WO1999025955A1

WO1999025955A1 - Heat engine with an improved degree of efficiency

Info

Publication number: WO1999025955A1
Application number: PCT/EP1998/006933
Authority: WO
Inventors: Martin Ziegler
Original assignee: Martin Ziegler
Priority date: 1997-11-17
Filing date: 1998-11-04
Publication date: 1999-05-27
Also published as: AU1665599A; DE19750589C2; EP1032750A1; ID27051A; IL136033A0; CN1278890A; BR9812786A; JP2001523786A; DE19750589A1; TW394814B

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a heat engine for converting heat energy (Qextern) into mechanical energy (Wextern). The heat engine has a first thermodynamic cycle (steam cycle) and a second thermodynamic cycle (gas cycle). The heat lost (QD) in the first cycle is fed to the second cycle and the heat lost (QG) in the second cycle is fed to the first cycle.

Description

thermal engine with improved efficiency

The invention relates to a method for converting thermal energy into mechanical energy in a heat engine in which the thermal efficiency of the heat engine is increased without the upper and / or the lower cycle temperature having to be changed. The invention also relates to a heat engine for performing this method.

Heat engines are energy converters - convert the supplied heat energy into wave work (= kinetic energy) via a thermodynamic cycle. For this purpose, heat energy is supplied to a working medium inside the machine at a high temperature level and, after having gone through the cycle, some of it is removed again at a low temperature level. The difference between the supplied and the removed amount of thermal energy ideally corresponds to the shaft work emitted by the machine.

The thermal efficiency of the cycle of such a machine is the ratio between the shaft work achieved and the thermal primary energy used. It grows with the height of the difference between the upper and the lower process temperature and can at most reach the value of an ideal Carnot machine. The maximum achievable thermal efficiency of the cycle results from Carnot's theorem:

η = (T "" T _u ) / T ₀

where η is the maximum thermal efficiency of the cycle, T _{0 is} the upper process temperature and T _{u is} the lower process temperature. In order to achieve the highest possible yield of shaft work or kinetic energy per unit of thermal primary energy used, a heat engine must have the highest possible thermal efficiency. This goal can be achieved by increasing the efficiency of the cycle. For this, according to Carnot's theorem, either lowering the lower process temperature and / or increasing the upper process temperature is required. The increase in the upper process temperature is limited due to the temperature resistance of the materials used in a heat engine. There are also limits to the lowering of the lower process temperature, since the waste heat is dissipated into the environment in conventional methods for operating a heat engine, and the natural limit for lowering the lower process temperature is therefore determined by the ambient temperature of the heat engine (second law of thermodynamics). Fresh water cooling, for example, is used to lower the lower process temperature to close to the ambient temperature, but this is not preferred due to the environmental impact of rivers and lakes due to environmental reasons. Alternatively, the heat is therefore dissipated to the air via wet and dry cooling towers.

To increase the efficiency of a heat engine it is also known to preheat the feed water with bleed steam from the turbine to reduce the process waste heat and to raise the mean temperature of the heat supply. The upper limit of this method is that if the preheating temperature of the feed water is too high, the boiler exhaust gas temperature can no longer be kept at its lowest value despite air preheating. In addition, this form of waste heat recirculation is disadvantageous, since the feed water can be preheated to a maximum of the temperature of the waste heat.

With the help of modern large computer systems, the optimization of variables of the cycle processes of heat engines is possible, such as the steam and intermediate overheating conditions in power plants, the number, grade and tapping pressures of the preheaters, size and design of the condenser, design of the cooling tower, etc. However, an increase in efficiency is only possible to a limited extent with the help of these measures.

Another method for increasing the efficiency of heat engines is to reduce the exergy losses when absorbing and dissipating thermal energy by making the most of the available temperature difference between absorbed and emitted heat in a chain of cycle processes. For this purpose, two or more machines are connected in series, the waste heat from an upstream cycle process being used as heat from a subsequent cycle process. This process is used, for example, in modern combined cycle power plants (combined cycle power plants), in which the high temperature of a combustion process is first used in a gas turbine, the exhaust gas of which is then also used to heat a steam power plant. In this way, the exergy loss in steam generation is reduced and the temperature gradient between the combustion and ambient temperature is used in several stages.

