may be used to pile the biomass high. The biomass then would be covered with a membrane / plastic sheet, which may be reinforced and possibly be green in color. The edges of the membrane / plastic sheet can be folded over, adhered to itself with tubes installed at the fold. Screw anchors would have clips which would be placed over the tubes. The edges of the sheet and structure would be buried in trenches as required. A solution (mostly water) soaking system installed such as drip tubes laid over the biomass and under the sheet. Methane gas is lighter than air and rises. A biogas collecting system is installed such as a perforated tube laid on top the biomass and a system to pump the biogas to processing equipment and another pump to compress the methane into CNG tanks or into gas piping. The methane production system has monitoring and quality control equipment. A membrane in the equipment is used to separate the methane from the carbon dioxide, other methods are used to remove the trace gasses. The carbon dioxide or a percentage of it may be sequestered. Trees weigh a lot, a typical large tree may weigh 18,000 lbs. A pound of biomass may be able to be converted into about 5-6.4 cubic feet of biomass gas or biogas which is about 60% methane, 40% carbon dioxide and some trace gasses. Methane has about 1,000 BTUs per cubic foot. The optimum temperature for the methane production may be about 90 degrees F. Probably a few percent of the trees, branches and vegetation die each year and there is also biomass that would be best removed so if a reasonable percentage was managed for fire safety and for fuel it would be a lot of energy. Some studies would need to be done on actually how much methane could be generated. Farmland or other locations may be used for the biomass under a membrane structures. Farmland grows plants best on its own when allowed to rest from growing crops at intervals. Each facility would be located near the source of biomass to reduce transportation costs. The sheet membrane may be rolled up when the methane production is done and reused or recycled. After the methane production is complete the biomass compost may be spread about a field fertilizing it. The methane may be compressed into tanks, fuel an electric generator at site or pumped into the natural gas pipe system.

Natural gas / methane can be compressed into CNG tanks but may require relatively large high-pressure capable tanks. Liquefying natural gas / methane LNG, transporting and transferring it is challenging and is done. Natural gas / methane may be efficiently piped, there is an extensive natural gas pipeline system.

Another way to make biomass fuel is to plant and harvest plants with oil rich seeds and palms that are oil rich. The seeds can be run through an impeller once or twice to extract the oil. The oil is then filtered and may be used directly for fuel. One of these plants is rapeseed. This plant was genetically modified in Canada and used to make canola oil which is used in a lot of foods. A plant called camelina sativa which may be used to make renewable propane.

There are technologies that can convert biomass to other energy forms such as methane (RNG), renewable propane, biokerosene or other fuels. There are technologies that can convert one form of a hydrocarbon fuel to another form such as methane into propane.

Most fuels are considered hydrocarbon fuels because they are made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms. An exception is hydrogen. It is a fuel that is not a hydrocarbon fuel but is made up of hydrogen atoms which combine with oxygen in combustion. Fuels are typically combusted by combining them with oxygen from the air and igniting them.

Hydrogen burns quickly, but in this new engine being developed, it may be injected as a small stream over a period of time in the combustion cycle for the fuel to be efficiently utilized. Hydrogen is very combustible and will combust in a wide range of fuel / air ratios. Compressing a large amount of hydrogen typically requires a high-pressure pump, pumping it into a tank capable of containing a highly-pressurized gas. Hydrogen may be condensed into a liquid but this requires special equipment and a insulated tank, when stored in liquid form unused vaporizing gas is sometimes bled into the air to keep the pressure of its storage tank manageable, which is said may have long-term damaging effects on the atmosphere because the atoms in the air that normally oxidize methane will be used up oxidizing hydrogen which will mean higher levels of methane in the atmosphere a potent greenhouse. The venting hydrogen into the air is a waste of energy. There are technologies being developed that utilize sunlight to directly break apart the hydrogen from oxygen in water for each of their use.

