Supercritical thermal power system using combustion gases for working fluid

Claim 1

A supercritical thermal power system producing and using a portion of its composite combustion gas as its only working fluid comprising: a regenerator having a first duct and a second duct receiving said combustion gas in said first duct at a first pressure and a first temperature for venting said combustion gas at a reduced second pressure and second temperature while providing an energy conversion said first pressure and said second pressure being in excess of 1100 PSIA; a condenser coupled to said first duct for lowering the temperature of said combustion gas below a critical temperature for effecting an immediate change of state of the carbon dioxide in said combustion gas to a liquid form; means connected to the said condenser for purging an excess quantity of said liquid form of said carbon dioxide from said system while retaining a remainder of said liquid form in said system; means joining said condenser to said second duct for increasing the pressure and temperature of the remainder of said liquid form of said carbon dioxide to a value substantially corresponding to said first pressure and to a temperature level above the critical temperature of said liquid form of said carbon dioxide to change the state of said remainder to a gaseous fluid at the output of said second duct; a source of oxygen; a source of distillate fuel; and a combustion chamber connected to the oxygen source, the distillate fuel source, and the output of said second duct, upon feeding said gaseous fluid to said combustion chamber during combustion of said oxygen and said distillate fuel, resultant combustion gases are cooled to a magnitude which prevents heat damage to said system and which ensures higher system efficiency.

Claim 6

A method of raising the overall system efficiency of a supercritical thermal power system by using its composite combustion gas as its working fluid comprising: extracting work from said combustion gas in an energy converter; lowering the temperature of said combustion gas below the critical temperature of carbon dioxide; condensing said carbon dioxide to a liquid form; purging excess said liquid form of said carbon dioxide from said system; raising the temperature of said liquid form of said carbon dioxide to a gaseous Form; mixing said gaseous form of said carbon dioxide in a combustion chamber with a hot combustion gas created as oxygen and distillate fuel burns in said combustion chamber said gaseous form being cooler than said hot combustion gas to cool the mixed combustion gas; feeding the mixed combustion gas to said energy converter for preventing heat damage to said energy converter and to raise said overall system efficiency; and maintaining said combustion gas at supercritical pressure levels throughout said system to further raise said overall system efficiency.

Claim 7

A method of raising the overall system efficiency of a supercritical thermal power system by using its composite combustion gas as its working fluid comprising: extracting work from said combustion gas in an energy converter; lowering the temperature of said combustion gas below the critical temperature of carbon dioxide; condensing said carbon dioxide to a liquid form; purging excess said liquid form of said carbon dioxide from said system; raising the temperature of said liquid form of said carbon dioxide to a gaseous Form; mixing said gaseous form of said carbon dioxide in a combustion chamber with a hot combustion gas created as oxygen and distillate fuel burns in said combustion chamber said gaseous form being cooler than said hot combustion gas to cool the mixed combustion gas; feeding the mixed combustion gas to said energy converter for preventing heat damage to said energy converter and to raise said overall system efficiency; and maintaining said combustion gas at supercritical pressure levels throughout said system to further raise said overall system efficiency.