The method of serial coupling of circular processes is the subject of the patents US 5,437,157 and US 4,428,190, each with two serial circular processes, and AT 327,229 with a total of three serial circular processes.

In US 5,437,157 the heat of condensation of a conventional steam power plant (working medium water) is used for the evaporation of an organic working medium which generates useful work in a second steam cycle process. The waste heat from the second cycle is then released into the environment. A similar principle is used in US 4,428,190, wherein the coupling of two steam cycle processes (water and organic working medium) takes place via an intermediate heat store, which distributes the load of a power plant should improve throughout the day. AT 327,229 describes the coupling of a potassium and a water vapor cycle using a third cycle based on an organic working medium, which transfers the waste heat from the potassium process as heat to the water process. In all cases described, the respective cycle processes are physically separated from one another by the heat being transferred from one process to the other through the wall of a heat exchanger.

A disadvantage of the serial coupling of circular processes is the additional outlay in terms of equipment for heat transfer and energy conversion per circular process. Furthermore, the exergy losses of the energy conversion increase with the number of serially coupled cycle processes, since the heat transfer by means of a heat exchanger is only possible if a finite temperature difference is maintained. Another disadvantage is that the waste heat from the last cycle in the serial chain still has to be dissipated to the environment.

The present invention is therefore based on the object of providing a method in which the thermal efficiency of a heat engine can be increased without having to change the upper and / or the lower process temperature of the thermal cycle. It is also an object of the invention to provide a heat engine for performing this method.

These objects are achieved by a method with the features of claim 1 and by a heat engine with the features of claim 14. Advantageous and preferred developments of the method according to the invention or the heat engine according to the invention are specified in the associated dependent claims.

In order to understand the invention, it is essential to recognize that the thermal efficiency of a heat engine is not is identical to the thermal efficiency of the cycle running in it.

The thermal efficiency of the cycle is defined by the ratio of work done to the thermal energy used, per cycle of the cycle. The thermal efficiency of a heat engine, on the other hand, is defined by the ratio of work done to the thermal energy used, and is summed up over all cycles of the cycle.

Both efficiencies are the same if and only if the waste heat from the cycle leaves the machine and is fed into the environment beyond its system boundary. In conventional heat engines, the low-temperature heat extracted from the cycle is dissipated to the environment after the completion of a respective cycle. The efficiency of a conventional heat engine thus corresponds at most to the efficiency of its thermodynamic cycle.

The efficiency of a heat engine is greater than the efficiency of its associated cycle if the waste heat from its cycle can be used in whole or in part as primary energy within the machine (waste heat recycling). In this case, the energy contained in the waste heat of the cycle does not need to be replaced or only partially replaced by new primary energy, and the cumulative efficiency of the machine increases with the number of cycles completed.

This process is illustrated in Figure 1. In Figure 1, the curves of efficiencies of a heat engine are shown, in which a hypothetical cycle with a thermal efficiency of 35% runs. The waste heat dissipated is returned to this cycle process over several cycles at 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% (waste heat recycling). Without that Returning the waste heat (curve at 0%) is the efficiency of the heat engine equal to the efficiency of the cycle. With the return of waste heat, the efficiency of the heat engine increases over the number of cycle cycles and approaches the theoretical maximum asymptotically.

Figure 2 shows the same process for a cyclic process with a very poor efficiency of only 5%. Even for such a poor process efficiency, the efficiency of the heat engine can be increased very widely over the number of cycles. With sufficiently efficient waste heat recirculation, such a heat engine can be operated economically when using low-temperature heat.

Conventional prior art heat engines use only a single internal cycle. They either have a steam cycle process with a phase transition of the working medium (steam turbine, steam engine) or a gas cycle process without a phase transition of the working medium (gas turbine, Otto, Diesel, Wankel, Stirling, Stelzermotor).

In conventional heat engines, the waste heat recirculation is limited in that the waste heat temperature is significantly lower than the required temperature of the heat to be supplied to the cycle. Therefore, only a small part of the energy contained in the waste heat can be returned to the cycle. Raising the temperature level of the waste heat to the upper process temperature would require a heat pump in conventional machines so that the energy of the waste heat could be returned to the cycle. This heat pump would consume part of the shaft work generated by the first machine. As a result, the waste heat return for conventional heat engines according to the state of the art is only economically possible to a limited extent. The method according to the invention now increases the cumulative thermal efficiency of heat engines by internal waste heat recirculation without consuming shaft work for a conventional heat pump process.

