GB2528830A - An application of a convergent and/or convergent-divergent nozzle for increasing the pressure of a working fluid - Google Patents

Abstract

Accelerating nozzles (convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles) are used in steam power plant or other plant such as Organic Rankine Cycles, and are claimed to increase fluid pressure. The nozzles may be placed at the outlet from a turbine, where it is claimed the steam can be re-pressurised without condensation of the exhausted steam, and without requiring any energy. The nozzles may be used in conjunction with a mechanical compressor such as a wobble plate compressor. The nozzles may also be used to accelerate steam at the entry to a turbine or cylinder. The invention is said to improve the thermal efficiency of simple-cycle and combined-cycle power generation plants.

Description

Intellectual Property Office Application No. GB1409503.8 RTTVI Date:30 November 2015 The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document: Teflon (page 7) Siemens (page 13, 14) Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.gov.uk/ipo

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

In this patent document and within the scope of this invention the term "convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles and similar shaped stmctures" will be abbreviated to "nozzles" or "nozzle technology" wherever it is deemed appropriate.

The convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles can convert enthalpy of compressible fluids i.e. vapour and gas into forward motion and hence higher pressures and thrust power. This invention is a method based on a convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle or similar shaped form for converting lower-pressure steam to higher-pressure steam.

Enthalpy(h) measured in British thermal units per pound (mass) or BTU/lbm, represents the total energy content of steam, It expresses the internal energy and flow work, or the total potential energy and kinetic energy contained within a substance, The advantage of enthalpy is that we can express in one term aH the potential energy in a substance which is due to its pressure and temperature. Enthalpy values are used to represent the energy level of steam entering a steam engine or steam turbine, a value useful for determining the prime mover efficiency.

The process by which we convert water into steam and use the steam to turn a shaft encompasses the generation and expansion phases of the steam cycle. A study of the properties of water and steam at these critical phases is necessary to understand and improve the steam cycle. Our investigation of the aforementioned steam cycle has lead to the development of this nozzle technology and an advanced WATT-J3 Steam Cycle for super-efficient power generation which transcends the limitation of the Ranicine Cycle and the new processes are outlined within the scope of this invention!patent document.

The said nozzles are fitted to a compressor machine which facilitates this conversion thereby improving the compressor operation, steam bar pressure output and overall efficiency. This invention represents a method to provide a steam pressure improvement nozzle. Pressure may be understood as the ratio of force applied per area covered, The pressure is the same in all directions in a fluid at a given point. This is true because of the characteristics of liquids and gases to take the shape of their container.

This invention is intended to use a very specific property of convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles, which is the conversion of internal heat of fluids flowing through the nozzle into motion.

Thus increasing both efficiency and output of power generation processes and also decreasing power consumption in compressing fluids to higher pressure and thus producing high pressure fluids including steam from various industrial and other purposes via this nozzle technology process can be achieved, When a fluid passes through a convergent and/or convergent-divergent nozzle, its speed increases as the cross-sectional area decreases and the increase in speed is directly proportional to the decrease in cross-sectional area inside the nozzles. However, this increase in speed in the fluid actually comes at the price of its internal heat and thus when throftled through the throat of the nozzles, a part of the internal heat of the fluid can be converted into forward motion and hence higher dynamic pressure.

By superheating steam, we can add enthalpy to steam without raising the pressure of the steam which is an advantage prior to steam entering the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle for increasing the steam pressure. The description outlined in this and the previous three paragraphs is a good basic summary and description of the scientific principle behind this invention for increasing steam pressure for power generation and herein this principle has been used for the purposes stated.

Dynamic pressure from the nozzle technology is directed towards one specific direction and unlike static pressure which exerts the same pressure in all directions. Convergent-divergent nozzles are used in this steam nozzle technology when the velocity at the throat is supersonic and a convergent nozzle is used when the velocity at the throat is subsonic.

The general rule of thumb is that by superheating steam, we can add enthalpy to steam without raising the pressure of the steam. The nozzle technology reverses that process whereby exhaust steam or any other pressurised steam is increased to an even higher pressure steam by superheating the steam prior to exiting the nozzle.

The laws of thermodynamics summarize the properties of energy and its transformation from one form to another, Thermodynamics is not only about steam processes and steam engines although the concepts did indeed emerge during the 19th century when steam was the prevalent topic of the day. The first two laws introduce two familiar properties, that of temperature and energy. The second law is one of the all-time great laws of science, for it illuminates why anything, from the cooling of hot matter or the flow of pressuri sed steam to even the formation of a thought, happens at all.

The scope of this invention is firmly embedded in the laws of thermodynamics and represents a unique breakthrough for steam and steam-related processes as they are applied to operate steam engines and steam turbines, although turbines are the present prime movers and workhorses of industry The thermodynamic processes elucidated within this nozzle technology reintroduces steam power generation for the 21 Century and transforms the humble steam engine electrical generator of yesterday into the most efficient prime mover in the world. An electrical generator is any electro-mechanical device that converts mechanical energy (typically a spinning shaft) into electrical energy (a current). The engine is the source of mechanical energy and the alternator is the device that converts rotational mechanical energy to AC electrical energy.

It can initially appear that this nozzle technology process actually violates Carnot's theorem, one of the very basic foundations of thermodynamics, but in reality it does not. Questions naturally arise as to how the efficiency and output of a steam power generation unit can be increased by simply incorporating a convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle without equally increasing both the temperature and pressure of the input gas/vapour, In order to understand how our nozzle technology increases steam pressures we need to ask: what is temperature? The effect of random motion of molecules of compressible fluids i.e. gas/vapour, Pressure too is the resulting effect of the collisions of gas/vapour molecules on the wall of the container, The nozzle will simply direct more and more molecules outwards towards the desired point i.e. the piston in the case of piston-cylinder based systems, Adding additional heat during the steam compressor's induction intake stroke of a piston compressor means the exhaust steam will exit the piston-compressor at a much higher pressure when the nozzles are incorporated.

In short, the nozzle simply reduces the "temperature" and "pressure" in the unwanted section and increase it in the necessary section.

The nozzles also help to reduce the power consumption by the compressor for a given pressure increase. The same can be said about pressure further increasing from any heat transfer within the working fluid by any additional heat source and/or the further heat rise within the working fluid as it exits the nozzle after the compression stroke. Therefore, what the nozzle does is increase temperature in the desired section by directing more and more molecules of the gas towards the desired point and thus Carnot's theorem or any laws of thermodynamics including the second law isn't violated by any means.

Our experiments prove that a convergent nozzle or similar kind of structure can certainly convert the internal heat part of enthalpy into forward motion. This inventive step is using that property of nozzles or similar shaped bodies to convert more heat of compressible fluids into forward motion.

By this, we will convert more internal enthalpy, including the internal heat of the compressible fluid into forward motion arid thus result in more output and power.

The internal enthalpy of air/gas/vapour can be converted into power and higher pressure using a convergent or convergent divergent nozzle. Pressure can be divided into two groups: static and dynamic. In reality, in a convergent nozzle, fluid goes from high pressure to a low pressure area and thus its static pressure increases. However, as the steams velocity increases, its dynamic pressure along the direction of motion decreases.

Nozzles speed up the steam by reducing the area for the steam to flow through and hence this "speed-up" is directly proportional to the reduction of area within the nozzle, The compressor/nozzle application means steam pressure moves in a specific direction, Static pressure is equally exerted in all direction while dynamic pressure is pointed towards a specific direction.

Backpressure is only ever an issues when the steam pressure is static however the nozzle process is dynamic pressure rather than static.

This nozzle technology will also increase the thrust of steam within a piston-power cylinder. If a nozzle of ratio 1,3 is used, 5 barg superheated steam from a boiler will generate the equivalent power output of approximately 2,85 times the steam pressure from the boiler as steam exits the nozzles striking the power-pistons and cylinder with a similar thmst-power of 14 barg steam force, enhancing the power output of the steam engine generator.

The nozzle technology in this invention can be set up to increase steam pressures from 50% to in excess of 1000%. A convergent-divergent nozzle with a ratio of 2 based on receiving higher degrees of superheated steam and, attached to a compressor machine, will increase the output-steam pressure by as much as t6 times, If the nozzle ratio is 1,2, then the steam pressure will increase by two times, The nozzles will further benefit a multiple-cylinder axial/wobble plate spider-arm powered piston steam engine which also incorporates internal piston-compressor cylinders, By way of example, a new fully tested lkWe up to l5kWe micro steam turbine has entered the market which would greatly benefit from our nozzle/compressor technology. This l5kWe micro turbine has inlet superheated steam conditions of 10-12 bar at 200-220 degrees Celsius. The steam consumption is 004kg/sec and the exhaust steam output is 0,1 bar absolute at 40 degrees Celsius.

The basic steam rate is 9.8kg/kWh (steam to electricity after rectification). The amount of embedded heat in 9.8kg steam is around 27MJ, while lkWh equals 3.6MJ. The design speed is 26,000RPM. Our nozzle technology can successfully raise the turbine's exhaust steam up to the required inlet steam pressures of around 10-12 bar, hence eliminating the exhaust steam condensation cycle. This process would raise the turbine's electrical efficiency from 13% up to a remarkable 39%. This I 5kWe micro steam steam turbine uses around 26,000-27,000Btu!kWh and with our nozzle/compressor technology incorporated the electrical heat rate would then be reduced to around 8,700Btu/kWh.

