Actual image of Cyclone Mark V engine.
Company receives patent for its award-winning heat regenerative engine.
Pompano Beach, FL – Cyclone Power Technologies has announced that Russia has granted the company a patent on its award-winning, heat regenerative external combustion engine.
Russia initially issued a notice of allowance in January 2009, but this recent event marks the official approval and issuance of full patent protection for Cyclone's engine technology. Initially filed in 2005, the Russian patent is valid through September 2025.
Cyclone has received many requests for information from companies in Russia, as well as other eastern European nations, for its high-efficiency modern steam engine.
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The Cyclone engine is capable of running on virtually any liquid or gaseous fuel, including liquid natural gas (LNG) which exists in great reserves in Russia. According to the Energy Information Administration, Russia gets over half of its domestic energy needs from natural gas, and has a great national need to find new methods of utilizing this resource in power generation, automotive and other critical applications.
"We are excited to be able to expand our efforts to find commercial licensees for our technology and investment partners in Russia, now that our engine has received this much needed protection," states Cyclone's COO and Director, Frankie Fruge.
The company received patent protection for its engine technology in Korea, China, South Africa and Australia earlier in 2009, in the United States in 2006, and then on the engine's proprietary combustion chamber in the U.S. in 2008. The company has applications pending for other components of its engine in the U.S., and for the engine in virtually every industrialized nation.
Corporate Profile
Cyclone Power Technologies is the developer of the award-winning Cyclone Engine – an ecofriendly external combustion engine with the power and versatility to run everything from portable electric generators and garden equipment to cars, trucks and locomotives.
Invented by company founder and CEO Harry Schoell, the patented Cyclone Engine is a modern day steam engine, ingeniously designed to achieve high thermal efficiencies through a compact heat-regenerative process, and to run on virtually any fuel - including bio-diesels, syngas or solar - while emitting fewer greenhouse gases and irritating pollutants into the air.
Currently in its late stages of development, the Cyclone Engine was recognized by Popular Science Magazine as the Invention of the Year for 2008, and was presented with the Society of Automotive Engineers' AEI Tech Award in 2006 and 2008. Additionally, Cyclone was recently named Environmental Business of the Year by the Broward County Environmental Protection Department.
How It Works
The Cyclone Engine is a Rankine Cycle heat regenerative external combustion engine, otherwise known as a “Schoell Cycle” engine. It creates mechanical energy by heating and cooling water in a closed-loop, piston-based engine system. The process looks like this:
Heat Process
1. Fuel is atomized and injected into the patented centrifugal combustion chamber (shown as lifted off the engine block for better viewing), where a spark ignites the fuel-air mixture into a flame that spins around the heat coils. Thermocouples (not pictured) control the duration of combustion to keep the heat in the combustion chamber at a constant temperature.
2. Water contained in the coils becomes super-heated steam (up to 1200°F) in as little as 5 seconds from start up which is (a) piped to the cylinders, (b) where it enters through a patent-pending valve system (not pictured). Note, valve timing mechanisms regulate how much steam enters the cylinders – the longer the cut-off the greater the torque and acceleration.
Mechanical Process
3. Steam enters the six radial-configured cylinders under pressures up to 3200 psi to push the pistons down in sequence. Note, no motor oil is used – water is both the working fluid and engine lubricant. Also, because of the valve design, the engine starts without the need of a starter motor.
4. The rotating action of the pistons connected through a patent-pending spider bearing (not pictured) turns the crank shaft. Note, because the greatest amount of torque occurs at the first rotation, the shaft can be directly connected to a drive train without a transmission.
Cooling Process
5. Steam escapes the cylinders through exhaust ports and (a) enters the patent-pending condensing unit where it turns back into water, and (b) collects in a sealed pan at the bottom of the condenser. Note, this is a closed-loop system – the water does not need to be replaced or topped-off.
6. Blowers spin fresh air around the condenser to speed the cooling process.
Regenerative Process
7. (a) Air which has been pre-heated from the condensing unit, (b) continues up to a second heat exchanger located in the exhaust port of the combustion chamber, further pre-heating the air used for combustion while also cooling the exhaust fumes (to about 320°F).
8. A high pressure pump (not pictured) pipes water from the collecting pan to the heat coils (a) via heat exchangers surrounding each of the cylinders (only one pictured), and then (b) to the center of the coils to start the heat cycle again.
For more information visit www.cyclonepower.com