Conventional machines have either a single steam cycle process or a single gas cycle process or their serial coupling (gas / steam turbine, internal combustion engine, combined cycle power plant). The heat engine according to the invention has one steam and one gas cycle process within a heat engine, that is, two simultaneous cycle processes which are 'entangled' or superimposed on one another in the gas phase.

The steam cycle process is used to generate wave work. The steam cycle process draws its heat from an external heat source, the waste heat from the steam cycle being the heat for the coupled gas cycle process. The working medium A in the steam cycle process is a substance or mixture of substances whose components have a significantly higher molecular dipole moment than a component B of the working medium AB in the gas cycle process, which is essentially permanently in a gaseous state. In the steam cycle process, working medium A undergoes a cyclical phase change between liquid and gas, and to a large extent like in a conventional steam engine or steam turbine.

The gas cycle process serves to recycle waste heat within the heat engine according to the invention. For this purpose, the waste heat contained in the relaxed working medium A of the steam cycle process is materially supplied to the gas cycle process as heat for generating wave work. The gas cycle process also converts part of the waste heat from the steam cycle into wave work. Its working medium AB (= working medium in the gas cycle process) is a mixture of a gaseous part of the working medium A of the steam cycle and an always gaseous shaped component B of the working medium in the gas cycle process. Component B is a substance or a mixture of substances whose constituents have a significantly lower molecular dipole moment than the constituents of working medium A from the steam cycle process. In the gas cycle process, the working medium AB is regularly supplied with a gaseous amount of the working medium A from the steam cycle process and withdrawn again in liquid form. As a result, the percentage of A within AB changes periodically over a closed cycle of the gas cycle process.

The material entanglement of both cycle processes in the gas phase serves the direct exchange of heat energy between the substances or substance mixtures A and AB of the two cycle processes and the condensation of the working medium A. The exchange of heat energy takes place using Brown's see molecular movement through elastic collisions between gas molecules the substances of both working media (number of impacts on the order of 10 per second). At the microscopic level, the kinetic energy of the molecules (which is equivalent to temperature) is subject to a statistical probability distribution according to Maxwell's theory. As an explanation, it should be noted that the atoms or molecules of a gas or in a liquid move continuously and constantly collide with one another. Due to the impact processes, they constantly change their direction of movement, their energy and thus also their speed. The velocity in a gas or in a liquid is therefore not the same for all atoms or molecules, but follows Maxwell's velocity distribution. At the molecular level, temperature and kinetic energy are coupled via the Boltzmann constant, whereby the mean kinetic energy of a particle, neglecting rotational and vibrational energy, is E = 3 kT / 2. As a result, there is not just one temperature in the gas phase, but a range of temperatures that is equivalent to the statistical distribution of molecular velocities. The chaotic movement of the Molecules from material groups A and B in the gas phase produce elastic collisions between molecules with different velocities and dipole moments. Collisions between slow (= cold) molecules of the material group of working medium A with a high molecular dipole moment lead to a coagulation of the collision partners due to the influence of the intermolecular forces and thus to the formation of larger molecular groups and ultimately droplets. Collisions between the molecular assemblies and the fast single molecules of substance groups A and B lead to a net transfer of kinetic energy (= heat) from the heavier droplets to the lighter collision partners. This separates the gas phase AB of the gas cycle process into fast (= hot) and slow (= cold) proportions.

