Cyclone Power Technology Moves Toward Biomass Power Prototypes in China
In 2011, Cyclone Power Technologies took another step toward bringing its alternative engine technology to the Chinese market.
The company announced that its China licensee, Great Wall Alternative Power Systems Ltd., had completed several early milestones required to begin prototype development.
Those milestones included engineering preparation, intellectual-property transfer work and the formation of a technical team capable of developing Cyclone engines for China.
Building an Engineering Base in China
Great Wall focused first on establishing the engineering foundation behind the project.
The company assembled a team responsible for design, product development and protection of Cyclone’s intellectual property.
Keith McDade, Great Wall’s vice president of technology and engineering at the time, described the effort as an attempt to build an engineering center capable of maintaining high standards for quality and performance.
That work mattered because Cyclone was not simply exporting finished equipment. Instead, the companies planned to adapt and eventually manufacture the technology for specific applications in China.
Cyclone WHE-25 Targets Biomass Power
Great Wall planned to begin with the Cyclone WHE-25 engine.
The company envisioned using the engine in biomass-powered generator systems. In particular, the technology could support distributed electricity generation and combined heat and power systems.
How It Works
The Cyclone Engine is a Rankine Cycle heat regenerative external combustion engine, otherwise known as a “Schoell Cycle” engine. It creates mechanical energy by heating and cooling water in a closed-loop, piston-based engine system. The process looks like this:
HEAT PROCESS
- Fuel is atomized and injected into the patented centrifugal combustion chamber (shown as lifted off the engine block for better viewing), where a spark ignites the fuel-air mixture into a flame that spins around the heat coils. Thermocouples (not pictured) control the duration of combustion to keep the heat in the combustion chamber at a constant temperature.
Water contained in the coils becomes super-heated steam (up to 1200°F) in as little as 5 seconds from start up which is (a) piped to the cylinders, (b) where it enters through a patent-pending valve system (not pictured). Note, valve timing mechanisms regulate how much steam enters the cylinders – the longer the cut-off the greater the torque and acceleration.
MECHANICAL PROCESS
- Steam enters the six radial-configured cylinders under pressures up to 3200 psi to push the pistons down in sequence. Note, no motor oil is used – water is both the working fluid and engine lubricant. Also, because of the valve design, the engine starts without the need of a starter motor.
The rotating action of the pistons connected through a patent-pending spider bearing (not pictured) turns the crank shaft. Note, because the greatest amount of torque occurs at the first rotation, the shaft can be directly connected to a drive train without a transmission.
COOLING PROCESS
- Steam escapes the cylinders through exhaust ports and (a) enters the patent-pending condensing unit where it turns back into water, and (b) collects in a sealed pan at the bottom of the condenser. Note, this is a closed-loop system – the water does not need to be replaced or topped-off.
Blowers spin fresh air around the condenser to speed the cooling process.
REGENERATIVE PROCESS
(a) Air which has been pre-heated from the condensing unit, (b) continues up to a second heat exchanger located in the exhaust port of the combustion chamber, further pre-heating the air used for combustion while also cooling the exhaust fumes (to about 320°F).
A high pressure pump (not pictured) pipes water from the collecting pan to the heat coils (a) via heat exchangers surrounding each of the cylinders (only one pictured), and then (b) to the center of the coils to start the heat cycle again.
Rather than relying entirely on large centralized power plants, distributed generation can produce electricity closer to where people actually use it.
Great Wall also explored using the technology alongside biochar production and environmental remediation equipment.
As a result, one system potentially could create useful energy while also supporting projects designed to address contaminated soil or water.
Why Biomass Power Mattered
Biomass offered another potential advantage.
Agricultural waste, plant material and other organic resources can become energy feedstocks instead of simply becoming waste.
Therefore, rural areas with access to biomass resources could potentially produce some of their own electricity.
Great Wall believed China represented a significant opportunity for these types of distributed power systems.
The company expected environmental cleanup projects and rural energy development to help create demand.
How the Cyclone Engine Works
Cyclone developed what it described as a heat-regenerative external combustion engine based on the Rankine cycle.
Unlike a conventional gasoline or diesel engine, combustion does not occur directly inside the cylinders.
Instead, an outside heat source heats water in a closed-loop system.
That heat converts the water into high-pressure steam.
The steam then drives pistons, creating mechanical power.
Afterward, the system cools the steam and converts it back into water. The water then circulates through the system again.
This closed-loop design formed one of the central concepts behind Cyclone’s technology.
External Combustion Creates Fuel Flexibility
Because the heat source sits outside the engine’s primary mechanical components, an external-combustion design can potentially use several types of heat or fuel.
That flexibility made the technology especially interesting for biomass and waste-energy applications.
Rather than designing an engine around only gasoline or diesel, developers could potentially generate heat from renewable or waste-derived fuels.
The WHE-25 was one of Cyclone’s smaller engines. Great Wall also planned to explore larger Cyclone engines, including the Mark V, after completing the early prototype work.
A Larger Push Toward Distributed Energy
Cyclone’s China project reflected a much broader clean-energy trend.
Countries were beginning to look beyond massive centralized generating stations and explore smaller energy systems capable of operating closer to homes, farms and businesses.
Biomass, combined heat and power, waste heat recovery and distributed generation all fit within that emerging model.
Cyclone’s regulatory filings from the period also confirmed that Great Wall held rights to develop a production version of the company’s biomass-to-power generator system in China. The agreement also covered development of the larger Mark V engine for electricity generation. (SEC)
The Green Living Guy Take
The most interesting part of this project was not simply the engine.
It was the idea behind it.
Energy systems do not always need to depend on one massive power plant and one fuel source. Smaller systems can turn locally available resources into useful electricity and heat.
Biomass power can also create opportunities to use agricultural and organic waste more productively.
However, prototype development is only one stage of commercialization. Engineers still need to demonstrate reliability, efficiency, cost effectiveness and long-term performance before any emerging energy technology can compete at scale.
Still, the Great Wall and Cyclone partnership represented an ambitious attempt to combine distributed power, biomass energy and external-combustion engine technology.
In 2011, that made it an interesting experiment in what a more decentralized energy future could look like.