A convergent nozzle can be considered as a smoothly varying cross-sectional area duct which is used for accelerating a steady flowing fluid. The purpose of this nozzle is to convert the internal energy of the fluid into the kinetic form of energy A convergent-divergent nozzle is the type of nozzle which is a modification of the convergent type where there is a divergent section which acts as an accelerator for supersonic flow.

Steam nozzles are a special purpose convergent nozzle used in steam turbines for accelerating the steam at the expense of pressure. A flow nozzle is a device for the measurement of discharge.

The inventive step embodied within this patent represents a new function and process for convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles, Convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles essentially comprise a convergent section or passage which serves to accelerate the exhaust gas up to sonic velocities, The divergent section or divergent passage expands the exhaust gas to supersonic velocity The throat area, being the minimum cross-sectional area in the nozzle, will determine the mass flow rate of the working fluid passing through the exhaust nozzle at a given pressure ratio across the throat at a given temperature.

The critical pressure ratio is the maximum pressure ratio that can be attained across the throat portion of the nozzle, The critical pressure ratio is achieved when the velocity of the working fluid passing through the nozzle is at the local velocity of sound, This occurs at a pressure ratio of approximately.89. Any further increase in pressure of a working fluid merely results in expansion of the fluid downstream of the throat to ambient or atmospheric pressure, the pressure ratio across the throat remaining at the critical level.

Thus any increase in the pressure of the working fluid down of the throat produces little further increase in the amount of useful energy in the form of thrust towards the pistons from the working fluid unless the divergent section is provided. The convergent-divergent nozzle thus can provide a maximum amount of useful thrust from the complete expansion of the working fluid in the nozzle from a pressure ratio greater than critical to ambient.

The basic process behind steam power generation is the Rankine Cycle which is the preferred process for taking advantage of this nozzle technology. Water is heated until it is a saturated liquid.

From there it is compressed into steam, The steam is transferred to a turbine where the steam pressure is reduced (usually to sub-atmospheric pressures) by expansion over the turbine blades, This process produces electricity. The low pressure steam is condensed back to a liquid. The water, now referred to as return water, is mixed th new water, referred to as feedwater, and pumped back to the boiler. A steam engine also operates under the Rankine Cycle.

Convergent or convergent divergent nozzles, attached to a steam engines power-piston cylinders and internal piston-compressor cylinders and/or an external stand-alone compressor, will further raise the power output and exhausted steam pressure. Hence the complete steam engine power plant system will be abbreviated to the WATT-J2 Steam Engine Generator and Boiler Plant or, to WATT-J2 System. This WATT-J2 System means specifically, a steam engine operating with a spider-arm axial wobble plate mechanism, containing a multiple of power-piston cylinders and compression-piston cylinders attached to the wobble plate mechanism operating with said nozzles attached to power-pistons and compression-pistons. The power-piston of the WATT-J2 System can be single or double-acting power-piston cylinders.

When the WATT-J2 System exhaust steam is further superheated as it exits the power-cylinders and additionally heated during the piston-compressors induction stroke, it can be converted to higher output steam pressure by the said nozzles as it exits the compressor(s). This unique nozzle process ultimately saves the latent heat of vaporisation and the sensible heat within the exhausted steam for improved thermal efficiency of the boiler plant and steam engine generator. This higher pressure steam can be injected into the boiler/steam accumulator for again powering said steam engine generator.

This new nozzle technology for improving the Rankine Cycle means the exhaust steam is not condensed-to-water in the conventional sense and hence the dramatic increase in the system thermal efficiency. Our new process using nozzles and a compression machine has created a new super-efficient steam power generation cycle called the "WATT-J3 Steam Cycle". This is a closed-loop steam cycle which does not specifically require a phase change of the exhaust steam to condensed water.

During the industrial revolution, the steam engine became the dominant source of power and remained so into the early decades of the 20th Century, when advances in the design of the electric motor and the internal combustion engine resulted in the rapid replacement of the steam engine by these technologies. However, the steam turbine, an alternative form of steam engine, has become the most common method by which electrical power generators are driven. This novel WATT-J2 System and WATT-J3 Steam Cycle will form the basis of a new wave of advanced steam technologies for 2 t' Century power generation.

In the 2Qth Century, the steam turbines replaced the steam engine and became the most powerful electric power generators available, accounting for more than 50% of the worlds installed power generation capacity. Advances in development of new heat-resistant high chromium-percentage ferritic-class steels enabled steam turbines to reach elevated steam temperatures without resorting to austeritic steels. One of the best examples is Siemens steam turbine generator which produced an electrical efficiency of 48.5% at steam conditions of 3,86Opsi and 1,013/1,078F temperatures.

Our nozzle application, when incorporated within specific steam engine or turbine generator, creates a true closed-loop steam cycle' thereby producing the most efficient prime mover in the world for simple-cycle electrical power generation. This solution for improved thermal and electrical efficiency removes the need exclusively for supercritical steam processes for thrther incremental garns in efficiency.

The efficiency of our 20/2000kWe WATT-J2 System, incorporating our said nozzles will exceed the above 48.5% Siemens steam turbine generator, reaching a 70-75% electrical efficiency This is a clear application of the uniqueness of this nozzle technology invention. Specific heat of steam at 164 degrees Celsius (7 bar) is approximately 0.5 cal/gm/C and one pound of steam is approximately 453 grams. Therefore, it requires around 266 calories for every degree Celsius increase of superheating of steam and one Btu is equal to 252.164 calories. This superheated steam is transformed as it exit the nozzle, The very high thermal and electrical efficiency is only possible because the nozzle technology operates with superheated steam and the superheated exhaust steam converts the enthalpy to a higher pressure steam. The input steam pressure to operate the WATT-J2 System can be 7 bar steam, Generally a simple-cycle power plant has a high cost of power due to the higher heat rate and hence the price volatility of natural gas or heavy fuel oil can influence investment opportunities, Therefore, when evaluating a power plant, an important first step is to calculate its variable costs.

The variable costs for a fossil-based power plant includes its fuel and variable operating and maintenance costs. Fuel cost is priced in $/TvllvlBtu and is translated into an energy cost priced in Btu/kWh, and the lower the number, the more efficient the power plant, A typical natural gas combined-cycle power plant will have a heat rate of 7,200Btu/kWh, while a simple-cycle gas plant will have a heat rate of I 0,000Btu/kWh to II,000kWh, and a coal plant will have a heat rate from 8,800Btu/kWh to 13,000Btu/kWh depending on the heat rate and coal quality, Variable operating and maintenance costs typically include chemicals, consumables and costs related to hours of plant maintenance. Hence low cost natural gas-fired power plants operating with gas turbines are generally considered as the best in-the-money-options.

There has, of course, also been a dramatic efficiency improvement in gas-powered plants since 2000. The average heat rate for natural gas powered plants has reduced from over 10,000Btu per kilowatt to around 8,1 8OBtu per kilowatt in 2013 which has had a knock on effect for improving combined-cycle efficiency.

This improved efficiency over the past 15 years indicates the enormous global investment in research and development for turbine generators which translates into increasing power plant efficiencies. The WATT-J2 System represents a greater efficiency improvement for both simple-cycle and optional combined-cycle power generation on a like-for-like basis compared to present gas and steam turbine technologies, This is significant considering the billions of dollars invested in turbine research and development, What is combined-cycle: one power source fuelled by natural gas and another fuelled by waste heat from burning the gas. The heat from the turbines exhaust is captured and used as boiler friel to heat steam that turns another turbine to generate electricity. Combined-cycle plants in some cases are able to reach efficiency rates of 80% although heat rates under 6,000Btu/kWh are still the exception to the rule, Below are average heat rates by prime movers and fuel: Steam turbines: 10,150 (coal), 10,420 (natural gas) & 10,460 (nuclear).

Gas Turbines: 11,590 (natural gas).

Internal Combustion: 9,900 (natural gas heat rate).

Combined-Cycle: 7,620 (natural gas heat rate).

Power generation lubricates the wheels of industry and often a new power plant can be judged as a non-viable option because of rising constmction costs and fuel volatility. The spark spread is a common metric for estimating the profitability of natural gas-fired electric generators. The spark spread is the difference between the price received by a generator for electricity produced and the cost of natural gas needed to produce that electricity. It is typically calculated using daily spot prices for natural gas and power at various regional trading points. Spark spreads tend to be fairly volatile, more so than crack spreads in petroleum markets, largely because of the volatility of wholesale electric power prices, which vary widely with changes in demand.

The limitation of the spark spread calculation is that the does not take into consideration other costs associated with the generation of electricity, such as pipeline costs or fuel-related finance charges, and other variable costs like O&M costs, taxes, or fixed expenses. In that sense, a spark spread is an indicator of market conditions, but not necessarily an exact measure of profitability for any one specific generator.

For example, the variable cost of power at $32.35/MWh (megawatt-hour) is the addition of the fuel costs of $29.S2MWh, and the variable operation and maintenance costs of $2,83/MWh. The aforementioned calculation is a simple analysis that does not include the cost of any emission allowance that will be required. If the forward price for power were $50/TvIWh, it would make sense to instigate and build this power plant since it would make a profit of $15,65MWh, However, if natural gas prices were over $6/MMBtu the above power plant could be considered an inviable option.