Macroscopically, a phase transition of the working medium A occurs due to a spontaneous formation of fog from the mixture AB in the gas cycle process of the heat engine according to the invention. The drops of this mist can then be removed from the gas phase of the gas cycle process by means of a phase separation using conservative force fields (for example gravity or centrifugal field) and fed back to the steam cycle process via a feed water pump. A stream of working medium A in the gaseous phase is thus supplied to the gas cycle process and withdrawn again in the liquid phase. The heat supplied to the gas cycle process is the latent heat contained in the supplied gaseous fraction A, which corresponds to the heat of condensation. The heat transfer from the steam cycle process to the gas cycle process takes place through condensation of the working medium A in the gas cycle process. The waste heat from the gas cycle process is the heat dissipated with the liquid phase of working medium A. The difference between supplied and removed heat is the heat of condensation of the material flow of the quantity of working medium A exchanged between the steam cycle process and the gas cycle process. It corresponds to the maximum wave work that can be generated in the gas cycle process. The heat of condensation of the steam cycle process of the heat engine according to the invention can thus be process (minus any radiated heat) can be completely converted into wave work. With the exception of the radiated heat, the heat engine according to the invention therefore has no further waste heat. The efficiency of a heat engine according to the invention is thus increased over the number of cycle cycles, even if the steam cycle efficiency is poor. It follows that the heat engine according to the invention is also suitable as an energy converter for the use of low-temperature heat.

The following material combinations are possible, for example, for operating the heat engine according to the invention in the low temperature range:

Temperature window

Steam circuit (AI gas circuit (B) for evaporation

Water air 70. . . 300 ° C carbon dioxide air, nitrogen -70. . 20 ° C

Ammonia air, nitrogen -40. . 70 ° C

Cold mixture air, nitrogen -50. . 0 ° C

Nitrogen hydrogen -200. . . -150 ° C

Nitrogen noble gas -200. . . -150 ° C

The method according to the invention and the heat engine according to the invention for performing this method are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings; show it:

1 shows the cumulative efficiency of a heat engine with an initial efficiency of 35% over 20 cycles;

Figure 2 shows the efficiency of a heat engine accumulated over 200 cycles with an initial efficiency of 5%; FIG. 3 shows the pV diagram of a steam cycle process which is coupled with a gas cycle process according to the invention;

FIG. 4 shows the energy flows between the circular processes of the heat engine according to the invention;

FIG. 5 shows the Maxwell distribution and the fog condensation of the two working media A and AB;

FIG. 6 shows a detailed illustration of the individual functional modules of the heat engine according to the invention; and

Figure 7 is an illustration of the function blocks of a compact heat engine according to the invention.

FIG. 1 shows various courses of the efficiencies of a hypothetical heat engine over 20 cycles. The cycle process of the heat engine has a thermal efficiency of 35%. The heat engine has the same efficiency as long as no waste heat is returned to the cycle (course at 0%). If the waste heat that is emitted by it is fed back to the cycle to a certain extent over several cycles, the efficiency of the heat engine slowly increases. With waste heat recirculation of 80%, for example, the heat engine shown achieves an efficiency of about 70% after 20 cycles.

FIG. 2 shows the same process for a cyclic process with an efficiency of only 5%. As can be seen in FIG. 2, the efficiency of the heat engine increases from 80% to a value of approximately 20% with waste heat recirculation. With the help of waste heat recirculation, the efficiency of the heat engine could be roughly quadrupled compared to the efficiency of the cycle. In Figure 3, a steam cycle process (left pV diagram) and a gas cycle process (right pV diagram) are shown schematically in their material coupling. A simple process without multiple reheating is shown here as a steam cycle process. The method can also be applied to all other steam cycle processes. The steam cycle process contains six excellent points Dl to D6. The gas cycle process contains four excellent points G1 to G4. The individual steps are explained in detail below:

D1-D2 The liquid of the steam cycle is pumped from low to high pressure and fed to an evaporator at high pressure.

D2-D3 Working medium A is evaporated in the evaporator at high pressure with the addition of heat (Q _zu ) and converted from the liquid to the gaseous phase.

D3-D4 The steam is overheated, although this overheating is not absolutely necessary. If the machine is designed to use low-temperature heat, overheating can be eliminated.

D4-D5 The steam is released with the emission of wave work until its pressure corresponds to the mixture pressure of the gas cycle process. (Note: The point was shown in the hot steam area, but it can also be in the wet steam area).

D5-D6 In a conventional steam cycle process, this section would be the complete expansion of the steam down to the wet steam area. In the machine according to the invention, however, this process takes place in the gas cycle process. D6-D1 In the case of a conventional steam cycle process, this section would be the transfer of the steam cycle process medium A from the gaseous to the liquid phase, in that the condensation is forced by means of heat removal. The hatched area Q _ab corresponds to the waste heat from the steam cycle. In the method according to the invention, this process also takes place in the gas cycle process.