The natural resources of oil, natural gas, coal and wood are valuable in their use, we are surrounded by products made from oil, natural gas and wood. Oil, natural gas and coal are not renewable. Trees are sustainable if properly managed. Oil, natural gas and coal are being consumed at a fast pace; it would be expected that they will be harder to access as time goes on causing them to cost more to produce and purchase the final product. There are many studies on how long these non-renewable resources will last at the current rate of consumption, which is relatively a short period of time.

There is a large amount of methane hydrate in certain places at the bottom of the ocean, there is a concern because of warming that this methane may start to gasify and rise into the atmosphere. There are large amounts of peat bogs frozen and or submerged under water and if they start to melt and dry they may start to decompose, generating methane and carbon dioxide. At certain places there is natural gas venting from the earth. Methane is said to be in the range of 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Combustible gasses in the atmosphere do slowly combine with oxygen and oxidize, their oxidation makes byproducts that are less of a greenhouse gas concern. In some cases, collecting and using hydrocarbons reduces their negative effects to the environment.

A more efficient heat engine and the utilization of a new engine and the use of renewable fuels would slow the rate of consumption of oil, natural gas and coal. A goal is for all these resources to be acquirable longer, remain relatively economical for more time and be more usefully utilized.

See the picture of the prototype engine which has about a 1,200 cubic inch displacement with a 15.64” stroke. There are test ignition burners placed on the prototype engine.

See the front page of each of the patents.

See a pressure volume diagram where the area in the interior area of the lines shows the work output of the engine. This relatively large volume of area and considering the amount of fuel used plus that there is minimal internal friction and heat loss from the engine itself means that there is great potential for this new engine to be efficient.

Ingenuity Engines, LLC is developing an engine with a new engine architecture. A patent named Internal Combustion Engine with Fuel Compression Chamber Cylinders No. : US 11,608,777 with a date March 21, 2023 was granted to John Devine. A patent named Ultra Efficient Engine No.: US 8,256,277 B2 with a date September 4, 2012 was granted to John Devine.

The engine may be designed to combust fuels derived from biomass which may be considered to be sustainable and “carbon” neutral. The new engine design goal is to run efficiently, emit a minimal amount of harmful emissions, operates with minimal vibration and it and the systems it powers can be installed in an enclosure to minimize sound emissions.

The combustion / pressurized combustion gasses in this new engine are for a longer period of time per stroke and at a lower peak pressure and possibly temperature which reduces pollutants as compared to the typical engine which the combustion is for a very short time at very high temperatures and pressures.

The engine is useful in the lower power output range and in many applications. It may be used to power an electric generator combined with HVAC equipment, turning a heat pump compressor and fans and may also have heat exchanger(s) to utilize the engines heat energy not converted to mechanical energy. The engine may also be used for vehicles, electric generators, air compressors, light towers, water pumps, equipment or other uses. This type of engine system may be used to generate electric for charging electric cars with the waste heat being utilize for other purposes.

An interesting engine was developed in the 1870’s by a man named George Brayton, he invented, patented and built his engine. If Brayton engine is searched one will see photos and video of the engine, some show the engine running. It is written that the turbine engine is a Brayton cycle engine. A turbine engine has a continuous combustion with turbines and the original Brayton engine was a piston engine with combustion stopping and starting.

The following is a partial list of why this new engine architecture is for its best use purpose potentially a better engine than typical engine technology, with possible higher efficiency and less harmful emissions. There are numerous invented parts that have been developed and used in this new engine to make it feasible.

A three-piston configuration may be used to utilize a unique engine cycle which may include as part of its cycle the rise of combustion pressure placing this raised back pressure on the air compressor piston for a minimal part of the length of its stroke. This higher backpressure force on the air compressor piston force only occurs at the end of the stroke when a crank pin has much leverage on a connecting rod head allowing the engine to be able to turn though this part of the cycle. A four cycle (a Diesel engine is also considered a four-cycle engine) engine’s rise in pressure from combustion does not place a back pressure on the air compressor cycle but its height of combustion pressure is only for a short time and not when the crank is at a maximum moment arm. In a Diesel engine fuel is injected into compressed air in a cylinder with a piston and combusted which greatly raises the pressure of the gasses. A typical Brayton cycle / turbine engine combustion pressure is about the pressure the air compressor compresses the air to and has a more continuous pressure on the turbines or piston-connecting rod-crank (expansion side of the engine, how the engine turns combustion gas pressure to work energy). The combustion pressure is typically not near as high of a pressure as a four-cycle engine. A turbine engine typically has a higher average efficiency than a typical four-cycle engine considering how they are used.

