WO1982003422A1

WO1982003422A1 - Method and device for the transformation of reaction heat into mechanical energy

Info

Publication number: WO1982003422A1
Application number: PCT/EP1982/000067
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ag Linde
Original assignee: Pocrnja Anton; Streich Martin; Dworschak Josef
Priority date: 1981-03-27
Filing date: 1982-03-26
Publication date: 1982-10-14
Also published as: EP0075569A1; IT1151527B; IT8220412A0

Abstract

Method for transforming reaction heat into mechanical energy, wherein a plurality of bodies participating to the reaction are introduced in a reaction chamber where they are reacted between each other. The reaction heat of chemical reactions is used differently. In methods such as the synthesis gas production, which are continuously implemented at temperatures comprised between 1300<o>C and 1600<o>C, the heat of products coming out of the reactor at the reaction temperature is used uncompletely during the thermal recovery which follows. In order to make a better use of the heat released during such reactions, the products formed during the reaction are, according to the invention, brought to an expansion producing energy during and/or after the reaction.

Description

Method and device for converting the enthalpy of reaction into mechanical energy

The invention relates to a method and a device for converting the enthalpy of reaction into mechanical energy, reactants being fed to a reaction space and reacting with one another.

The reaction enthalpy of chemical reactions is used differently. The generic methods include, for example, the production of synthesis gas in gasification reactors for the synthesis of ammonia or methanol. The processes for synthesis gas generation are based on the principle of incomplete combustion (partial oxidation) of hydrocarbons with oxygen with the addition of water vapor. These conventional processes operate as a continuous process at temperatures from 1300 ° C to 1600 ° C. However, the heat of the product coming out of the reactor at the reaction temperature can only be used very incompletely in the subsequent waste heat recovery - at the temperature level of water evaporation and steam superheating, which is far too low on average.

In addition, because of the upper-limit reaction temperature and, inter alia, because of the imperfect mixing of the reactants (fuel, oxygen, water vapor), there is a long residence time of the reactants in the reaction space when they are injected into the large reactor space required and soot-free operation not possible. Resulting soot must be removed from the product, worked up and mixed with fuel and returned to the reactor. Because of the long dwell time, the flow rate and therefore the production rate is low.

The invention is therefore based on the object of specifying a method of the type mentioned at the outset by which the reaction enthalpy can be better used in comparison with previous processes and converted into mechanical energy with better efficiency.

This object is achieved according to the invention in that the reaction products formed in the reaction are relaxed during and / or after the reaction in a work-performing manner.

This procedure according to the invention, which can be used in very different processes, enables an improved use of the enthalpy of reaction, i.e. a conversion of the enthalpy of reaction into mechanical energy with a higher efficiency than conventional methods. The method according to the invention can be used in numerous processes with different objectives. The primary purpose of these processes can advantageously be the production of a chemical intermediate as a reaction product, but also the provision of energy or energy and heat.

According to an advantageous variant of the invention, a hydrocarbon or a mixture of hydrocarbons, an oxygen-containing gas - in particular air, oxygen-enriched air or pure oxygen - and water vapor are used as reaction partners in a ratio in which imperfect combustion (partial oxidation) takes place in the reaction space . This procedure according to the invention is based on the idea that, for example, each combustion engine or each combustion chamber of a gas turbine corresponds in its or its mode of operation to a gasification reactor. With a motor, reaction temperatures of well over 2000 ° C are reached within a cooled wall (temperature <100 ° C). Because of the subsequent relaxation of work, the reaction product (exhaust gas) leaves the engine compartment at a temperature which is significantly below 1000 ° C. With optimal engine settings, the exhaust gas is largely soot-free.

The proposal according to the invention now enables an energetically favorable gasification of fossil fuels, for example any hydrocarbons and (ashed) coal by partial oxidation, the energy contained in the hydrocarbons being partly converted into mechanical energy. For this purpose, the reactants preheated as far as possible (oxygen, hydrocarbons, possibly water vapor) e.g. injected into the combustion chamber of a single or multi-cylinder piston engine.

