AVE stands for Atmospheric Vortex Engine. An Atmospheric Vortex Engine is a machine for producing a controlled vortex and for capturing the mechanical energy produced when heat is carried upward by convection. More work is produced by the expansion of a warm gas than is required to compress the same gas after it has been cooled. The process is responsible for tornadoes. Here is a photo of a cooling tower at a Spanish nuclear power plant that has been touched to show what an AVE could look like.

The lower half of the drawing shows a side view of an AVE. The upper half of the drawing shows a plan view of an AVE. The vortex is formed by admitting warm air in a circular arena via tangential entry ducts thereby causing the air to spin about the vertical axis and a vortex to form over the center of the arena. A roof with a circular opening at its center causes a vortex to form. The air is heated or humidified in heat exchangers located upstream of the tangential entries. The mechanical energy is produced in peripheral turbines. The reduced pressure at the base of the vortex is the driving force for the flow. The vortex would look like a small tornado at the centre of a large arena. There is no equipment near the vortex base because anything near the vortex could interfere with vortex formation.

Solar Chimney conceptual drawing

The AVE replaces the physical chimney with centrifugal force in a vortex. The AVE eliminates the solar collector by using waste heat or natural low temperature heat sources. The thermodynamic basis of the AVE is the same as that of the solar chimney. The solar chimney at the upper left was built in Spain in the 1980’s had a chimney 200 m high and an electrical output of 50 kW. It operated successfully for 7 years. The proposed Australian solar tower at the lower left would have a chimney 1 km high and an electrical capacity of 200 MW. A chimney is a cylinder in radial compression; at any level the pressure is less inside than outside. The glass covered solar collector increases the air temperature by approximately 20°C. The pressure difference at the base of the chimney, the draft, is proportional to the temperature difference and to the chimney height. The AVE replaces the physical wall of the chimney with centrifugal force in a vortex. Notice how short the solar chimneys on the left are compared to the AVE on the right. For a given air flow power production is proportional to draft and draft is proportional to temperature difference and to chimney height. With a chimney 1000 m high the 50 kW of the Spanish chimney could have produced with a temperature difference of 4°C. With a chimney 10 km high the 50 kW of the Spanish chimney could have produced with a temperature difference of 0.4°C. With a chimney high enough there is no need for a solar collector. There are many natural sources of surface heat warmer than the overlying air.

Prototype Vortex Here are photographs of vortices produced with a 4 m diameter prototype in the summer of 2008.

Three dimensional illustration of the Lambton College vortex engine prototype

THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION CAME FIRST In 1824, Sadi Carnot wrote: to the flow of heat is due all movement including wind and precipitation. He simply considered how much mechanical energy can be produced when the heat is carried upward with Carnot engines. There is a potential for producing mechanical energy whenever heat flows from a hot source to a cold sink. The heat carried upward by convection in the atmosphere averages 102 W/m2 of which 24 W/m2 is sensible heat and 78 W/m2 is latent heat. Ideal conversion efficiency averages 12% because the heat is received and given up at average temperatures of 290 K and 255 K. There is a potential of converting approximately 12% of the heat carried upward by convection to mechanical energy. 12% is an average efficiency. For heat carried up to the upper troposphere where the temperature is 200 K, the conversion efficiency can be 30%. The heating of the atmosphere from the bottom by solar radiation and the cooling of the upper troposphere by infrared radiation to space require upward heat convection. Producing mechanical energy requires a mechanism for capturing the work; there must an expander with a shaft to take the work out of the system. Without a capture mechanism, conservation of energy requires the production of heat instead of mechanical energy. In the atmosphere there is no mechanism for capturing the work and therefore most of the work production potential is not realized. Upward convection is occurring naturally; capturing work requires the invention of a mechanism for doing so.

This figure shows the energy production potential of the Atmospheric Vortex Engine. The numbers are staggering: The solar energy received by the Earth is 174,000 TW, The global electrical energy production rate is 2 TW, The total thermal energy produced by humans is 15 TW, The heat carried upward by convection in the atmosphere averages 52,000 TW, Converting 12% of the heat carried upward by convection to mechanical would produce 6,000 TW. The mechanical energy production potential of atmospheric convection is 3000 our electric energy production. The mechanical energy production potential of atmospheric convection is 400 our total energy production.

A Comparison of the Earth’s Stored Energy Resources Crude Oil Reserves Latent heat of water vapor in the bottom kilometer of the atmosphere Heat content of tropical ocean water 100 m layer, 3°C Here is a comparison of the Earth’s stored energy resources. The latent heat content of the water vapor in the bottom kilometer of the atmosphere is twice the heat content of all the Earth’s petroleum reserves. The sensible heat available by cooling the top 100 m of tropical water by 3°C is 20 times as much as the heat content of the oil reserves. The heat released in an average hurricane is 5 x 1019 Joules/day. Enough to cool a strip of ocean 500 km long by 100 km wide and 100 m deep by 3°C. At the present consumption rate the remaining world’s oil reserve will be used up in approximately 30 years. The cooling effect of hurricanes on sea water and its replenishment time are clearly visible on infrared satellite photos. 100 m depth 1 km height 7.3 x 1021 J 13 x 1021 J 130 x 1021 J Replenishment times 108 years 10 days 100 days

This diagram shows how an AVE can be combined with a conventional power plant. The brown bottom half of the diagram represents a conventional coal power plant. The green upper half represents the AVE. Conventional thermal engines operate in the lower half of the diagram and reject heat at temperatures close to the temperature at the bottom of the atmosphere. Conventional thermal engines need a temperature difference of at least 100°C; but efficiency is improved by maximizing hot source temperature. Using a vortex to carry the heat upward would permit rejecting heat at the temperature at the top of the top of the troposphere thereby increasing cycle efficiency. A combined vortex engine could increase the overall efficiency of a power plant from 35% to 48%. The vortex engine permits the use of heat at temperatures too low to be useful when the heat sink is the temperature at the bottom of the atmosphere.