Stirling Generator

ATGeorge · Sep 21st 2015

I thought it would be cool to have a Stirling Generator/Machine, that produces EU/kU and works by changing the temperature of Liquids/Fluids.

Basically how it would work:
The Stirling Machine has 4 internal/external tanks.
In tank 1, you put a warm/hot fluid.
In tank 2, you put a cold fluid.

The machine generates energy by taking warm fluid from tank 1 and putting the corresponding cold fluid into tank 3 and taking cold fluid from tank 2 and putting the corresponding warm fluid into tank 4.
Of course there have to be some restrictions, for example that the temperature of the (warm->)cold fluid you get can not be higher than the temperature of the (cold->)warm fluid.

So you could make energy from cooling down lava into phahoehoehoehoehoe lava and simultaneously heating up water to springwater.

Chocohead · Sep 21st 2015

You can already generate hU from this, which is the only logical power source it would create. You can just convert the hU into EU or kU instead of having separate generators to bypass the conversion process.

ATGeorge · Sep 21st 2015

How can you create hU from this?

Chocohead · Sep 21st 2015

The liquid heat exchanger does exactly what you described

ATGeorge · Sep 21st 2015

The liquid Heat exchanger generates hU by cooling down a liquid, so basically, it outputs Thermal Energy by taking that Thermal Energy out of the liquid.
The Stirling Machine would work similar to a real Stirling Engine : It outputs Kinetic Energy by taking the Thermal Energy out of one liquid and putting a part of it back into another liquid to also get rid of the poduced entropy.

A Stirling machine would have a higher efficiency than the thing you described, because then you can also use the (cool->)hot liquid for something else.

Pyure · Sep 21st 2015

something about this screams violation of thermodynamics.

ATGeorge · Sep 21st 2015

ikr

SpwnX · Sep 21st 2015

What about just a Stirling Engine which just turns HU into KU?

Bonus: Addition of water into a stirling engine/generator increases efficiency, converting hU to EU/kU slightly more efficiently, while consuming water.

Also... The whole hU <-> hU <-> EU <-> hU needs to change.
1 ku = 1 hU = 1 EU , the difference would be how efficient you can do those conversions via machines.

ATGeorge · Sep 21st 2015

Good idea. Instead of having to put 2 liquids into the stirling generator,
just put in hU and a coolant.

Idea: input a coolant and hU, heat up that coolant and generate EU.

We NEED a coolant, because a real Stirling engine also needs to be cooled or else, it won't work anymore.

Chocohead · Sep 21st 2015

The issue with using coolant coolant is you are suddenly able to use the waste heat energy to generate EU a second time, while using water and evaporating it would be more logical.

ATGeorge · Sep 21st 2015

Being able to reprocess the coolant/water would give room for higher efficiency if people bother to set it up.
(It doesn't have to be a lot, just a bit.

Pyure · Sep 21st 2015

Guys, energy is energy. If the heat from the liquid is being used to create energy in one area, it can't be used later to create energy in another area.

SpwnX · Sep 21st 2015

Using coolants just improve the efficiency of energy creation, with the addition of a secondary process.
(Most of heat -> energy via primary process (stirling), small part of heat -> energy via secondary process (fluid heatup, kinetic), rest of heat -> waste)

Chocohead · Sep 21st 2015

There's no way you'd get any reasonable amount of energy the second time unless the first was massively inefficient.

SpwnX · Sep 21st 2015

The second time is just meant to extract even more energy, even if its little.
However for sake of simplicity, I can agree it can be discarded.

SpwnX · Sep 21st 2015

the stirling engine could be a less efficient version of the hu to eu conversion.
Stirling Generator < Stirling Engine + Kinetic Generator < Steam Boiler + Steam Turbine + Kinetic Generator

The steam generator (please rename it to a boiler) needs to be reworked to not work only with multiples of 100/200 hu too.

Chocohead · Sep 21st 2015

It can accept non 100 hU units, the pressure bars sets that. The issue being that it's not 1 bar = 1 hU, it seems more of a complicated scale.

SpwnX · Sep 21st 2015

Quote from Chocohead

It can accept non 100 hU units, the pressure bars sets that. The issue being that it's not 1 bar = 1 hU, it seems more of a complicated scale.

It wastes it though because the water input and steam output is limited to multiples of 1 and 100

Chocohead · Sep 21st 2015

Quote from SpwnX

It wastes it though because the water input and steam output is limited to multiples of 1 and 100

Well yeah that's true. It would've helped if Thunderdark had actually finished it, the one we've got is his unfinished 3rd version.

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