A Method of Synthesizing Energy Conversion Technologies from Elementary Conversion Processes

Abstract

The efficient use of energy is becoming more important as emerging problems such as global warming and global sustainable development are drawing more attention recently. A way to enlarge technological domain for efficient energy use would be the systematic search of efficient energy conversion technologies by means of synthesizing a variety of knowledge about energy conversion.
This paper proposes a synthesis method of energy conversion technologies from elementary energy conversion processes, using qualitative descriptions of elementary processes as well as quantitative indeces to evaluate conversion efficiency.
A computer program writte in C language is developed on an engineering workstation to implement the proposed method. Examples of the synthesis of thermodynamic cycles from elementary processes, including evaporation and condensation of working fluid, are also given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.