The reaction (partial oxidation) takes place by spark or auto-ignition, with the pressure or the pressure depending on the procedure, analogous to a conventional Otto engine

Pressure and temperature rise sharply. After the reaction has taken place, the reaction product expands adiabatically and does work until the piston reaches the bottom dead center. The reaction product cools down considerably. During the shaft or piston movement from the bottom to the top dead center, the product is pushed out of the combustion chamber with the exhaust valve open. Like the conventional internal combustion engines, the housing is cooled with water. The reactants can be injected in the same way as in conventional gasification. Oxygen and water vapor are mixed, for example, before entering and injected concentrically around the fuel jet. The cylinder head and the piston are designed so that good mixing is ensured.

Compared to conventional gasification processes, the process according to the invention has the advantage that the majority of the excess heat generated by the reaction is converted directly into mechanical energy. Another advantageous consequence of this procedure is that the heat conversions in the subsequent waste heat recovery are smaller by the work done. The proposed method can be used for all ash-free fuels, enables largely soot-free operation and allows greater freedom in the choice of the reaction pressure, the temperature, the reaction time, the amount of steam added, etc.

In a further variant of the procedure according to the invention, a fuel, an oxygen-containing gas, hydrocarbons and water vapor are used as reaction partners, the fuel being burned with the oxygen-containing gas in the reaction space and the heat of fuel causing the splitting of the hydrocarbons and the steam and the fission gases formed and the Combustion gases can be relaxed.

In conventional processes of this type, the reactants are conducted in the tubes of a heat exchanger, the heat exchanger being heated from the outside by heat of fuel. According to the invention, however, the necessary heat is supplied by combustion of reactants within the reaction space. The other advantages of this Variants correspond to those of partial oxidation, if this takes place in the procedure according to the invention.

In an advantageous embodiment of the concept of the invention, the amount of at least one reaction partner is varied over time to control the heat of reaction released in the reaction space, namely the heat of reaction can be used to control the time of the reaction and thereby influence the composition of the reaction products.

In a variant of the invention, it is advantageous if the reaction products are formed in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine and are relaxed while performing work.

In another variant of the invention, however, it is also advantageously possible to conduct the reaction partners into a combustion chamber under reaction pressure, to produce the reaction products in the combustion chamber and to relax in a turbine.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, one of the reaction partners has a higher oxygen content than air and is burned together with a fossil fuel in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, the oxygen-containing reaction partner being in a stoichiometric ratio to the fuel for combustion or being passed to the combustion chamber in excess and is compressed to the final compression pressure outside the engine.

If fuel energy needs to be converted into mechanical energy, the reactants are usually converted in an internal combustion engine. For this purpose, the reactants are introduced into the combustion chamber of a cylinder and reacted there under pressure, ie burned. It is already known to completely or at least essentially compress the reaction partners outside the engine to the final compression pressure. An increase in the efficiency with which the energy contained in the fossil fuels can be converted into mechanical energy can be achieved according to the invention if, depending on the fossil fuel, pure oxygen or at least oxygen-enriched air with an oxygen content of more than, for example, approx 30 vol.% Is used.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the inventive concept, water or steam is admitted into the reaction space together with the compressed reaction partners. The steam serves, among other things, to absorb heat in order to limit the maximum temperature of the reaction gases in the reaction space.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the compressed reaction partners are heated outside the reaction space in the heat exchange with reaction gases previously formed during the reaction. Therefore, the heat of fuel to be supplied can be reduced in comparison to processes without additional heating of the compressed reaction partners.

If, for example, an internal combustion engine is used to carry out the procedure according to the invention, this also means that less fuel has to be supplied. In this way, a significantly better degree of efficiency is achieved in comparison to conventional diesel engines or Otto engines. According to the invention, the conversion of the fuel heat into mechanical energy in an internal combustion engine can expediently be carried out in a two-cycle work cycle. Doing so in the first stroke (piston movement from the upper to the lower dead center) the working medium compressed to the final compression pressure is let into the combustion chamber with the inlet valve open, the inlet valve is closed again, the fuel is fed and the resulting mixture is burned and expanded. In the second cycle, the reaction gases generated during combustion are pushed out of the combustion chamber with the exhaust valve open.