However, a steam circuit benefiting from our nozzle application for powering a WATT-J2 System would always be an in-the-money-option regardless of volatility of natural gas prices due to our fuel flexibility and our heat rate can be dramatically reduced and therefore the cost savings are very significant. The WATT-J2 System offers real fuel security and is especially advantageous for operation with solar concentrator projects.

A further advantage is that the WATT-J2 System power plant can be set up to operate on renewable friel. Thermochemical gasification is a promising technology that can exploit the embedded energy in various types of biomass and convert to valuable products suitable for different industrial processes. Dr Scott Cramton is leading the world in the development of a new super-efficient dual gasificationlpyrolysis technology. His technological innovation along with his new biomass torrefaction process represents a perfect match for the WATT-J2 System for a renewable fuelled power plant. This 2-ton per hour feedstock gasifier is capable of converting coal and/or torrefied wood pellets at approximately S2MIVlIBtu per hour, to both biodiesel (145,000Btu/galUS) and synthesis gas with a calorific value of 3OMJ/Nm3.

By applying our nozzles to a steam engine or turbine generator as part of the steam compression cycle, the simple-cycle efficiency of a steam engine can exceed combined-cycle efficient and heat rate from 6,200 to 7,200Btu/kWh, Therefore, this innovative step of applying nozzles to the steam circuit will change the landscape for power generation and our combined-cycle operation with the WATT-J2 System means a heat rate under 6,000Btu/kWh with said nozzles integrated within the steam power plant. Combined-cycle efficiency with a small I 5OkWe steam turbine and our WATT-J2 System will exceed the best heat rate possible for large 500MWe NGCC power plants. Small steam turbines (l5OkWe) can operate with 30 barg input superheated steam whilst generating exhaust steam at 5.5 barg. This exhaust steam is more that sufficient to power the WATT-J'2 system for combined-cycle micro power generation and then the exhaust steam from the WATT-J2 System can be increased to 3] barg for again powering the steam turbine.

The best simple-cycle efficiency available on the market for other prime movers for power generation is around 42-48%. This yields a typical net plant heat rate of around 7,000Btu/kWh to 8,000Btu/kWh, Our nozzle technology will convert the WATT-J2 System steam engine to combined-cycle heat rates at simple-cycle plant costs.

Both cycles are based on recovering and utilizing waste energy in the exhaust to improve perfonnance. The WATT-J2 Steam Cycle differs in that the energy within the exhaust steam expelled by the power-pistons is injected into the internal piston compressors in order to raise the exhaust steam pressures slightly higher than the steam pressure used for powering the steam engines power-piston cylinders. The nozzles therefore facilitate an advancement in the prior art, generating the highest thermal efficiency improvement presently achievable for piston steam engine generators.

The WATT-J2 System can operate based on incorporating our nozzles with a minimum of two piston-power cylinders and two piston-compressor cylinders and up to twelve of each attached to a spider-arm wobble plate mechanism. The power-nozzle also concentrates the frill velocity on the power-piston cylinders thus increasing the steam pressure in the desired direction and the "thrust power" itself represents the increased dynamic steam pressure. This represents an advancement of

the prior art for wobble plate steam engines.

Steam at atmospheric pressure is of limited practical use because it cannot be conveyed under its own pressure along a pipe to the point of use. Therefore, steam pressure must be increased in order to produce work, Low-to-medium pressure steam can also benefit from a steam compression machine, A single or multiple-cylinder mechanical steam compressor is the conventional machine of choice for increasing steam pressure up to at least 60 baL By incorporating our nozzle technology, the steam output from a compressor can easily exceed the above 60 bar figure.

At atmospheric pressure (0 barg, absolute I bar), water boils at 100 degrees Celsius, and 415.5IKJ of energy are required to heat 1kg of water from zero degrees Celsius to its evaporating temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. Another 2257,92KJ of energy is required to evaporate 1kg of water at]00 degrees Celsius into 1kg of steam at 100 degrees Celsius. At zero barg (Absolute 1 bar), the specific enthalpy of evaporating is 2257.92KJ/KG. Therefore, any process that can very simply and efficiently increase the pressure of steam as low as Absolute 1 bar exhaust' steam or even sub-atmospheric steam and/or a nascent vapour, to power a steam engine, is advantageous.

if a nozzle is attached to the entry point of a compressor, part of the superheated steam will be converted to atomised-water which can equally be beneficial during the steam compression phase.

Furthermore, steam compressor machines can only increase the input steam pressures a few times, whereas convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles when attached to said compressors in our application, increase the output steam pressures many fold by comparison.

The application of said nozzles within this invention represents a perfect method by which a steam engine's power-pistons can create the rotary movement necessary to generate high power production at lower steam pressures from a boiler along with very low fuel cost by comparison to any other steam engine generator.

An axial steam engine has multiple cylinders arranged around and parallel to a central shaft. The piston thrust is usually converted to rotary motion by a swashplate, wobble plate or Z-crank mechanism, A wobble plate mechanism does not go round; it is mounted on a Z-shaped crankshaft or spider-arm wobble plate mechanism by a bearing. It is articulated to the connecting rods by ball-joints, and clearly if it did go round it would tie these rods in knots. It does not need to be a plate as such, but can be more of a spider-arm type mechanism as in figure 5.

This type of design must be engineered with solutions such that the wobble-spider and crankshaft do not cause rotation of the spider which would upset its alignment with the pistons. There are various sophisticated methods for stabilisation of the wobbler. One such simpler method is an arm moving in a channel to constrain the movement of the wobbler. This is the preferred embodiment for our nozzle application. An additional advancement of ours for this wobble plate steam engine will require a further patent and hence it will not be disclosed within this application.

A swashplate mechanism is a different design for a steam engine compared to a wobble-spider plate mechanism. A swashplate is rigidly fixed to the crankshaft and goes round with it as a unit, Therefore, the connecting rods are not fixed to the plate in any way, but push on it with rollers or slip pads that can glide over the surface of the plate as it turns. Two rollers are needed, one each side of the swashplate, so it can both pull and push on the pistons. This is also an exceptional steam engine for our nozzles and requires an external compressor.

A variation of the swashplate engine is the cam-plate engine, in which the plate is not flat, but is given a sinusoidal contour. The pistons can be made to move back and forth twice or more during one rotation of the main shaft, giving more firing strokes and potentially increasing the power output of an engine of a give size, This is equally an exceptional steam engine for our nozzles and requires an external compressor.

The engine mechanisms described above are a few examples of engine designs that can be improved with our nozzle based system where steam is the motive force for powering the engines.

Any piston steam engine simply uses steam to drive a generator which produces electricity. Steam engines create rotary motion to produce electricity and the boiler plant generates the steam which is the driving motive force for power output by the steam engine generator. There is a limit to the number of revolutions per minute a steam-driven piston can provide and hence the main modern day prime mover is now the steam turbine. However, based on present day steam engines, this prime mover of old still remains very inefficient compared to large modem steam turbines, Our nozzle steam compression technology transforms the steam engine of yesterday.

Historically, steam turbines have been the primary cogeneration technology, providing mechanical and electrical power and steam for a variety of industrial processes. Mechanical energy is converted to electricity by turning a generator rotor attached to a turbine. The steam, which leaves the turbine at reduced pressure and temperatures (300-700F) can be used for many processes.

Steam turbines are applied in power generation as well as cogeneration.

Most cogeneration systems can be described either as "topping" systems or "bottoming" systems.

In a topping system -the most common cogeneration mode -electricity is produced first. The thermal energy that is exhausted is captured and used for such purposes as industrial processes, space heating and cooling, water heating, or even producing more electricity, Topping systems would be used in residential/commercial and most industrial applications.

In the bottoming system, high temperature thermal energy is produced first for applications such as steel reheat furnaces, glass kilns, or aluminium-remelt furnaces, Heat is extracted from the hot exhaust waste stream and transferred to a working fluid (water) generally through a waste heat recovery boiler, The fluid is vaporised and used to drive a turbine (Rankine Cycle) to produce electrical energy. Bottoming cycles are used mostly in industries where high-temperature waste heat is available and thus are limited to a few industrial processes. Furthennore, they tend to have a higher capital cost than topping systems.

Either of the above systems will benefit from applying the nozzles described in this application for greater overall efficiency, A steam generating system is simply a system in which the prime movers driving the electrical generators are operated by steam which supplies the motive force to a steam engines power-pistons or superheated steam in order to spin a turbine. A characteristic and embodiment of this invention is that a convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles can be installed to a compressor machine within the full steam circuit to facility greater efficiency, energy savings and reduction in all emissions from the steam generating plant, In a carbon constrained economy, this nozzle invention is further advantageous for saving fue' and reducing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

The inefficiency of the piston steam engine of yesterday is fully addressed by attaching our nozzles to an external steam compressor or integrating internal compressor-pistons with attached nozzles within a steam engine using a spider-arm wobble plate mechanism, such as depicted in fig 5, This nozzle invention clearly facilitates the rebirth of the old piston steam engine generator to achieve an electrical and thermal efficiency of between 70-75%, Specific heat of saturated steam at 151 degrees Celsius or 5 bar, if operating the WATT-J2 System, is approximately 0.5 cal/gm/C and one pound of steam is approximately 453grams. Therefore, its around 266 calories for every degree Celsius increase of superheating of steam and one Btu is equal to 252,164 calories, This is a considerable Btu reduction compared to the Rankine Cycle whereby there is a phase change of the exhaust steam to condensed water with a toss of approximately 97OBtu/lb steam within the power generation steam cycle. Hence the WATT-J3 Steam Cycle is an advance of the Rankine Cycle for power generation, There are also further losses in the boiler plant that can be avoided when operating the WATT-J2 System and WATT-J3 Steam Cycle.