Dual acting pistons are used which nearly doubles the displacement in the same area. Duel acting pistons reduce the internal friction and increases power output per the engine’s size. Dual acting pistons reduces heat loss from the engine per its displacement.

In each of the particular cylinders the piston and connecting rod move linearly so only the piston seals contact the cylinder wall generating friction and only the connecting rod contact the connecting rod seal generating friction. The pistons themselves do not touch the cylinder wall generating friction. In a typical engine ring / seal friction and piston / oil friction is a large part of why there is a lot of resistance in turning this type of engine.

A piston with piston seal(s) design is used that minimizes the friction surface and maximizes the wear thickness of the seals so they last a long time. The lower than a typical four-cycle engine peak pressure but a more continuous pressure requires less sealing ring(s) surface.

The seals may be made of a composite of and or plating of materials like carbon, nickel based super alloy, aluminum / magnesium / boride, self-lubricating ceramics and carbon fiber or made of other materials in which there are many being developed. The seals need to be made to be heat resistant, slippery, self-lubricating and long lasting. High temperature withstanding seals and high temperature withstanding engine materials at the parts of the engine that will reach a high temperature are used. Each piston and connecting rod rotate as the engine runs to minimize the effects of gravity pulling down on them, allowing even seal wear.

An ignition assembly which includes a fuel pump / air pump to the ignition burner, a means to ignite the ignition burner and the ignition burner itself which directs a flame into a main burner fuel / air mixture to insure combustion.

The fuel is combusted over a relatively long period of time at a less pollution producing pressure and temperature range allowing there to be a clean combustion. A contained high temperature environment (cylinder walls and heads) improves combustion and efficiency and reduces heat loss from the engine. There is a minimal below combustion temperature boundary layer at the interior surfaces of the combustion chamber. In a combustion chamber boundary layer and area around the piston most of the fuel is not combusted in a typical engine but has potential to be mostly combusted in this new engine.

To keep the parts of the engine exposed to combustion heat from failing due to high temperature there are several things that can be done. Use of materials that can manage high temperatures. Have the incoming air contribute to cooling the interior surfaces. The outside of the combustion chamber cylinder may be cooled by transferring its heat to the expansion chamber cylinder or out of the engine by air circulation. The heads may be cooled by air circulation.

The crank transmission mechanism in this new engine is designed to convert a long linear stroke to a rotational work output. This crank mechanism manages this with a minimum of friction and is compact considering its stroke length. This crank mechanism also multiplies the long piston stroke to a more useable rotational higher RPM output. Ball bearings may be used in the crank transmission.

In this engine the crank transmission, the pistons, connecting rods, and valve mechanisms do not require a continuous oil flow. This eliminates the energy required to pump oil.

This engine does not require an antifreeze liquid coolant, the design, the materials used, and the type of cycle combined with the long stroke allow this. For thought a turbine engine also does not require antifreeze liquid coolant. The heat energy loss directly from the engine is reduced. The engine not being cooled through antifreeze liquid coolant eliminates the energy typically required to pump coolant.

A three-cylinder configuration allows for a design that provides for a balanced engine. The crank heads may be weighted so the total weight of the center piston / connecting rod / crank head matches the total weight of the two outside pistons / connecting rods / crank heads. The center piston / connecting rod / crank heads move opposite the outside ones. The two outside pistons / connecting rods / crank heads would be balanced.

A unique valve system mechanism has been invented that is efficient in the energy used to operate the valves and has a mechanical simplicity. The pressurized gasses in the engine chambers contribute to holding the valves closed.