A further improvement in the energy efficiency can be achieved in an embodiment according to the invention if the water vapor-containing reaction products are expanded to a subatmospheric pressure and subsequently cooled to about ambient temperature and the non-condensed portion of the reaction products is compressed to atmospheric pressure and fed to the atmosphere while the condensate fully or partially returned to the reaction process by means of a pump and excess or unused water is discarded. The proportion of water vapor does work during relaxation, so that more energy can be given off by an expansion machine. However, since the water vapor portion condenses on cooling to ambient temperature, this portion no longer needs to be recompressed.

In principle, it is possible to preheat the reactants and / or the water vapor with any heat sources before introducing them into the reaction space. According to an advantageous feature of the invention - as already indicated - reactants and / or water vapor or water are heated in heat exchange with the relaxed reaction product. The maximum temperature in the reaction space or the pressure level of the reaction products after the expansion is limited by the temperature level at which the reaction products enter the reaction space via the exhaust valve allowed to leave without destroying this valve.

If the reaction products are relaxed according to the invention, the reaction products cool down. In the heat exchange with the relaxed reaction products, the compressed reaction partners are therefore only raised to a temperature level which is far below the temperature level at which the reaction partners, e.g. without damaging the reaction space, of the inlet valve of a combustion chamber can be supplied. This temperature level corresponds to the temperature of the reaction products leaving the reaction space. According to a further embodiment of the concept of the invention, the compressed reactants and / or the water vapor are then heated by external heat after being heated in the heat exchange with reaction products and before being admitted into the reaction space.This measure is to be used especially when compared to the expensive fuel energy inexpensive waste heat with a suitable temperature level is available. In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, gaseous reactants are compressed in several stages, preferably with intermediate cooling. Through a multi-stage compression with intermediate cooling, gaseous reaction partners are compressed almost isothermally, so that these reaction partners have approximately ambient temperature after the complete compression. This means that the multi-stage compression with intermediate cooling reduces the compression work on the one hand and enables the heat contained in the relaxed reaction gases to be used almost completely.

According to another advantageous feature of the invention, the gaseous reactants are cooled prior to compression. The cooling can take place to a temperature above or below 0 ° C., the compression work being additionally reduced and the end compression temperature is reduced.

According to a further variant according to the invention, it is advantageous to inject water into compressed gaseous reactants prior to their heat exchange with the relaxed reaction products. Since isothermal compression of gaseous reactants cannot be effected even with compression in several stages and respective intermediate cooling, the reactants always have a temperature above the ambient temperature after the compression.

Due to the water that is injected, the compression heat that is generated anyway can be used to evaporate the water that is injected. Since a water vapor reactant mixture prepared in this way can absorb a larger amount of heat compared to the pure reactant and a larger amount of working medium to be released is available in the reaction products, the described process variant achieves a further increase in efficiency and performance .

If one of the reactants is oxygen-enriched air, it has proven to be useful if the neighborhood of an air separation plant is chosen as the location for carrying out the inventive procedures. Here, the low temperature at which oxygen can be extracted from the air separation plant can be used to reduce the overall compression work.

In an advantageous embodiment of the concept of the invention, in which the reaction is carried out in the combustion chamber of an engine, the reaction gases which are relaxed in the combustion chamber and pushed out of the combustion chamber are relaxed in an expansion machine arranged outside the engine before they are released in the Heat exchange with compressed reaction partners are cooled down to about the temperature of the compressed reaction partners. In this advantageous embodiment of the inventive concept, part of the energy contained in the reaction products after exiting the reaction space is used. For this purpose, the reaction products ejected from the reaction space are first relaxed while working in an expansion machine (“exhaust gas turbine”) and then cooled to about the temperature of the compressed reaction partners during heat exchange with the compressed reaction partners. The energy contained in the reaction products is not given off uselessly in this procedure, but is to a large extent re-coupled into the conversion process or given off in the form of mechanical energy. For example, if the fuel supply to the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine and thus the maximum temperature of the combustion gases in the combustion chamber are increased, the proportion of heat recovered from the reaction gases also increases. The measures described bring about an improvement in the efficiency and a lower temperature of the reaction products released, for example, into the environment.