The above 70-75% thermal and electrical efficiency exceeds the simple-cycle efficiency of any commercially available steam turbine or steam engine in the world, including the world-renowned Wartsila diesel engine electrical generator. Piston steam engines can now be tuned and using our nozzle/compressor technology it will outperform the 50% electrical efficient Wartsila diesel engine generator.

For over 300 years, reciprocating piston steam engines have used the action of saturated steam to move a series of pistons within a sealed chamber. This action of the piston is then translated by a mechanical linkage into rotary work or shaft power which is used to generate electricity from an alternator. James Watt's critical insight resulted in a 75% fuel saving by altering the steam engine design such that the steam was diverted to condense in a separate chamber rather than within the piston itself This original innovative step by James Watt meant the steam engine piston itself could maintain the same temperature as the injected steam by thermally insulating the pistons with a steam jacket.

However, the latent heat of vaporisation of the steam was still lost during every piston exhaust stroke and therefore the steam still required condensing to water. Saturated steam contains around I 8OBtu/lb as sensible heat and approximately 97OBtu/lb as the latent heat of vaporisation. James Watt did not attempt to salvage the latent heat of vaporisation which would have dramatically improved the steam engine thermal efficiency. Our novel inventive step of using nozzles' for super-efficient exhaust steam compression from a piston steam engine generator represents a giant leap forward in modem steam engine efficiency, similar in magnitude to the increased efficiency of the original steam engine based on the insight of James Waft.

A 500/1000kW wobble plate piston steam engine will operate on steam pressures ranging from 4-20 barg. At 7 barg (Absolute 8 bar) the saturation temperature of water is 170.42 degrees Celsius and this medium pressure steam is more than sufficient to operate an axial (wobble plate) piston steam engine. In the double-acting design of the axial piston, power occurs on both sides of the piston during both the advancing and retreating stroke. In our case, the steam will be introduced, via a convergent or convergent divergent nozzle to a piston-cylinder steam engine based power/electricity generation system so that the steam will hit the piston with more momentum thus increasing both the RPM and also the power/electricity output of the engine.

The best way of fitting the nozzles would be directing them towards the power pistons. When pointing the nozzles directly towards the pistons means the steam will move the pistons by directly pushing them. However, the nozzles can be fitted any other way because the molecules of steam will still move the pistons. Depending on the material of construction., some heat/energy may be lost as heat through the wails of the cylinder. Therefore, side injection of steam into the pistons power cylinders would lose some of the gain from the thrust of the steam via the nozzles, By compressing the exhaust steam after exiting the power-pistons and re-injecting the higher pressure steam output from our piston-compressors into the boiler plant with our nozzle application, the plant's overall electrical and thermal efficiency is dramatically improved.

Another advantage for our nozzle invention is when applied to superheated steam and heat pipe heat exchangers. The pressure of superheated steam remains constant until its high Degrees of Superheating has been reduced as superheated steam acts as an insulator. Heat exchangers operate under these principles and this is why superheated steam must reduce its higher temperatures during any heat exchange process in order to efficiently extract the steams latent heat of vaporisation for fast heat transfer, Another characteristic and embodiment of this innovation is that the nozzles carl be installed within the steam circuit or pipework prior to saturated or superheated steam entering a heat exchanger, thereby facilitating faster and more efficient heat transfer efficiency. Another embodiment of this invention is that whilst superheated steam acts as an insulator, our nozzle application converts this excess "heat" to higher steam pressure which is an advantage for heat transfer, specifically with super-efficient heat-pipe heat exchangers.

There is no known example of using these properties of the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles with heat pipe heat exchangers or specifically with steam engines to convert the enthalpy of compressible fluids to enhance electrical power generation or power consumption reduction in processes like compressing compressible fluids such as saturated steam or superheated steam. The compression ratio can theoretically be increased in excess of ten times depending on the nozzle ratio installed onto the steam compressor machine.

Compressors designed with dr3? self-lubricating materials, such as graphite or Teflon, produce oil-free both in line and at the exhaust. This effectively eliminates the presence of air/oil vapours in applications where even a very fine mist can cause contamination. Compression is accomplished by the reciprocating movement of a piston within a cylinder. The motion alternatively fills the cylinders and then compresses the steam. A connecting rod tnmsforms the rotary motion (of the crankshaft or spider-arm axial piston wobble plate mechanism) into reciprocating piston motion in the cylinders. Separate inlet of discharge valves react to variation in the pressure produced by the piston movement. Low and medium pressure saturated or superheated steam is an excellent medium for those type of compressors installed with our convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles from increased efficiency, higher output pressures as well as electrical or mechanical power reductions at a given specified pressure.

Generally, large steam piston compressors are expensive, work-absorbing, energy-hungry electrical devices which are used for increasing pressure of fluid at the expense or work done on fluid. Multi-stage compressors use inter-coolers, which are heat exchangers that remove the excess heat of compression. This process clearly indicates that superheating of the working fluid is an issue that our nozzle's innovative step resolves. Inter-cooling affects the overall efficiency of the compression machine, One method of improving the efficiency at higher compression ratios and speeds, is to go to multi-stage compression with cooling of the working fluid between each stage, however this incurs more complexity and costs for larger inlet steam flow. Our application of nozzles to these machines resolves the runaway heat of compression generated by these machines, reduces wastage and power consumed whilst enhancing the pressure output of the working fluid.

Steam compression for low to medium pressure steam typically requires 5% to 10% of the energy required to raise the equivalent amount of steam in a boiler, However, the steam pressures are limited and certainly not sufficient to re-inject the converted exhaust steam into a boiler for again powering a steam engine or turbine. However by using our nozzle technology and a compressor, the steam pressure can be raised sufficiently to again power a steam engine generator.

Our research and experimental proofs conclusively prove that by using convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles or similar nozzle shaped structures, more and more enthalpy of steam and gas can be converted into higher pressure steam compare to steam compressors alone, In general, in compression or closely related processes regarding compressible fluids, the power used by the compressor is added to the gross enthalpy of the compressible fluid increasing its pressure and temperature. This excess enthalpy is often wasted as the temperature of the compressed gas/vapour is usually very high and often requires water injection for cooling processes during the steam compression phase. In this case, excess heat will be released and lost plus the steam pressure will only be increase by two or three times maximum from a single compressor. Our inventive step resolves this issue by a simple means of using convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles. The superheated steam is converted by the nozzles to higher pressures and this resolves the problem in the prior art for all types of gas/vapour compressor systems.

External steam compressors or turbo blowers also inject water to reduce the higher temperature of the steam which is generated by steam compressors. However, using a nozzle or such kind of shaped structure, the internal enthalpy i.e. including the embedded heat energy of the compressible fluids, can be used to compress the fluid and thus ultimately increase thermal cycle efficiency whilst saving power/electricity generated by a boiler, steam accumulator, steam turbine or a piston steam engine generator. Therefore, in our case, by using convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles, no water injection is required to cool the runaway steam temperatures during the compression phase.

The convergent and convergent-divergent nozzle can be useful in other ways too. Instead of using high grade energy like electricity for compressing a fluid such as steam, the working fluid can simply be heated to higher temperatures and passed through convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles or similar structures, Any thermal source can be used with great fuel flexibility, including waste steam, infrared radiation, thermal oils, solar, etc. The additional heat then can be converted into higher pressure in the case of the compression of fluids by using convergent nozzles.

If the compressor is thermally insulated the internal temperatures will also increase significantly during the steam compression phase and this further benefits our nozzle applications. The convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles can also be installed at the entry point of the compressors. Generally compressors are limited and require the entry steam to be saturated steam with only a few degrees of superheating. Our novel nozzle process resolves this limitation.

Additional heating of the steam above its saturation temperature allows the higher steam pressures to be more stable as it exits the nozzles and less water will condense within the steam, It is not a factor whether a part of the steam ll be converted to water as it enters the nozzles, The enthalpy is conserved and heat is converted into pressure and it does not matter how much steam is converted into water when injected into a higher pressure vessel. At higher pressure, specific heat of water increases and the latent heat decreases, meaning the water can be vaporized with less heat.