A kidney shaped combustion chamber exhaust valve allows a large minimally impeded volume of gasses to flow from the combustion chamber to the expansion chamber.

The unique cycle of this engine may have three stages. (Stage 1) An air compressor chamber piston compresses air into a (Stage 2) smaller combustion chamber with a piston where fuel is injected into the incoming air. This fuel/air mixture is ignited and combusted, these combustion products are channeled into a (Stage 3) larger expansion chamber cylinder with a piston. The air compressor and expansion chamber piston may be in the same motion and the combustion chamber piston may operate opposite in stroke. When the combustion chamber piston is approaching the bottom of its stroke and the air compressor piston is near the top of its stroke pumping air into the combustion chamber through a port, fuel is injected into the air and combustion is initiated, this causes the combustion chamber gasses pressure to rise. The combustion chamber exhaust valve is opened when the combustion chamber piston is at the bottom of its stroke, the high-pressure gasses are channeled through a port into an expansion chamber with a piston. This expansion chamber piston may move opposite in stroke to the combustion chamber piston but the same as the air compressor chamber piston stroke. Combustion may continue as the combustion chamber piston moves from the bottom of its stroke when this combustion chamber piston is pushing the high-pressure combustion products into the much larger diameter expansion chamber with a piston. The air in the port from the air compressor empty and the fuel from the fuel line empty and these mix as the pressure drops and are ignited and combusted. Because of the continued combustion these combustion gasses remain at a high pressure for a time effectively pushing the expansion chamber piston. The combustion gasses are expanded from a high pressure to a low pressure efficiently converting the kinetic energy in the high-pressure combustion gasses to mechanical work energy. Even after the combustion has subsided there is still expanding gas pressure and the expansion piston continues to produce work. When the expansion chamber piston is at the bottom of its stroke the expansion chamber exhaust valve is opened and the expanded combustion products are exhausted.

Heads made of layered plates with flexible gaskets between them to allow for expansion and contraction without warping and cracking.

Electric, Infrastructure and Electric Vehicles

A challenge with power plants and electric grid is the required amount of electric has to be generated and available at the time of use. Much is involved with suppling fuel to an electric plant, the electric generator plant equipment and in a coal burning plant combustion waste disposal. There is much infrastructure involved in transmitting electric over a long distance and accessing this electric.

Transporting and storing electric has great limitations with current technology. Batteries (for EV’s) now may be about a 1,000 lbs. and have the energy capacity equal to about a couple gallons of gas, but EV’s are viable because their AC electric motors are very efficient and can recover breaking energy. There is a lot of work being done to find solutions to reduce the issues of materials, production, improve the qualities of batteries, and also work out their end of lifecycle issues. There is a vision for a battery that is overall relatively safe, made up of fairly common elements, efficiently manufactured, has a very high electric storage density, efficiently takes, holds and releases a charge, has a long lifecycle and can be recycled.

Electric vehicles have benefits in cities in that they are especially efficient compared to a typical internal combustion engine vehicle in stop and go traffic. Electric vehicles produce minimal emissions at the vehicle, but there may be emission issues with their production and battery charging electric generation source.

A natural gas fueled electric power plant (gas turbine with exhaust heat recovery) may be about 50 percent efficient, a coal fueled electric power plant (with steam turbine) may be about 30 percent efficient. Electric is transmitted over wires in which it may lose 6 percent in resistance. Some of this electric power's electric motors for a compressors and fans in which the typical electric motor may be 80 percent efficient. So, the total system efficiency is not that great with a lot of waste heat loss which is usually dissipated into the environment. It’s been reported about 60 percent of electric is now generated from fossil fuels and about 79 percent of the energy we use is from fossil fuels.

If an efficient fuel powered heat engine was directly used to power mechanical equipment and used to generate electric at a home, building or industrial use, the waste heat could be utilized, and the equipment could be a heat pump not having to create heat but efficiently moving it as required. This overall system has potential to use much less energy than the systems that are now used. This new engine technology powering electric generators may be used to supplement the current electric grid; this may reduce the issues of the improvements required to update it to handle future electric demands.