In principle, it is possible to have the energy required for compressing the reactants provided by a system that is independent of the internal combustion engine. In an embodiment according to the invention, however, the entire compression work for the compression of the reaction partners to the compression end pressure is covered by the energy obtained from the reaction gases in the expansion machine (exhaust gas turbine) connected downstream of the engine.

In summary, it can be stated for the last-mentioned application that the Ver drive an increase in efficiency compared to known internal combustion engines. The waste heat given off to the environment is considerably reduced. The pollutant emissions also decrease due to the lower fuel consumption. An engine according to the invention enables the use of discontinuous waste heat (for heating the compressed reaction partners and heated in the heat exchange with flue gases), as well as discontinuous mechanical energy (for the compression of the reaction partners), since if these energy sources fail, the required energy is replaced by more fuel consumption in the engine can be.

A possible device for carrying out the method working with oxygen-enriched air consists of an internal combustion engine with one or more pistons, each movable in a housing, and a combustion chamber delimited by housing and piston, each with an inlet (and inlet valve) for the reactants oxygen-enriched air and fuel , and a reaction gas outlet (with outlet valve). Advantageously, such an internal combustion engine according to the invention has at least one compressor driven by an exhaust gas turbine connected to the reaction gas outlet, which is connected to a flow cross section of a recuperator connected to the working medium inlet, a further flow cross section connected to the exhaust gas turbine outlet for the relaxed reaction gases being arranged in the recuperator.

Exemplary embodiments will be explained below using schematic sketches:

Show it: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an internal combustion engine according to the invention, working with oxygen-enriched air and fuel.

Figure 2 is a sketch of an engine working with air cooling, water injection and use of external heat.

Figures 3 temperature-entropy diagrams of a constant to 6 pressure process with exhaust gas turbine and a process with exhaust gas turbine, external compression and heat recuperator.

Figure 7 shows the process in the cylinder of an energy-producing gasification reactor during a shaft revolution.

8 each a schematic diagram for the supply and 9 of an energy-generating gasification reactor with the reactants.

Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of a device with which e.g. carbon monoxide formed during the coal gasification and the heat generated can be used in the manner according to the invention,

Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of a device in which e.g. Natural gas with a low proportion of fuel gas can be used in the manner according to the invention.

According to FIG. 1, oxygen-enriched air is drawn in by a compressor 1 and compressed to the final compression pressure. The compressed, oxygen-enriched air comes into heat in a recuperator 2 connected downstream exchange with reaction gases formed in previous work cycles. The oxygen-enriched air heated in this way is fed out of the recuperator and into the combustion chamber of an engine, of which only one cylinder 4 is shown symbolically in the figures. Fuel 3 is introduced into the compressed, oxygen-enriched air. In the exemplary embodiment, an internal combustion engine with auto ignition is to be described. This means that the pressure and temperature of the oxygen-enriched air introduced are sufficient for the fuel-air-oxygen mixture to self-ignite. In this first cycle of the two-cycle work cycle, the resulting mixture is burned and expanded. In the subsequent cycle, the reaction gases formed are pushed out of the combustion chamber when the piston 5 moves upward and introduced into an exhaust gas turbine 6. There, the reaction gases are expanded while performing work and introduced into the recuperator 2 and then released into the atmosphere. In the recuperator, the reaction gases cool down in the heat exchange with oxygen-enriched air to almost their entry temperature into the recuperator.

In FIG. 2, the system shown in FIG. 1 has been supplemented by a heat exchanger or heater 7, a cooling system 9 and a water injection device 8. In this embodiment, oxygen-enriched air originating from an air separator is compressed by a compressor 10 and subsequently cooled to a temperature T below ambient temperature T in a water-cooled heat exchanger 9 in the exemplary embodiment. On the one hand this reduces the compression work of the subsequent compressor 1 and on the other hand the temperature of the oxygen-enriched air after the compression is lower than in a system according to FIG. 1 at a comparable location. To the To use compression heat that is unavoidable during compression, water is injected into the compressed oxygen-enriched air via an injection device (not shown). The oxygen-enriched air-water vapor mixture heated in the recuperator is subsequently heated by external heat, if possible by the waste heat, to a temperature limited by the material properties of the inlet valve, with which the mixture is let into the combustion chamber.