This nozzle/compression process has led to the development of a lower cost super-efficient piston steam engine generator now called the WATT-J2 Steam Engine Generator, Superheaters add energy to steam, resulting in a steam temperature that exceeds the saturation temperature at a specific pressure, which is typically known as superheated steam, This type of superheated steam is the preferred choice for our nozzle applications. Superheaters can be convective or radiant, Radiative superheaters rely on the energy transferred directly from the combustion flame to increase the energy level of the steam, while convective superheaters rely on transfer of additional energy from the flue gases to steam. By superheating steam, we can add enthalpy to steam without raising the pressure of the steam. For example steam at 620 psig and 850F can do more work in a turbine than steam at 620 psig and 650F.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Nozzles, specifically the properties of a convergent and/or convergent-divergent nozzle, are extensively tested and theoretically researched. It is a well known fact that convergent nozzles are able to convert enthalpy of a compressible fluid i.e. vapour and gas into forward motion. It is also well known that when fluids are in motion, they have different pressures in different directions. The pressure along the direction of the movement will be greater while pressure perpendicular to the direction of motion will be less, This phenomenon is the basic science behind wings for flight, both biological and artificial, If the velocity of the fluid along the direction can be increased, then its pressure too will be increased in that direction. A convergent and/or convergent-divergent nozzle will convert a part of the enthalpy, including internal heat into forward motion and thus increase the pressure along the direction of motion without using any kind of Dower. In short, the internal energy of the vapour and/ or gas will be used to compress it to a higher pressure level and thus the high power consumption, so far necessary to compress the vapour or gas, can be reduced. And, at the same time, power output and efficiency of our WATT-J2 steam engine power/electricity generation systems can also be increased by incorporating these nozzles into the design. The nozzles allow the WATT-J2 System to operate at 63?/b electrical efficiency in power generation set-up. The WATT-J2 System can equally be designer to operate as a CHP system.

By salvaging the working fluids (steam) latent heat of vaporisation rather than condensing the steam for boiler feedwater, a considerable reduction in heat input or electrical energy is achieved for driving a steam engine or turbine generator. For example, when convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles or such kinds of structures are placed at the inlet of the power generation machinery, like a spider-arm wobble plate with attached piston power cylinder, or other similar technology, more of the working fluids internal enthalpy is converted into forward motion, leading to more RPM i.e. output and efficiency. So far, no such attempts have been made for such use of nozzles in either power/electricity generation or reducing power consumption in compressible fluid compression and enhancing the compression ratio at the steam outlet from a spider-arm wobble plate piston compressor system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG 1/1 represents the schematic diagram of a nozzle based system where the pressurized fluid i.e. steam/gas has been released through a nozzle or similar shaped structure into the power generation unit.

FIG i/iA represents a specialized version of the system depicted in FIG I/I, where the pressurized fluid has been released into a piston cylinder based system.

FIG 1/2 represents a schematic diagram of a nozzle based where the nozzle has been used to injectlrelease low pressure compressible fluid into higher pressure zone.

FIG 1/3 represents a schematic diagram of a convergent nozzle.

FIG 1/4 represents a schematic diagram of a convergent-divergent nozzle.

FIG 1/5 represents a diagram of a spider web wobble plate.

FIG 1/6 represents a schematic diagram of a process with convergent and/or convergent-divergent nozzles attached.

FIG 1/7 represents an outline of a convergent nozzle with inlet to throat ratio of t,3, FIG 1/8 represents an outline of a convergent-divergent nozzle with inlet to throat ratio 2 and the exit having the same radius as the inlet.

FIG t/9 represents a schematic diagram of a system where exhaust steam has been injected into a pressurized water vessel with the help of a nozzle and being used in WATT -J2 process.

FIG 1/10 represents a system of injecting 35 psi8 steam to higher pressure level at 760 psi8 by using a convergent-divergent nozzle.

FIG t/t 1 represents a system of power & steam co-generation using exhaust steam of a 10 MW steam turbine with WATT-J2 engines.

The following is a summary of figure 11, from the patent drawings: A steam boiler for raising 195,000lb/hour steam at óOOpsig & 385 degrees Celsius.

A 10MW Extraction-cum-non-condensing steam turbine driving an electrical generator.

Extraction steam mass flow rate of 110,000lb/hour and steam pressure at l9Opsig & 256 degrees Celsius.

Non-condensing steam mass flow rate of 85,000lb/hr and steam pressure at 3spsig & 144 degrees Celsius.

An optional thermocompressor for mixing both the extraction steam and the non-condensing steam for total steam output of S8psig steam at approximately 195,000lb/hour, A thermal heating device, specifically far infrared at maximum output of 800 deg Celsius or a thermal oil or higher pressure steam converted by heat exchangers to hot air for superheating the S8psig steam.

A series of convergent or convergent-nozzles for raising the S8psig steam pressure to between 100-ISOpsig, A water pressure thermal storage receiving vessel/steam accumulator containing pressurised water between 80-1 SOpsig for injection or bubbling of this 100-1 8Opsig compressed steam. The phase change from steam-water-steam is highly efficient with only a 2-3% loss. This steam can also be recycled for heating the low pressure steam as hot air via heat pipe heat exchangers.

A number of WATT-J2 at S00/l,000kWe for an additional lO-3OMWe output, representing the highest combined-cycle electrical output and electrical efficiency in the world.

The exhaust steam from WATT-J2 System is heated and compressed via nozzles and returned to feed the 80-l5Opsig pressure vessel. The pressure vessel is set at the required pressure for individual WATT-J2 Systems.

Additional option of extracting thermal energy from the pressure vessel for other process steam demands showing great flexibility.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle to raise steam pressure and increase electrical efficiency and power output of a piston steam engine, specifically a spider-arm wobble plate piston steam engine electrical generation system incorporating internal exhaust steam piston-compressors above or below the power-cylinders. The compressed steam can then be injected into the same pressure vessel/boiler which is used for powering this steam engine or WATT-il System.

This results in a decrease in power consumption and increased steam system efficiency without adding too much complexity in the boiler and steam power generation system. This WATT-J2 System can be used on almost all kinds of thermal based power generation systems irespective of the fuel used.

Accordingly, this present invention provides a means of achieving higher efficiency from processes without incorporating more complexity into the system. The simple nozzle, whether convergent or convergent-divergent or similar shaped structures, facilitates this high conversion efficiency. The nozzles will simply concentrate more power towards the desirable points and facilitate steam compression in the compression machine or piston-compressors so that without using more electrical power or burning greater volumes of fuel, the overall system efficiency is improved.

Nozzles attached to the exit point of the piston-compressors means the latent heat of vaporization at around 97OBtu/lb and the sensible heat of around l8OBtu/lb is conserved within the exhausted steam circuit, essentially forming a closed loop cycle back to the boiler plant or steam accumulator.

Application of the nozzles increase the power output of the system, compress exhaust steam to a higher pressure thereby conserving energy and dramatically increasing thermal efficiency. This application benefits processes such as the compression of compressible fluids for electrical power generation, combined heat and power Tn-generation arid solar applications using steam or hot air.

The following summary relates to convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles. An object is considered to be at a supersonic speed when it is travelling faster than the speed of sound of the medium it is flowing through (also known as the local speed of sound). This is directly correlated to Mach numbers, which measure the ratio of the velocity measured to the local speed of sound, Therefore, anything with a Mach number less than one is at subsonic speed, while a Mach number of one means it's travelling at sonic speed. At sonic speed, a shock wave is formed, as the sound waves cannot get away from the object and get crushed together. This is why a sonic boom is heard when an object at sonic or supersonic speeds pass by. Any Mach number greater than one means the object is moving at a supersonic speed. At this speed, the sound waves trail the moving object in what is called a cone of influence, A convergent-divergent nozzle will accelerate a gas to supersonic speeds. This is one of the more complex ideas that a convergent-divergent nozzle relies on. The most important thing to understand is that as a fluid travels through a tube or pipe, the density it is flowing at cannot be significantly changed. This means it is incompressible, and is the underlying idea behind a subsonic nozzle, Once the travelling fluid exceeds Mach 0.3, the effects of compressibility allow different things to happen, such as significant changes in temperature and pressure, changes in density, and shock waves.

Why do we need a convergent-divergent nozzle when we can continue to decrease area until supersonic flow is reached, Eventually, the mass flow rate through the smaller end of a nozzle will reach its maximum possible value, creating a bottleneck. When a nozzle reaches this point, it is considered to be choked, Unfortunately, a fluid cannot be accelerated to supersonic speeds in this way. In order to accelerate the mass further, the gas must be allowed to expand, decreasing the pressure and temperature rapidly. The local speed of sound relies on the temperature, and the exit speed of the gas out of the nozzle relies on the local speed of sound, so all of these aspects must be considered in the design of a nozzle meant to accelerate a gas to supersonic speeds.

There are a few very key components to designing an effective convergent-divergent nozzle, The first is what size to make the throat, the thinnest part of the nozzle. This is important because the size of the throat will determine how large the mass flow rate can get before the nozzle becomes choked. In this way, the size of the throat effectively sets the mass flow rate through the nozzle.

Next, the area of the exit is important because it will determine how much the fluid is allowed to expand. This expansion will then determine the Mach number of the exiting flow, It also determines the exit pressure, temperature, and velocity of fluid coming out. So in order to control how much mass is moving and how fast it moves, the ratio of the exit to the throat is the key design component.

Now that we know the underlying concepts and basic design of convergent-divergent nozzles, we can take a look at what actually happens. Following the mass flow rate equation, the converging section of the nozzle can accelerate the fluid until it becomes choked at the throat, due to the decrease in area, At the throat, the fluid is moving at Mach I. As it passes into the diverging section, it then is allowed to expand. This expansion at a high Mach number means the flow is compressible, and the density changes. Also, the temperature is decreased, which decreases the local speed of sound. The lower speed of sound gives the flow a higher Mach number, A higher Mach number leads to a shock wave in the nozzle, which increases the velocity of the fluid even frirther, All this leads to a very high velocity coming out the back of the convergent-divergent nozzle. This represents a simplified description of processes taking place within convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE

INVENTTON

The invention is an embodiment of power generation and compressible fluid compression system, where more output/power can be produced with the same temperature difference between the input and output of the power generation system; in addition compressible fluids can be compressed with less energy consumed up to the same level of compression. In this invention, this has been accomplished by using convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles or similar kind of structures.

