Passenger vehicles
Clean Power has undertaken a new and exciting project to design a passenger vehicle with a steam hybrid engine. Currently, two cars are in development, the first will be a prototype and the second an engineered vehicle that will be unveiled to the auto industry.
Our concept uses a Mazda RX-8 vehicle as the prototype donor vehicle, with one of the two engine lobes running on steam the other on gasoline. The heat normally lost in the system will be recovered via a water jacket style steam accumulator with a closed circuit condenser running the length of the vehicle. The exhaust will enter the accumulator at the side of the engine, by enriching the air / fuel mixture enough to produce an exhaust stream. This is rich enough in Hydrocarbons to actually support complete combustion in a 'thermal reactor', (an enlarged open chamber in the exhaust/steam accumulator). This will assist the production of steam and remove the need for a catalytic converter.
The key to the success of the project is the heat recovery system and control system that manages the steam and gasoline operation. The objective is to enable the two lobes of the engine to operate together or individually.
This project will supply the technology that will allow the engine to switch effectively between steam and gasoline, or steam and gasoline simultaneously in separate lobes.
The current automotive rule of thumb is that one third of the energy from fuel produces useful work, one third is transferred to the cooling system and lost, and one third is lost through the exhaust pipe. Our technology can save up to 40% of the waste heat. This translates into a realistic improvement in fuel efficiency by up to 40%, combined with a correspondent one-third reduction in emissions.