FIG. 3 shows an ideal diesel process working with an exhaust gas turbine in a temperature-entropy diagram. Adiabatic compression (1-2) is followed by pressure p ₂ , isobaric heating (2-3), followed by adiabatic expansion (3-4). The compressed oxygen-enriched air is under a pressure of about 35 bar. The relaxation is carried out from p ₂ to the ambient pressure p ₁ . This enables the exhaust gas turbine in which the pressure is reduced from p _AT to p ₁ .

FIG. 4 shows an ideally running process according to the invention. This process is based on the same pressure ratio as the process shown in FIG. 3. Here isothermal compression (1 - 2) is followed by heating in the recuperator (2 - 3 ') and then in the motor (3' - 3). Adiabatic relaxation takes place in the engine (3 - 4 '), followed by relaxation in the exhaust gas turbine (4' - 4). After relaxation, cooling takes place in the recuperator (4 - 5). A dashed line in this figure shows a cooling of the sucked-in oxygen-enriched air to a temperature below the ambient temperature (1 ').

In Figures 5 and 6, the two specified Pro processes are represented as real processes. This means that the efficiencies in compression and expansion have been taken into account in these representations, while it is further assumed that only oxygen-enriched air is heated when the engine is supplied with heat. The chemical reactions actually taking place were not taken into account. FIG. 6 shows a four-stage compression with respective intermediate cooling. All processes were based on an adiabatic exponent ℋ - 1.4. The adiabatic efficiency of expansion and compression was chosen for the real processes η _E = η _K = 0.9, losses due to external cooling were not taken into account. Pressure losses of 0.15 bar in each case in the intercoolers in the process according to FIG. 6, however, are taken into account.

The thermodynamic quality of the method according to the invention can be attributed, among other things, to the combination of the following measures:

1. (Quasi isothermal) compression with little energy outside the engine.

2. Extensive recuperation of the waste heat in the reaction gas

3. A work-related relaxation in the engine that starts from high temperatures.

The method according to the invention works in a way similar to a gas turbine process in which the combustion chamber is replaced by a work-performing engine. Instead of the inlet temperature, which is usually limited to 600 ° C. to 900 ° C. with regard to the turbine material, temperatures of approximately 2000 ° C. can be achieved in the process according to the invention without expensive materials. FIG. 7 schematically shows the process sequence in the cylinder of an engine operating as an energy-producing gasification reactor during a shaft revolution. In principle, any conventional motor can be used. However, the following procedure, which is part of the method according to the invention, is also possible:

The reaction participants preheated as much as possible, that is to say oxygen, water vapor and fuel, are injected into the combustion chamber of a single or multi-cylinder piston engine with the exhaust valve 11 closed. At the beginning of the injection (point a), the piston 5 approaches the top dead center. The reaction takes place by spark ignition or self-ignition, with the pressure and the temperature increasing sharply with an approximately constant volume of the combustion chamber (wave movement from a to b). After the reaction (point b), the reaction product expands adiabatically and does the work to the desired pressure until the piston 5 reaches the bottom dead center (point c). The reaction product cools down considerably. During the shaft or piston movement from c to a, the product is pushed out of the combustion chamber with the outlet valve 11 open. The housing of the cylinder 4 is cooled with water.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show two variants for preheating and supplying the reactants for an energy-producing gasification reactor.

According to FIG. 8, a system is assumed that provides high pressure steam via a line 15. This steam is supplemented by steam from a line 16 which has been generated from water in heat exchange with the product gas leaving the gasification reactor. The heat exchange takes place in a heat exchanger 17. The fuel is in further heat exchangers 18 and 19 and the oxygen is heated and injected into the combustion chamber via lines 13 and 12, respectively. Condensing steam from line 15 is used to heat these reaction participants. After the reaction has taken place in the combustion chamber, the reaction gases are fed into line 20 via outlet valves 11 and heat exchanger 17.