The preferred embodiment of this invention is perfectly represented in the WATT-J2 System & WAfl-J3 Steam Cycle based on simple-cycle and combined-cycle power generation.

When nozzles are applied in the power generation system, the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle or similar kind of structure will be placed at the point where the input steam/gas will enter the piston-power cylinder of the steam engine generator. The exit of the nozzle shaped siructure will be pointed towards the flat surface of the piston facing the inside of the cylinder. What the nozzle will do is to direct the steam/gas flow towards the piston surface so that more and more hot steam/gas molecules will hit the surface and move more rapidly thereby generating increased RPM and greater kilowatt output and efficiency as an end result In the case of steam/gas compression, the nozzle shaped structure mentioned before has to be placed at the exit of the moving part of the compressor and/or at the entry of the pressurized chamber/section and should be attached to a compressoç piston-compressor cylinder of the WATT-J2 System. Therefore, nozzles can be applied to exit steam to further raise the dynamic steam pressure and also convert higher degrees of superheating of the steam to further increase the steam bar pressure in a specific direction.

Another potential application is for gasifiers or pyrolysis systems. For example, in a vacuum gasifiei, the flammable gas produced by gasification of a feedstock such as biomass pellets, plastics, tires or coal has to be released from the gasification chamber to normal atmospheric pressure by using a blower and/or mechanical compressor.

Again, the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle or such shaped structure has to be placed at the exit of the turbo blower and/or the compressor or both if used together in tandem. What the nozzles or such shaped structures do is to convert the random movement of the molecules of the gas/steam or compressible fluid into the forward motion of the molecules. Thus increasing the dynamic pressure and reducing power consumption in fluid compression.

Hence the pressure in the direction of the exit of the nozzle attached to a compressor or other such devices will be increased i.e. the molecules will enter the pressurized zone with more velocity and the velocity is a result of its own enthalpy, including the internal heat.

Instead of using high grade energy like electricity; simple low grade heat and the heat of the compressible fluid itself will be used to compress it to higher pressure, by incorporating convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles into the design the prior art for compressor designs, efficiency is increased and power output too. Also, if the nozzles are installed at the working fluids entry point to the compressors, then the working fluid can be superheatS to much higher temperatures which is not optional for standard compressors, such as steam compressors or turbo blowers. The aforementioned option further increases pressure output and hence nozzles can be installed on the entry and exit points on a compressor.

In cases of totally mechanical compression without nozzles, a part of the energy used by the compressor, depending on the efficiency of the compressor, is transferred to the compressed compressible fluid resulting in the increase in its temperature. Most often, the added energy raises the temperature of the compressible fluid to a much higher level than the surrounding and the hot compressed fluid losses this extra heat to the surroundings. But, in case of using nozzles, the fluids would be compressed but their temperature wouldn't be raised to the same level that will happen if everything was performed in a traditional way without nozzles incorporated. Instead, the internal energy of the system will be converted into pressure as the steam exits the compressor and nozzle.

Furthermore, water is often injected during the steam compression stage to cool the high degrees of superheated steam which ultimately has a thermal cost and this is not required if the nozzles are installed at bother the steam entry to the compressor system and the exit point of the compressor.

However, in case of using nozzles, the fluids would be compressed but their temperature wouldn't be raised to the same level that will happen if everything was performed in a traditional way without nozzles incorporated. Instead, the internal energy of the system will be converted into higher pressure as the steam exits the compressor and nozzle.. Furthermore, water is often injected during the steam compression stage to cool the high degrees of superheated steam which ultimately has a thermal cost and this is not required if the nozzles are installed at both the steam entry to the compressor system and the exit point of the compressor.

The basic thermodynamics: Those skilled in the art know about the Helmholtz's equation about enthalpy of a compressible fluid: H = U+PV 1-1= Gross enthalpy of the compressible fluid U Internal energy of the compressible fluid due to motion of molecules P = Pressure of the compressible fluid V= Volume of the compressible fluid Now, the general formula of increase in velocity in case of use of a convergent nozzle is given below.

V1_ A2 V2 Ai Whereas, Vi and V2 are the velocity of the gas inside the tube and the nozzle mouth respectively and Al, A2 are the cross sectional area of tube and nozzle mouth respectively. This formula can also be found by searching google with "convergent nozzle", In short, the above formula can be written in simple form like V a 1/A.

Now, in case of pressure of the flowing fluid, we can change the above-mentioned formula of pressure of a gas into like this formula below.

p =4-mnv2 Whereas, the other symbols have the same meaning as before but V represents the velocity of the gas and the P represent the pressure of the flowing gas in the direction of the flow, As the gas itself has a velocity, therefore we can conclude that the average velocity of the particles of the gas is the velocity of the gas itself Thus we can conclude from the above formula that: (\j 2(A2)2c2)4 Whereas, RI and Ri are the radii of the tube and the nozzle mouth respectively. From the above formula, we can calculate that if the ratio of tube radius and nozzle mouth radius is 3: 1, the pressure at the nozzle mouth is 81 times that of the pressure inside the tubes. That means, if the vapour pressure inside the tubes is just 3,25 bars, then it would be more than 263 bars at the nozzle mouth and this pressure is sufficient to rotate a conventional turbine used in conventional thermal power plants.

When a convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle or similar shaped structure is used, that will lessen the U part of the fluid and increase the PV part of the system. Thus, H remains unaltered with no violation of I law of thermodynamics occurred. What happened is the change in proportion of the components of H. In the traditional method, the condition would be the same as said above. The extra energy being released into the suroundings or converting to higher degrees of superheated steam in the case where the working fluid is steam, However, some energy has been unnecessarily wasted in conventional compressor and electrical compressors are very power hungry' and wasteftil of energy usage. The nozzle reduces the wastage.

It also has another advantage over the traditional compression method, If in this convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle compression process, the steam has been superheated to a higher temperature at a certain pressure level, then the compression process can increase the pressure of the steam using much tess energy/power which is an advantage; even more so when noz±les are installed on the entry and exit points of the compressors. What the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle or nozzle shaped structure will do is to convert the excess enthalpy into higher pressure. Such superheating is necessary to prevent steam condensation which will cause unnecessary problems in power generation. By superheating steam, sufficient energy has been transferred to the steam so that it will remain in a vapour stage even in higher pressures generated by the nozzles, FIG i/I represents the schematic diagram of a nozzle based system where the pressurized fluid i.e. steam/gas has been released through a nozzle or similar shaped structure into the power generation unit. The power generation unit may be of any kind like a piston cylinder based system, spider arm wobble plate piston steam engine and with or without internal piston-compressor cylinders attached above or below the power-cylinders, or a turbine, a turbine Nower, mechanical vapour recompressor etc. However in almost all cases, the nozzles can function in the same manner described above and thus enhance power generation and increase the overall efficiency as a result.

Though in the figure, the nozzle shaped structure looks like a convergent nozzle, it can be both a convergent and/or a convergent-divergent nozzle.

FIG 1/lA represents a specialized version of the system depicted in FIG 1/1, where the pressurized fluid has been released into a piston cylinder based system. The nozzle shaped structure will concentrate more and more hot pressurized fluid towards the inside facing end of the piston and thus the fluid will push the piston with more force and thus increasing the RPTvI and output efficiency as a result. Though in the figure, the nozzle shaped structure looks like a convergent nozzle, in reality it call be both a convergent and/or a convergent-divergent nozzle.

FIG 1/2 represents a schematic diagram of a nozzle based where the nozzle has been used to injectlrelease low pressure compressible fluid into higher pressure zone, What the nozzle shaped structure will do is to convert more and more enthalpy including the internal heat energy of the fluid into forward motion, Though in the figure, the nozzle shaped structure looks like a convergent nozzle, it can be both a convergent and/or a convergent-divergent nozzle.

FIG 1/3 represents a schematic diagram of a convergent nozzle.

FIG 1/4 represents a schematic diagram of a convergent-divergent nozzle.

FIG /5 represents a diagram of a wobble plate spider-arm piston-power cylinder and/or piston-compressor. That compressor will be attached to the steam engine and will compress the exhaust steam for re-injection into the boiler for reheating and reuse.

FIG 1/6 represents a schematic diagram of a system in which nozzles are used in a novel way for power generation, In this process, whose schematic diagram has been shown, steam is used in close loop so that the latent heat of vaporization of the steam can be conserved. Additional heat sources are used for heating steam from Steam Accumulator/Boiler to the engine so that this additional heat can be converted into power and leading to extra efficiency. The exhaust is also heated so that this heat can be converted into pressure with help of the nozzle attached to the compressor, FIG 1/7 represents an outline of a convergent nozzle having inlet to throat ratio 1,3 i,e, the radius at the inlet is 1,3 times that of the radius at the throat, That means dynamic pressure at the throat will be (1.3) i.e. nearly about 2.9 times that of the inlet pressure. By this way, the convergent nozzle will help in increasing efficiency and reducing power consumption during compression.

