BMW Turbosteamer

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Not very much like what Smokey was doing.

From what I can work out, Smokey's "Hot Vapour Cycle" used exhaust heat to ensure that a very lean mixture was heated to quite high temperatures, to ensure stable combustion (normally, very lean mixtures have a high percentage of misfires).

Then he used a turbo-charger to increase the pressure of the intake charge to ensure that volumetric efficiency was maintained.

I was mucking around with an on paper concept where hydrocarbons (propane through to iso-octane) were cracked with water, catalyst and heat to form a "water-gas" type process. Get the ratios right, and the fuel and water can be converted to gaseous carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

Turns out that the exhaust energy (heat) can be "looped", returning that heat to the chamber as burnable fuel.

Made some investigations and it's already been patented.
 
Made some investigations and it's already been patented.
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But is it being produced/manufactured
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Kodak developed 5 or 6 instant developing films in the 70's and never brought them to market. Polaroid sued and won, establishing that you cannot patent something just to eliminate it from the market.
 
BMW is also doing some kind of energy cell research, combined with a steam cycle. Some of this research is being sponsored through graduate programs.

Very interesting....

Smokey's work was smokey.
 
This concept has been used for the past 10-20 years in combined cycle gas turbine power plants. If they can make it light enough, and reliable enough, it definitely would work in cars.

Can't really tell from the article, but what is the working fluid that is being contemplated here?
 
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