FIG. 9 shows a variant according to which the reaction participants are heated in a heat exchanger 21 first by heat exchange with the reaction gases and subsequently in a heat exchanger 22 by external heat, in particular waste heat with a suitable temperature level. Then oxygen, water vapor and fuel are injected into the combustion chamber. After leaving the combustion chamber, the reaction gases are expanded in an expansion turbine 23, cooled to ambient temperature in heat exchanger 21 and cleaned in a system 24 and subsequently compressed to the desired delivery pressure.

Design example:

The energy-generating gasification reactor described in FIGS. 7 to 9 can be used, for example, in a reduction steelworks. Oxygen from an air separation plant is brought to a pressure of approx. 6 bar and in a quantity of approx. 2000 m ³ / h a four-cylinder engine with approx. 100 1 Huhraur each. fed. At the same time, approximately 4000 m ^{3 of} natural gas are introduced into the cylinders per hour. The engine, which operates at a speed of approx. 150 rpm, has an output of approx. 1.5 MW and produces a reducing gas consisting of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in an amount of approx. 12000 m ³ / h and at a pressure of approx. 3.5 bar. This reducing gas is together with circulated, freed of carbon dioxide and water and ge to 3.5 bar pressure brought top gas (approx. 24000 m ³ / h) and fed to a shaft furnace (20 to / h iron). The heat requirement per ton of iron is approximately 1.7 Gcal. Conventional processes, on the other hand, have a heat requirement of approx. 3.1 Gcal / to iron.

The device shown schematically in FIG. 10 shows a system according to the invention in which carbon monoxide formed and the heat generated during a coal gasification are used.

Carbon monoxide is introduced into a motor 4, 5 together with oxygen (line 26) and water or steam (line 27). Carbon monoxide is burned with oxygen, first expanded in the engine and then expanded in a turbine 28. In the same way, it would be possible to burn the reactants mentioned in several stages in a combustion chamber and then to relax in a turbine. In this exemplary embodiment, the third reaction partner is water, which mainly functions as a heat transfer medium. The water is largely heated and evaporated in a heat exchanger 30 in the heat exchange with reaction gases formed, but also by the waste heat generated during coal gasification. After the (last) combustion, the reaction product consists largely of water vapor. The remaining ingredients are essentially carbon monoxide and unburned oxygen. After the reaction product has cooled to almost ambient temperature in heat exchanger 30 against water to be heated and in a heat exchanger 31 against cooling water, the condensed water is separated off in separator 32. The separated water is fed into a line 35 by means of pump 34 and together with fresh water (line 36) and returned to the process. During the process is an "exhaust gas", which consists essentially of carbon dioxide and unburned oxygen. This amount of exhaust gas is an order of magnitude smaller than the amount of exhaust gas obtained in conventional processes, so that, according to the invention, a pollutant-free exhaust gas is released into the atmosphere with little effort. It is also possible to recover unused oxygen and return it to the process. Carbon dioxide can also be recovered. In this case, the device according to the invention offers the possibility of being able to carry out an optimal energy production process for coal gasification. In addition, this device can also be regarded as a gasification reactor in which carbon dioxide and oxygen are formed.

A device is shown in a schematic sketch in FIG. 11, in which natural gas (otherwise unusable) with little or no fuel gas content can be used to generate energy. Natural gas is produced under high pressure. According to the invention, natural gas is introduced into a combustion chamber 37 via line 41 at the given pressure. If the natural gas does not contain any fuel gas, any fuel must be added to the natural gas; if there is a small amount of fuel gas, no fuel has to be added. In both cases, oxygen (line 40) is also fed into the combustion chamber 37. Oxygen and natural gas or fuel react in the combustion chamber. The reaction products are expanded in a turbine 38 and cooled in the heat exchanger 39 against natural gas and oxygen. This procedure offers the advantage that the compression of the proportion of inert reactants required in the combustion chamber is eliminated, since the natural gas is naturally produced under pressure. The energy required for oxygen generation and post-compression to process pressure is lower than the energy required for compressing another inert component (e.g. air).