FIG 1/8 represents an outline of a convergent-divergent nozzle having inlet to throat ratio of 2 i.e. the inlet radius is twice that of the throat and therefore the dynamic pressure at the throat is 2 i.e. 16 times that of the inlet pressure. The exit has the same radius as that of the inlet. This nozzle has all the advantages of the convergent nozzle depicted in Fig 1/7 and one in additional. This nozzle wouldn't choke i.e. the flow wouldn't stop while in the convergent nozzle, there are chances that it will choke if the velocity of the fluid at the throat exceeds that of the velocity of sound in the condition of the throat i,e, at the temperature and pressure available in the choke. But, in a convergent-divergent nozzle, this choking wouldn't occur.

FIG 1/9 represents a schematic diagram of a system in which 35 psig exhaust steam from a 10 MW power plant will be injected into a pressurized water vessel so that all its enthalpy will be transferred to the pressurized water that will be used to heat up the accumulator/Boiler of the WATT-J2 system, FIG 1/10 represents a schematic diagram of a system of compressing exhaust steam at 35 psig with help from a convergent-divergent nozzle and superheating of steam for up to 760 psig steam and like before, the steam compressor isn't shown.

FIG 1/11 represents a system of power cum steam generation from the exhaust of a 10 MW steam turbine, Some steam is extracted in the middle and a thermocompressor sucks and mixes the extracted steam with the exhaust steam and this steam has been pressurized with help of a steam compressor fitted with a nozzle for reducing power consumption. The compressed steam will be injected into a pressurized water vessel and that vessel will be used to power some WATT-J2 steam turbines for additional power generation. After power generation, the steam will be compressed back into the pressure vessel. The pressure vessel will be fitted with additional vents for extraction of steam for other industrial purposes and instead of conventional fuels like coal, oil; the Boiler that will produce the pressurized steam to run the 10 MW steam turbine can be fired, This disclosures described within detail only the preferred embodiments of the invention. As previously stated, it is to be understood that the invention is capable of using various other combinations and other environments and is capaNe of modifications within the scope of the inventive concept expressed herein, Accordingly, the embodiments described above are merely illustrative 2md not exhaustive in nature,

Claims (10)