D5-G2 Transfer of the completely or partially relaxed gaseous working medium A of the steam cycle into the gas cycle process, and admixing the gaseous working medium A to the compressed gaseous working medium AB of the gas cycle process. Adding the working medium A into the gas mixture AB increases the relative humidity of the gas mixture AB with respect to component A.

The gas cycle process is explained below from its first step:

G1-G2 Adiabatic compression of the gas process working medium AB. As a result, the pressure and temperature of the medium AB rise and its relative humidity with respect to the component A decreases. At point G2, a quantity of substance of the medium A from the steam cycle process is mixed in, as described for the transition D5-G2.

G2-G3 The actual mixing process: Here the amount and thus the volume of the gas mixture AB in the gas cycle process increases by the amount of substance A supplied from the steam cycle process, and the relative humidity of the mixture AB with respect to the component A increases. The mixing process is shown isobar here, which is not absolutely necessary. This means that the mixing process also under pressure changes can be done. The mixing takes place with the release of wave work.

G3-G4 The gas mixture is expanded adiabatically with the release of wave work. The pressure and temperature of the working medium AB drop, and the relative humidity of the gas mixture AB with regard to its component A exceeds the saturation limit. The molecules of substance A with a higher dipole moment coagulate into droplets, releasing their kinetic energy to the particles AB remaining in the gas phase. Fog is formed under pressure and volume of the remaining amount of residual gas AB. The relative humidity of the gas phase AB with respect to substance A increases to 100%. The latent heat of condensation of the amount of substance A condensed as mist remains in the residual gas amount AB.

G4-G1 Decrease in volume due to liquid withdrawal: The mist is removed from the residual gas volume of the working medium AB via a phase separation in the conservative force field (preferably a centrifugal field) and returned to the steam cycle process as a liquid. The points G4 and Gl are actually very close together, so that the outline of the gas cycle process in the pV diagram results in almost a triangle.

G4-D1 This step describes the mass transfer with regard to the liquid working fluid A from the gas cycle process to the steam cycle process. The amount of liquid of substance A with a high molecular dipole moment which is withdrawn from the gas cycle process is thus fed back into the steam cycle process.

The area surrounded by the Dl-2-3-4-5-6-1 line corresponds to the maximum work that can be generated in the steam cycle process. The the area surrounded by the line Gl-2-3-4-1 corresponds to the maximum work that can be generated in the gas cycle process. The waste heat from the steam cycle process is transferred from the point D5 to point G2 as input heat to the gas cycle process with the exhaust gas from the steam cycle process working medium A, and the waste heat from the gas cycle process is transferred with the condensed liquid from point G4 to point D1 as input heat into the steam cycle process. Both cycle processes produce work and waste heat from the heat supplied. The combination of the two cycle processes in a heat engine means that it does not give off any waste heat to the environment.

FIG. 4 shows the energy flows in the heat engine according to the invention between the steam cycle process and the gas cycle process. The machine contains two cyclic processes, each of which generates shaft work (W _D and W _G ) and waste heat (Q _D and Q _G ) from the heat supplied. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the heat Q _βxcβrι the steam cycle _process . plus Q _G , and the heat Q _{D is} supplied to the gas cycle process. Because the two cycle processes mutually reuse their respective waste heat flow as supplied heat, the machine can completely heat the flow Q ^^ supplied from outside in wave work W _axter -. convert (less any radiated heat).

This is possible because, using the intermolecularly acting dipole moments of real gases at the microscopic level, fast (= hot) and slow (= cold) particles are separated by condensation through the formation of fog and subsequent separation in the conservative force field.

