On 24-Apr-17 12:34 PM, Capitol wrote:
Nightjar wrote:
On 23-Apr-17 9:57 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 23/04/17 09:49, Nightjar wrote:
Steam is viable, even if that does not sit well with your world view.
Technically perhaps ...but economically?

IC engines are good because you don't have to lug the fuel oxidant or
the working fluid around. Its in huge supply as atmospheric oxygen and
gases respectively.

Once you are building a static installation though, steam predominates
and is more efficient, because you can run huge condensers on the back
end.

And you have a variety of thermal sources that you can hook up - coal,
oil gas, nuclear.


The developers of the engine I mentioned see the main transport use to
be in commercial vehicles in third world countries, where its multi-fuel
capacity would allow more flexibility than a conventional ICE.


Sounds like we're going back to charcoal burners towed behind the car!

I think that charcoal is one of the things their catalytic burner
couldn't handle. However, almost any flammable liquid or gas would work.

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Colin Bignell