Charged Capacitor Generator Idea instead of Stirling gases

This is experimental expansion of a solid instead of a gas to see if electricity can be generated directly instead of generating mechanical energy first, like most Stirling engines.

I am heating and cooling the dielectric inside two charged capacitors to push electrons back and forth between them.

I think it is not carnot cycle since it is not a gas expansion. However, I suspect efficiency is directly related to the absolute Kelvin temperature ratios, like carnot. This idea eliminates friction. So it could be relatively efficient. However the device might need to be physically huge. I have not done the math yet.

My next experiment will be with two open homemade flat plate electrolytic capacitors at higher voltages and faster heat transfers. Another idea is two 12000 volt tesla capacitors. Energy density is the square of voltage so higher voltage might enable smaller devices. However capacitance suffers and dielectric properties like thermal expansion coefficients matter. Plus thermal loss of the heating and cooling of plates and electrolyte is a complete loss, since the dielectric is all we really want to change. So keep them very thin and add a regenerator equivalent.

MIT demo of changing dielectric thickness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0n6xLdwaT0

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• stirling
• engine
• electricity
• generation
• energy
• power

[packrat541]

very good idea, If the plates of a charged capacitor are moved apart the voltage increases because the capacitance decreases but energy stored must stay the same (consevation of energy) and the opposite is true (voltage drops) if the plates are moved closer. I built a type of voltage multiplyer that seems to build a voltage over time without a power supply and the thermal expantion of the dielectric you demonstrated would explane this. good job!

[definitionofis]

@packrat541 Thanks. I see another related video was posted using a ceramic capacitor. Knowledgemonger's comment on my video March 2011 suggested ceramic, too. watch?v=fldbdQr-c5I That video did not describe a circuit though. I think he just charged it, disconnected, and then attached a meter and changed the temperature.

[knowledgemonger]

You can do a lot better with ceramic capacitors. The tempco of a ceramic capacitor can be huge if you get ones with the "high K" materials like X7R. A fairly modest change in temperature will cause a large change in capacitance.

[definitionofis]

@knowledgemonger Thank-you. I'll try that. I should get back to this project.

[specallez]

Thanks for sharing your idea. Won't putting a load on this just dissipate the original charge though ? Plus you're continuously losing some to the losses in the dielectric. Isn't you're experiment the same has having two variable capacitors and alternately increasing and decreasing each of them ? It won't generate anything, just move the charge between the two. Or did I miss-understand something ?

[definitionofis]

@specallez I have not proven energy is transformed from mechanical to electrical with this demonstration. However, I think it is like the work done by moving a wire through a magnetic field. Electrons are moved through the wire. Similarly, charged plates require a force to pull them apart. Work is done. I should do a larger scale model of just pumping capacitor plates close and far, like the MIT demo in my description, as a preliminary experiment. Dielectric, etc. losses, yes. 28% efficient ?

[izzzzzz6]

Just use a peltier module, as far a i know, this is the best commercially available component for producing power from a temperature difference. A peltier is a real Joule Theif

[MrAtheist93]

@packrat541 The energy does NOT stay the same, you put energy into the capacitor by "tearing" (against the attraction of the charged plates) the plates apart.

[ArcadeGames]

I like your idea, I think you should build it further.