The energy transfer between the molecules in the gas phase takes place through elastic collision and is not subject to any directional restriction. At the molecular level, an elastic impact can result in a net transfer of kinetic energy (= heat) from a heavy and slow (= cold) impact partner to a light and fast (= hot) impact partner. Because the molecular speeds are subject to a statistical distribution according to Maxwell, there are always collision partners that are significantly faster or slower than would correspond to the macroscopically measured temperature. The gas mixture of molecules with large and small dipole moments therefore inevitably leads to a coagulation of molecules with a high dipole moment when the temperature drops, which then as heavier collision partners with elastic collision with molecules that have a smaller dipole moment lose even more kinetic energy (= heat). The drop in temperature is forced by the adiabatic expansion (see steps G3-G4), so that slow molecules with a large dipole moment must adhere to one another and release their kinetic energy to molecules with a low dipole moment. Because the transfer of the heat of condensation in the gas phase does not take place between bodies of different temperatures, but on a molecular level via the elastic collision between particles in the spectrum of Maxwell's velocity distribution, the second law of thermodynamics is preserved.

This process is shown in Figure 5. The left-hand diagram in FIG. 5 shows the Maxwell's velocity distribution of the gaseous mixture of the two working media A and B, where N (u) in each case indicates the number of molecules which have a specific velocity u. When cooling, fog condensation occurs through adiabatic condensation. A mixture of working media A and B with a reduced concentration of working medium A remains in the gaseous state (top right diagram in FIG. 5). The working medium A, on the other hand, forms droplets and can be removed from the gas phase, for example with the aid of a centrifuge (lower right diagram in FIG. 5).

A mass transfer takes place only between the two cycle processes within the machine and not with the environment. The machine can be constructed as a closed system, the system limit of which is only for thermal energy and wave work is permeable. Since the machine does not have to return waste heat to the environment, it can use low-temperature thermal energy as a heat source. This requires that the steam cycle process have a phase transition temperature below the temperature of the low-temperature heat source. Otherwise, the low temperature heat cannot be used to evaporate the steam cycle working medium. Since the radiation losses are low when the thermal energy is supplied at a low temperature, the efficiency of the machine is even better when using low-temperature heat than when using high-temperature heat.

The heat engine according to the invention can be designed as a piston machine (motor) or as a turbo machine (turbine). Since a centrifugal field is advantageous for phase separation of the mist, a turbomachine is preferably used, since such a centrifugal field can easily be generated in the rotating parts of a turbine.

Two flow machines which are suitable for implementing the method according to the invention are described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

FIG. 6 shows an extensive system which is suitable for a steam cycle process with overheating, and FIG. 7 shows a compact system which, as a minimal configuration, only contains the absolutely necessary system elements.

Both figures only contain the function blocks of the respective machines without any design, as well as a representation of the material flows between the blocks.

As shown in Figure 6, contains one according to the invention

Heat engine at least the functional components: pump, evaporator, steam turbine, mixing chamber, gas turbine, condenser,

Centrifuge and compressor. The steam cycle contains the building blocks: pump, evaporator, steam turbine and condenser. The gas cycle process contains the building blocks: gas turbine and compressor. The mass transfer between the two cycle processes takes place by means of a mixing chamber and a centrifuge. The shaft work consumers are the compressor, pump and centrifuge, which are driven by the gas and / or steam turbine. At the same time, the steam and / or gas turbine deliver wave work to an external consumer.

Liquid working medium A is fed to the evaporator via the pump, evaporated at high pressure with the addition of heat and expanded in the steam turbine with the emission of wave work. The exhaust gas from the steam turbine is mixed in the mixing chamber with the working gas AB compressed by the compressor in the gas cycle process and expanded via the gas turbine, releasing wave work. After leaving the gas turbine, mist is created in the condenser. The mist is removed from the gas phase of the gas cycle process in the centrifuge and fed back into the vapor cycle process as a liquid via the pump.

In FIG. 7, the steam and gas turbine function blocks and the mixing chamber in the turbine module and the condenser and centrifuge function blocks are combined in the condensation centrifuge module. The gas streams of both cycle processes are brought together directly in a turbine, the exhaust gas of which is separated into the two phases in the condensation centrifuge. The pump and compressor return the respective fluids back into the circuit. Such a unit can be built very compact.

The heat engine according to the invention can be used both in the high-temperature range and in the low-temperature range, provided that the phase transition temperature of the steam cycle is below the temperature of the heat source. Since the heat engine does not require a mass transfer with the system environment, it is completely environmentally neutral. in the Materials that cannot be used in the high temperature range due to a lack of heat resistance can be used in the low temperature range.