1. CLAIMSL This invention is a method for utilizing convergent and convergent-divergent nozzles and similar shaped structures for increasing the pressure and thrust power of a working fluid such as steam and other kinds of similar gas/vapours.
2. 2. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1 is that for raising steam pressure the said nozzles are fitted to a compressor machine such as a single or multi-cylinder compressor, mechanical vapour compressor, rotary compressor or turbo blower compressor.The said nozzles improve the output efficiency of a compressor machine whilst further enhancing the pressure of the working fluid.
3. 3. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim I is that the said nozzles will operate with any kind of steam: saturated steam, superheated steam or even subcritical or supercritical steam. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.
4. 4, Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the said nozzles will increase the thermal and electrical efficiency of a steam power generation and boiler plant, reducing power consumption for steam and other kind of similar gas/vapours. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.
5. 5. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim I is that the said nozzles can convert enthalpy of compressible fluids i.e. vapour and gas into forward motion and hence higher pressures when attached to a steam or specifically a steam engine incorporating internal or external compressor(s). However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way
6. 6. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2, 3,4 and 5 is that the said nozzles can convert enthalpy of compressible fluids i.e. vapour and gas into forward motion and hence greater thrust power is generated within the piston-power cylinders of a steam engine or steam engine generator. In this embodiment nozzles are preferably fitted to the steam input of piston-power cylinders. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way
7. 7. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 is that the said nozzles can convert enthalpy of compressible fluids i.e. vapour and gas into forward motion and hence higher pressures and greater thrust power in order to dramatically improve the thermal efficiency of a steam turbine, steam engine and specifically the WATT-J2 System. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.
8. 8. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the said convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles can operate with any type of compressor machine, including mechanical vapour steam compressors, rotary compressors or turbo blower steam compressors for increased steam pressure output compared to using only the compressor machine without nozzles fitted. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.
9. 9. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the said nozzles can sufficiently increase the pressure of low, medium or higher pressure steam for re-injection into a boiler plant, steam accumulator or water pressure vessel more efficiently and at higher pressures than any conventional steam compressor machine currenfly available and reduces the compressors energy consumption when attached to some kind of compressor/blower or similar machines including a spider-arm wobble plate compressor mechanism. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.0, Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to any of the claims is that the said nozzles allow a power plant to salvage a very high percentage of both the sensible heat and latent heat of vaporisation of steam, specifically from exhaust steam from a prime mover such as a steam turbine and steam engine, thereby permitting re-injection of said steam to the boiler plant for again powering the said prime movers. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way 1. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and is that the said nozzles allow a steam circuit to re-inject exhaust steam from the prime mover back into the higher pressure boiler plant or steam accumulator where the steam is used for powering the power generation system, facilitated by the nozzles attached to compressor/blower or similar machinery. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way U. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to any of the claims is that convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles, or similar shaped structures can be welded to a boiler, steam boiler, steam accumulator or any other pressure vessel containing water or pressurised water and will equally operate with any type of heat exchangers and heat recover steam generators. Various valves are then incorporated as required for operation of the boiler with said nozzles. This nozzle process further creates thrust power for a piston steam engine. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.H, Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that for low pressure steam conversion into higher pressure steam the nozzles can be welded on to a smaller pressurised water vessel and by bubbled the compressed steam into this vessel, a higher pressurised steam is then feed into the main boiler which is set as a slightly lower bar pressure. This process can be design-engineered using typical components as commonly used in steam applications for power generation. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.14. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2, 3 and 13 is that the pressure vessel can be used as a thermal storage vessel by bubbling or injecting the compressed steam generated by the nozzles, into a specified volume of pressurised water with help of a blower/compressor or similar machinery. The steam may equally be bubbled or injected into non-pressurised water for other thermal load requirements, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way b, Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is improving the thermal efficiency and electrical efficiency of a steam engine generator and/or steam turbine generator. Specifically, a multiple-cylinder wobble plate spider-arm piston steam engine incorporating internal piston-compressor cylinder which are also attached to the spider-arms of the wobble plate mechanism, thereby generating higher exhaust steam compression after fitting the nozzles, Known as the WATT-J2 System. Those skilled in the art will understand the wobble plate mechanism of operation for this type of steam engine as described in the drawing figure 5. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.16. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 is that this nozzle technology system can be set up to operate with any steam engines and steam turbines for greater thermal and electrical efficiency based on either simple-cycle or combined-cycle power generation. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.L/. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the nozzle pressure output can be varied based on the ratio of radii of inlet to throat and whilst a convergent nozzle is limited to 1.89 ratio, the convergent-divergent nozzle can be higher because it does not choke at all. For example, if the nozzle radius of the inlet to throat is 1.3, and if this means 12, then the radius of the throat is
10. 10. In that case the pressure at the throat would be 1.3 to the power 4 of the inlet, which is almost 2.9 times increase in steam pressure based on the nozzle application, In this example, the steam pressure would almost triple at the nozzle outlet. Therefore, if the pressure at the inlet is 3 bars, then the pressure at the throat would be approximately 9 bars. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way 18. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is increasing the output and efficiency of other prime movers including diesel generators, gas turbines and gas engines in combined cycle operation by converting their waste heat to steam for operating a steam engine or steam turbine. Combined cycle systems as small as 100kW or higher can operate as efficiently as a large 500 megawatt combined-cycle electricity generating plant by incorporating the WATT-J2 and WATT-13 Steam Cycle.However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.9. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that a steam engine or steam engine generator can operate with or without incorporating internal piston-compressors attached above or below the piston's power-cylinders on the spider-arm type wobble plate mechanism, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way 20. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim L 2, and 3 is that superheated steam as it enters the nozzle attached to a plurality of power-piston, with or without piston-compressors, will generate an increase in the steams thmst power for efficiency and power output improvements for this type of steam engine. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.21. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1,2 and 3 is that a steam engine with internal piston-compressors and/or external steam compressor with nozzles fitted at various entry and exit points will further increase steam pressure for injection of steam into a steam accumulator, pressure vessel, boiler or steam pressurised boiler. This application facilitates a higher thermal efficiency and electrical output for a piston steam engine generator. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.22. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim I, 2 and 3 is that a turbine steam generator operating with an external steam compressor within the boiler plant steam circuit will sufficiently raise the turbines exhaust steam to enable re-injection into the boiler plant powering the turbine generator. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.23. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim I, 2 and 3 is that the nozzle can be insulated and or thermally heated by any means so that the temperature of the steam entering the nozzles is sufficiently high to reduce heating transfer losses within the working fluid. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.24. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that for the power-pistons within a wobble plate piston steam engine or any other piston steam engine, it is an advantage if the injected steam is superheated compared to using just saturated steam. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.25. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the steam that enters the piston-compressors incorporated into a spider-arm piston steam engine can superheated for even greater steam pressure output. However this embodiment and any parts mcntioncd abovc is not meant to limit the invention in any way, 26. It is one of the primary objectives of this invention, according to claim 1, to provide a convergent or convergent divergent nozzle or nozzles to create a steam pressure improvement for converting lower pressure steam to higher pressure steam, preferably in combination with a mechanical compressor, rotary compress or turbo blower compression machine. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.27. Another characteristic or embodiment of this invention is outlined in FIG 1/] in a generalized way. This system includes pressurised working fluid contained in pipes or any other kind of enclosed system fitted with a convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle-shaped structure fifed at the exit or exhaust through which the pressurized fluid will enter the power generation unit specifically, but not exclusively, a piston-cylinder based steam engine system. Specifically, the greater benefit is from operating a spider wobble plate type mechanism containing a number of pistons, no less than two and no greater than 24 pistons, including power-pistons and compression-piston cylinders. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.28. Another embodiment of this invention, according to claim, 2 and 3 is a system for improving the efficiency of any electrical generating power plant using solar parabolic dishes or troughs including a low cost thermal storage option. This thermal storage is preferably a pressure vessel filled with water for injecting or bubbling pressurised steam from the engine or turbines exhausted steam. The water within the pressure vessel can range from 2 bar up to 100 bar or higher and this can vary based on the steam engine or steam turbine application. However this embodiment arid any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way 29. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, for increasing steam pressure output certain kind of fluid compression system by using nozzle or similar shaped stmcture can re-inject low pressure steam to benefit an atmospheric water heating system. This includes turbo blowers, mechanical vapour recompressors, thermocompressors, etc. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.30. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim I has been depicted by FIG 1/2 in a generalized way. This system includes a fluid compressor fifted with a nozzle or similar based structure at the exit to pump in or release pressurized fluid into the pressurized zone while consuming less power/electricity in comparison to conventional methods and higher pressure output. The fluid will enter into the pressurized zone i.e. increase its pressure by using both the work done by the compressor system, that may be of any kind and the specific property of the nozzle which further raises the pressure of the working fluid such as saturated steam and/or superheated steam, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.3L Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the exhausted steam from a steam turbine or steam engine is not condensed to water or feedwater and then returned to the boiler having lost the latent heat of vaporisation of the steam. However this embodiment of the invention and any parts mentioned above are not meant to limit the invention anyway.32. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1 is possible version of the apparatus claimed in Claim 1 and depicted in FIG 1/lA is a system, whereby the pressurized fluid will be used to move a piston-cylinder based system, The outlet of the nozzle or nozzle shaped stmcture has been inserted into the cylinder and is facing the inward side of the piston directly so that the molecules of the pressurized fluid will hit the piston surface more, However this embodiment of the invention and any parts mentioned above are not meant to limit the invention anyway.33. Apossible variation of the convergent nozzle used in the systems claimed in Claim 1,2 and 3 is depicted in FIG 1/3. This is the most efficient stmcture of all kind of convergent nozzles used so far, However this embodiment of the invention and any parts mentioned above are not meant to limit the invention in any way 34. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1 is a possible variation of the convergent-divergent nozzle used in the systems claimed in Claim 1 is depicted in FIG 1/4.However this embodiment of the invention and any parts mentioned above are not meant to limit the invention in any way.35. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1 is that the steam preferably will enter the piston-power cylinders through the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles.Hence one nozzle for every piston-power cylinder or two nozzles if its a double acting piston-power cylinder, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way, 36. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzle can be fitted at the entry point of piston-power cylinders of a steam engine when operating with a steam boiler, steam accumulator or steam vessel to increase the steam thrust power for greater power output using lower pressure steam. In this application the pressurised steam should be superheated by anything from 10 to 300 degrees Celsius. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way 37. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim I is that each power cylinder will be fitted with the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles and steam will enter the piston power cylinders through the nozzles. The steam with increased force and pressure will sthke the power-piston and cylinders and more enthalpy of the steam will be converted into power. One or two nozzles on each piston power cylinder means if there is 1 or 12 piston power cylinders there will be between I and 24 nozzles installed to operate the single or double acting piston power cylinders. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.38. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles will convert some of the superheated steam to water, although it will still be in its atomised form and therefore will help with the lubrication of a steam engines piston power cylinders. This means the engine operates safely and more powerfully and efficiently with injection of steam containing a high degrees of superheating from the boiler or steam accumulator. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.39. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1 is that the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles when fitted to the system allow superheated steam from a pressure vessel to power the power-piston cylinders for improved operation. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.40. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3 is that the convergent-divergent nozzles can be used in any application where potential choking is an issue with a convergent nozzle, When steam moves at sonic/supersonic speed, choking can take place within a convergent nozzle, This only has the potential to happen in a convergent nozzle when the speed of fluid exceeds velocity of sound at the throat. Higher temperatures means higher pressure and higher sound velocity and therefore choking has not proved to be an issue for us in our specific applications. The higher the speed of sound the less chance of choking with a convergent nozzle because it means the steam has to move faster to cross the sound barier, The speed of sound is higher at the throat as both temperature and pressure is higher there, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.41, Another embodiment of this invention according to claim I is that the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles attached to our WATT-J2 steam engine generators for combined cycle operation greatly increase the output power when the other prime mover is a backpressure steam turbine, extraction steam turbine, non-condensing as well as a condensing steam turbine. Therefore, we can more than double the electrical output available from the steam turbine prime mover in combined cycle operation using our WATT-J2/J3 System, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.42, Another embodiment of this invention according to claim is that heat pipe heat exchangers using higher temperature working fluids such as sodium, potassium, silver etc will greatly improve the transfer efficiency of the steam from the nozzles because the superheated steam is converted to higher pressure steam closer to its saturation temperature.Heat pipes using water as its working fluid or any other working fluid can be used such as R12, depending on the application for combined heating and power including Tn-generation. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.43. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim I is that it will operate using sub-atmospheric steam pressures, low pressure steam, medium pressure steam and high pressure steam. With sub-atmospheric steam, the steam vapours benefit from superheating before entering the nozzles, if the steam pressure is to be increased by a significant amount. This is an excellent solution for a condensing steam turbine, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.44. Another embodiment of this invention according to any of the other claims is that the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles can be installed on any type of piston steam engine generator using a non-condensing steam cycle and oil lubrication can be contained within the steam circuit, However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way, 45, Another embodiment of this invention according to any of the other claim is that in a thermal storage vessel, the phase change from steam-water-steam entails a loss of about 2% of the steam enthalpy and therefore such vessels can also be used as long term thermal storage vessels for steam generation. Propane vessels are in particularly excellent for this application as they are available in every country and pressure tested up to 18 bar, Propane vessels can easily be converted to suitable act as a steam accumulator with pressurised water as the working fluid and are therefore suitable for our nozzle steam engine generators operating on medium pressure steam. In this application the pressurised steam from the nozzles is simply bubbled into the pressurised water vessel. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.46. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim I is that the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles in our system can vary the ratio of inlet to throat for greater pressure increase of the working fluid. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.47, Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1 is that the convergent or convergent-divergent nozzles attached to any single or multi-stage steam compressor eliminates the need to cool the runaway steam temperatures generated during the compression stroke, however water may still be inj ected with the intention of increasing the mass flow of the steam. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.48. Another embodiment of this invention is that the WATT-J2 System piston-power and piston-compressor cylinders can be manufactured from Teflon, plastic, graphite or aluminium coated with graphite for better lubrication and the piston-compression cylinder can be manufactured from high temperature and high pressure treated glass. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.49. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim I, is that using waste heat processes or other thermal means to raise the pressure of a working fluid by incorporating nozzles is more cost efficient than relying on 100% electrical or mechanical power for operating an electrically driven compressor for the desired pressure output. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way 50. Another embodiment of this invention according to any other claims, is that the compressed steam from the WATT-12 System may be re-injecting directly into the piston-power cylinder after it exits the compressor and nozzles at the specified inlet bar steam pressure required for powering the WATT-J2 System. Thermal pre-heating of the exhaust steam prior to entering the nozzles and internal compressor facilitates the required steam compression in this mode of operating. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.51. Another embodiment of this system is that in the WATT-J2 System, the spider-arm wobble plate compressor (figS) compresses steam and injects the higher pressure steam into the boiler plant or steam accumulator, If nozzle(s) are attached below the wobble plate compressor, then it can raise the pressure of the steam to an even higher level, sufficiently to power a large steam turbine or steam engines from the steam exhaust of WATT-J2 System. It can also power other WATT-J2 Systems in series. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.52. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3, is that when this nozzle system is operating with the WATT-J2 System, it can be set up as the first true closed-loop steam cycle' whereby the steam from a steam engine is never condensed to water (pressurised water or as feedwater)) and instead the steam circulates between the power-piston cylinders and compression-piston cylinders of a steam engine generator, requiring only top up heat from any thermal source prior to steam recompression, The compressed steam can contain oil as lubrication within this closed cycle, The thermal can be from infrared heaters (tuned to operate up to 800 degrees Celsius for super-efficient heat transfer to steam) or any appropriate thermal source. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.53. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3, is that by superheating steam, we can add enthalpy to steam without raising the pressure of the steam and hence this also prevents any backpressure issues from the increased steam pressures via our nozzle technology. Furthermore if injecting the higher pressure steam into pressurised water and then there is another option of injecting this pressurised water itself through said nozzles to an even higher pressure vessel, Because its dynamic pressure, ie, its directed towards one specific direction and unlike static pressure, it does not exert the same pressure in all directions. Therefore, there is no need to install expensive alloys for containing the high pressures as the steam pressure will only be on the turbine blades and/or a steam engine.However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.54. Another embodiment of this invention according to claim 1, 2 and 3, is that this nozzle technology can generate subcritical or supercritical steam for powering a steam turbine power generation plant. The nozzle technology generates dynamic pressure, its directed towards one specific direction unlike static pressure which exerts the same pressure in all directions. However this embodiment and any parts mentioned above is not meant to limit the invention in any way.