Claims

1. A process for converting the enthalpy of reaction into mechanical energy, with a plurality of reactants being fed to a reaction space and reacting with one another, characterized in that the reaction products formed during the reaction are relaxed during and / or after the reaction.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the reaction products are chemical intermediates.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a hydrocarbon or a mixture of hydrocarbons, an oxygen-containing gas - in particular air, oxygen-enriched air or pure oxygen - and steam serve as a reactant in a ratio in which in

Reaction chamber an imperfect combustion (partial oxidation) takes place ..

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a fuel, an oxygen-containing gas, hydrocarbons and water vapor serve as reactants, wherein the fuel is burned with the oxygen-containing gas in the reaction space and the heat of fuel causes the splitting of the hydrocarbons and the steam and the fission gases formed and the combustion gases are released.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the amount of at least one reactant is varied over time to control the heat of reaction released in the reaction space.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the reaction products are formed in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine and are relaxed while performing work.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the reactants under

Reaction pressure is passed into a combustion chamber, and the reaction products are generated in the combustion chamber and expanded in a turbine.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that one of the reactants has a higher oxygen content than air and is burned together with a fossil fuel in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, the oxygen-containing reactant being in a stoichiometric ratio to the fuel for combustion or in excess is directed into the combustion chamber and is compressed outside the engine to the final compression pressure.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that water or steam is admitted into the reaction space together with the compressed reaction partners.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the relaxed reaction products are brought into indirect heat exchange with at least some of the compressed reactants.

11. The method according to any one of claims 9 or 10, characterized in that the water vapor-containing reaction products are expanded to a subatmospheric pressure and subsequently cooled to about ambient temperature and the uncondensed portion of the reaction products is recompressed to atmospheric pressure and supplied to the atmosphere while All or part of the condensate is returned to the reaction process by means of a pump and excess or unused water is discarded.

12. The method according to any one of claims 10 or 11, characterized in that the reaction partners heated in the heat exchange with the relaxed reaction products are heated by external heat before being admitted into the reaction space.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that gaseous reactants are compressed in several stages and cooled between the compression stages.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that gaseous reactants are cooled to a temperature below ambient temperature before compression.

15. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 14, characterized in that for introducing water vapor into the reaction space in at least one gaseous Reactant is injected with the relaxed reaction products water before its heat exchange.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, wherein the reaction is carried out in the combustion chamber of an engine, characterized in that the reaction products relaxed in the combustion chamber and pushed out of the combustion chamber in an expansion machine arranged outside the engine are relaxed while working before being in the Heat exchange with compressed reactants are cooled down to about the temperature of the compressed reactants.

17. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that the entire Koπpressions work for the gaseous reactants is covered by the work obtained outside the engine in the expansion machine.

18. Device for carrying out the method according to one of claims 1 to 6 and 8 to 17 with an internal combustion engine with one or more pistons, each movable in a housing and a combustion chamber delimited by the housing and piston, with inlets for the reactants and a reaction product outlet together with an outlet valve , characterized by at least one compressor driven by an exhaust gas turbine connected to the reaction product outlet, which is connected to a flow cross section of a recuperator connected to the reaction partner inlet (s) (inlet), wherein a further flow cross section connected to the exhaust gas turbine outlet for the relaxed reaction gases is arranged in the recuperator is.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18, characterized in that a heat exchanger for heating the reactants with external heat is arranged between the recuperator and the reactant inlet of the combustion chamber.

20. Device according to one of claims 18 or 19, characterized by injecting device (s) for water opening into the flow cross section for compressed reactants in front of the recuperator.

21. Device for performing the method according to one of claims 18 to 20, with an internal combustion engine with one or more pistons, each movable in a housing and a combustion chamber delimited by the housing and piston, characterized in that injection devices for compressed, heated in the combustion chamber Oxygen and water vapor flow out.