In this way, applications can be opened up for low-temperature heat engines that have no mass exchange with the environment, which conventional machines according to the state of the art cannot access in the high-temperature range.

Claims

claims

1. A method for converting thermal energy into mechanical energy in a heat engine with a first thermodynamic cycle, in which part of the waste heat from the first cycle is returned to the first cycle, characterized in that at least a second cycle is provided, the waste heat of the first cycle to the second cycle and the waste heat of the second cycle is fed to the first cycle.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the first and the second cycle run simultaneously without mass transfer with the environment.

3. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the first cycle process is a steam cycle process and the second cycle process is a gas cycle process.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a working medium A is used in the steam cycle process, which contains a substance or a mixture of substances with a high molecular dipole moment, and that in the gas cycle process a Arbeitsmeditim AB is used that contains a mixture AB of the gaseous phase of the steam cycle working medium A and a second component B, which contains a substance or a substance mixture with a low molecular dipole moment.

5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the heat energy supplied from the outside of the heat engine is preferably used for the evaporation of the liquid vapor process working medium A.

6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a mass transfer takes place between the gas cycle process and the steam cycle process.

7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the steam cycle working medium A participates cyclically in both cycles through mass transfer.

8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the gaseous phase of the steam cycle working medium A is mixed with the gaseous phase of the gas cycle process working medium AB.

9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a cyclic phase change takes place liquid-gaseous-liquid of a working medium A in the steam cycle process with the emission of wave work.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a cyclical change in quantity or concentration of the steam cycle working medium A with respect to the gas cycle working medium AB takes place in the gas cycle process with the emission of wave work.

11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a condensation of the steam cycle working medium A takes place essentially within and during the expansion phase of the gas cycle working medium AB.

12. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the mist created by the phase transition of the steam cycle process working medium A is separated from the gas cycle process working medium AB with the aid of a conservative force field, preferably a centrifugal field. riert and the working medium A of the steam cycle as a liquid is supplied again.

13. The method according to any one of claims 4 to 12, characterized in that the steam cycle working medium A and the second component B of the gas cycle working medium AB can be present in the combinations:

A = water and B = air;

A = carbon dioxide and B = air / nitrogen;

A = ammonia and B = air / nitrogen;

A = cold mixture and B = air / nitrogen;

A = nitrogen and B = hydrogen; or

A = nitrogen and B = noble gas.

14. Heat engine for performing the method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by a first thermodynamic cycle and a second thermodynamic cycle, wherein the waste heat of the first cycle is fed to the second cycle and the waste heat of the second cycle is fed to the first cycle, and wherein the the first cycle is a steam cycle and the second cycle is a gas cycle.

15. Heat engine according to claim 14, characterized in that the heat engine contains at least the function blocks pump, evaporator, steam turbine, mixing chamber, gas turbine, condenser, centrifuge and compressor.

16. Heat engine according to one of claims 15, characterized in that the liquid working medium A of the steam cycle is fed to the evaporator while increasing the pressure, evaporates there with the supply of thermal energy and is expanded in the steam turbine with the emission of wave work.

17. Heat engine according to one of claims 15 and 16, characterized in that the exhaust gas from the steam turbine is mixed in the mixing chamber with the compressed working medium AB of the gas cycle process, expanded in the gas turbine with the emission of wave work and brought to fog formation by expansion in a condenser, that the mist of the steam process working medium A is separated in the centrifuge and fed as liquid to the evaporator via the pump and that the remaining gas cycle working working medium AB is fed again from the centrifuge to the mixing chamber via the compressor.

18. Heat engine according to one of claims 15 to 17, characterized in that the compressor, pump and centrifuge are driven by the steam turbine and / or the gas turbine.

19. Heat engine according to one of claims 15 to 18, characterized in that the steam turbine and / or the gas turbine emit wave work to an external consumer.

20. Heat engine according to one of claims 15 to 19, characterized in that the functional components steam turbine, gas turbine and mixing chamber to form a functional unit turbine, and the functional components condenser and centrifuge are combined to form a functional unit condensation centrifuge.

21. Heat engine according to one of claims 14 to 20, characterized in that the phase transition temperature of the steam process working medium is below the ambient temperature of the heat engine.