Thermal regenerative machine

Claim 1

A thermal regenerative machine comprising: a vessel chamber filled with a gaseous working fluid, said chamber having a heat source surface at one end, a heat sink surface at its remaining end, and a side wall connecting the two ends; a porous heat exchange assembly located within the vessel chamber and defining an expansion space adjacent to the heat source surface and a compression space adjacent to the heat sink surface; means for cyclically varying the volumes of the expansion space and compression space so as to alternately expand the gaseous working fluid in the expansion space and compress the gaseous working fluid in the compression space and to further move the gaseous working fluid back and forth between the expansion space and compression space through the heat exchange assembly; said heat exchange assembly comprising: first thermal conductor means facing outwardly toward the heat source surface for alternately (1) receiving heat by conduction and radiation when near the heat source surface or (2) supplying heat to the gaseous working fluid either passing through the first thermal conductor means or located in the expansion space by convection and radiation; second thermal conductor means facing outwardly toward the heat sink surface for alternately (1) transferring heat by conduction and radiation when near the heat sink surface or (2) absorbing heat from the gaseous working fluid either passing through the second thermal conductor means or located in the compression space by convection and radiation; regenerator means interposed between said first and second thermal conductor means for thermally insulating them from one another while allowing the gaseous working fluid to move back and forth between them in a substantially thermodynamically reversible manner; the heat storage capacity of the first thermal conductor means being adequate to supply the quantity of heat required by the gaseous working fluid in the expansion space for one cycle without substantial change in the temperature of the first thermal conductor means; the heat storage capacity of the second thermal conductor means being adequate to absorb the quantity of heat produced by the gaseous working fluid in the compression space for one cycle without substantial change in the temperature of the second thermal conductor means.