Comment by alexchamberlain
2 months ago
Would this be effective at smaller volumes? Could it get down to say the size of a washing machine for use at home?
2 months ago
Would this be effective at smaller volumes? Could it get down to say the size of a washing machine for use at home?
Very unlikely. All the technologies involved work best at scale; for example, the area-to-volume ratio of the liquid gas storage vessel is a critical parameter to keep energy losses low.
Also, parasitic losses in engines tend to be proportionally lower as the engines get bigger.
Compare the thermal efficiency of marine diesel engines to their automotive equivalents, for instance.
The turbines would have to spin at very high speeds at those sizes to be efficient.