Joseph Chikva wrote:
Practically, that is less useful. Especially for transport engines. As this solution increases mass and dimensions with little improvement of energy balance.
First, what do you mean by energy balance? Do you mean energy efficiency? You're not talking about the first law of thermodynamics and that's the only definition relevant to an engine. You should be talking about energy efficiency.
Haven't you ever heard of turbochargers? They sit in the exhaust stream and extract energy from it. They're very light weight and rather efficient. You may have heard that they're all the rage now because they can be used to make more fuel efficient engines. Nearly every manufacturer offers at least one car with a smaller turbocharged engine in place of a larger normally aspirated engine. Ford calls it "Ecoboost" and says it gives the power of a V8 with the efficiency of a V6.
Let's compare Ford's 2 liter Duratec and Ecoboost engines. They're identical except for the Ecoboost is turbocharged. The Duratec develops 160 horsepower while the Ecoboost produces 252. The only difference is the turbocharger, roughly 20 pounds. 92 horsepower for 20 pounds. That doesn't affect your "energy balance?" You can put the Ecoboost in a larger vehicle and still get the good fuel economy of a small engine.
Just because you found a picture with a heat exchanger in it doesn't mean that you have to have a heat exchanger. They're used in fixed installations because they are cheap, have few or no moving parts, require little maintenance, and in a fixed site the weight doesn't matter.
And you originally posted this image in connection with aircraft. There's no need to extract heat from the exhaust of a jet engine. The exhaust turbine has already done that for you. But there's still a reason to inject more ammonia fuel into the exhaust stream after the last turbine. That device is called an afterburner.
Joseph Chikva wrote:
Are you really think that I don't know what does "exothermic" and "endothermic" mean?
And how does thermal engine work? For your reference, I am a quite skilled engineer.
Based on your insistence on including a heat exchanger as the only reason to inject a fuel into an exhaust stream, A skilled engineer should know that fuels are exothermic. Maybe you don't deal with fuels in your day to day job. I don't know. It's not my job to determine what you know. I just read what you write.
Joseph Chikva wrote:
And if you would like refuse from hedrocarbons why do you also not consider e.g. pure hydrogen (I know that passanger aircraft Tu-154 was altered in 70s of last cetury in USSR) and e.g. dimethylether, etc.?
Is English your first language? I mean no offense.
Pure hydrogen isn't a good aircraft fuel for two reasons: One, it has terrible energy density per unit volume (Great per unit mass though) Two, it's very expensive to produce unless you have a nuclear reactor and it's always hard to store. If's also terribly dangerous as it is colorless, odorless, and highly explosive. Ammonia at least has a strong smell and doesn't sustain a flame in open atmosphere very well, meaning it would be a safer fuel.
DME seems to be an acceptable fuel. It has roughly the same energy density as the ammonia the other guy was talking about. It's also a gas at room temperature, meaning it needs refrigeration to below -24C. That's extra weight for an aircraft to carry. It's also an ether. I don't know if the Navy's process can produce an ether.
Finally, the biggest problem is that it's produced from methanol, which is a liquid at room temperature and has only a slightly lower energy density. Methanol is much easier to produce. There is a direct method but it's apparently very new and it remains to be seen how useful it is.
Joseph Chikva wrote:
And your typo (1 kg = 1000 g and 1000/2= 500) in the beginning of your calculations induced me to stop further reading of your post. All the more, if to recall that I consider this issue as less significant.
1000/2 ? What does that have to do with the typo I made. The molar weight of diatomic hydrogen is about 2kg or 2000 grams. I typed 1kg, 1000 grams. There's no 500 anywhere in there.