Jan Ridders

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Jan Ridders is a Dutch machinist, engineer and machine designer.

Contents

Ridders' designs, freely distributed, [1] along with assistance to engineers building these motors, has brought him world reputation. [2] He has designed and created motors which had previously been conceived only theoretically, such as a low temperature difference Stirling engine which works on heat at the tip of the hand. [3] These motors, besides spurring engineer's imagination [4] have also been followed up by some companies selling products based on these Ridder's design. [5]

He is the maker of small Stirling Engines, "flame eater", steam engines and other types of small practical heat engines. Ridders gives free plans for building his motors and offers advice with his experience in various places on the web.

After years of stagnation, once shown working models and the simplicity of the design, companies began to invest in developing concentrated light thermal solar energy solutions. [6]

Biography

Ridders studied physics at the Technical College of Eindhoven and continued to work for 40 years at Philips company in Roosendaal. [7]

Upon retiring in October 2001 he began designing and building machinery, with skills which he taught himself at Philips, by closely observing their practice, while working with the mechanical department. [8] In 2004 he received the Dutch Glacius award for his continued contribution to the Dutch National Association of Model Builders [9] He regularly wrote in articles in "De Modelbouwer" Magazine, as well as the UK based Model Engineer magazine and the US "ModelBuilder" magazine. [10]

Until 2007 he had been building steam engine models, but then turned to more elaborate and unusual Heat Engines, especially vacuum engines such as the flame thrower, Stirling and Rankyne engines (closed cycle Butane based steam engines). He has also been building models of unusual 2 stroke and 4 stroke motors.

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Reciprocating engine Engine utilising one or more reciprocating pistons.

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Watt steam engine Industrial Revolution era stream engine design

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Stirling engine Closed-cycle regenerative heat engine

A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas at different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work. More specifically, the Stirling engine is a closed-cycle regenerative heat engine with a permanent gaseous working fluid. Closed-cycle, in this context, means a thermodynamic system in which the working fluid is permanently contained within the system, and regenerative describes the use of a specific type of internal heat exchanger and thermal store, known as the regenerator. Strictly speaking, the inclusion of the regenerator is what differentiates a Stirling engine from other closed-cycle hot air engines.

Compressed air car

A compressed-air car is a compressed-air vehicle fuelled by pressure vessels filled with compressed air and propelled by the release and expansion of the air within a Pneumatic motor or motor adapted to compressed air. The car can be powered solely by air, or combined with gasoline, diesel, ethanol, or an electric plant with regenerative braking. Compressed-air cars operate according to a thermodynamic process where air cools down when expanding and heats up when being compressed and those are thermal energy losses that drain the capacity factor of compressed air, however with the recent developments in isothermal compressed air energy storage ICAES plants, compressed air storage has reached 4 times the capacity factor of lithium-ion batteries with 2.7Mj/kg or 3.6Mj/m3 and in 2020 there has been developments in ICAV car or isothermal compressed air vehicle published by Dr. Reza Alizade Evrin from Ontario Tech University with a first prototype that uses low pressure air tanks and exhaust air recovery to power a paraffin heat exchanger system with a global energy efficiency of 74% with a driving range of 140 km. This efficiency and range can be increased by using storage tank as car chassis structure, high pressure tanks, new rotary engines, and a more efficient heat exchanger, this breakthrough together with the availability of recycled and bio-based thermoplastics for tanks and pneumatic components and renewable energy means this technology can be the basis of a free green transportation revolution with energy and circular industry decentralization with open source numerical control machines fabrication including additive manufacturing while multistage air compressors and coolers or hydraulic pumps can be attached directly to VAWT wind turbines, stirling engine with a parabolic or fresnel lens solar concentrator or river, tidal, wave hydropower turbine with no electric energy or electric grid needed nor energy conversion inefficiencies or additional energy storage, also instead of onboard heat recovery system there can be used a refillable molten salt reservoir in a heat exchanger system.

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Parabolic trough

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Quasiturbine

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Model engineering

Model engineering is the pursuit of constructing proportionally-scaled miniature working representations of full-sized machines. It is a branch of metalworking with a strong emphasis on artisanry, as opposed to mass production. While now mainly a hobby, in the past it also had commercial and industrial purpose. The term 'model engineering' was in use by 1888. In the United States, the term 'home shop machinist' is often used instead, although arguably the scope of this term is broader.

Hot air engine External combustion engine using air as the working fluid

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Micro combined heat and power, micro-CHP, µCHP or mCHP is an extension of the idea of cogeneration to the single/multi family home or small office building in the range of up to 50 kW. Usual technologies for the production of heat and power in one common process are e.g. internal combustion engines, micro gas turbines, stirling engines or fuel cells.

Thermal energy storage

Thermal energy storage (TES) is achieved with widely different technologies. Depending on the specific technology, it allows excess thermal energy to be stored and used hours, days, months later, at scales ranging from the individual process, building, multiuser-building, district, town, or region. Usage examples are the balancing of energy demand between daytime and nighttime, storing summer heat for winter heating, or winter cold for summer air conditioning. Storage media include water or ice-slush tanks, masses of native earth or bedrock accessed with heat exchangers by means of boreholes, deep aquifers contained between impermeable strata; shallow, lined pits filled with gravel and water and insulated at the top, as well as eutectic solutions and phase-change materials.

Nevada Solar One

Nevada Solar One is a concentrated solar power plant, with a nominal capacity of 64 MW and maximum steam turbine power output up to 72 MW net (75 MW gross), spread over an area of 400 acres (160 ha). The projected CO2 emissions avoided is equivalent to taking approximately 20,000 cars off the road. The project required an investment of $266 million USD, and the project officially went into operation in June 2007. Electricity production is estimated to be 134 GWh (gigawatt hours) per year.

Timeline of heat engine technology

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Advanced steam technology

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Concentrated solar power Use of mirror or lens assemblies to heat a working fluid for electricity generation

Concentrated solar power systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a receiver. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat, which drives a heat engine connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction.

Leonard L. Northrup Jr.

Leonard "Lynn" L. Northrup Jr. was an American engineer who was a pioneer of the commercialization of solar thermal energy. Influenced by the work of John Yellott, Maria Telkes, and Harry Tabor, Northrup's company designed, patented, developed and manufactured some of the first commercial solar water heaters, solar concentrators, solar-powered air conditioning systems, solar power towers and photovoltaic thermal hybrid systems in the United States. The company he founded became part of ARCO Solar, which in turn became BP Solar, which became the largest solar energy company in the world. Northrup was a prolific inventor with 14 US patents.

Applications of the Stirling engine Practical uses for Sterling engine technology

Applications of the Stirling engine range from mechanical propulsion to heating and cooling to electrical generation systems. A Stirling engine is a heat engine operating by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas, the "working fluid", at different temperature levels such that there is a net conversion of heat to mechanical work. The Stirling cycle heat engine can also be driven in reverse, using a mechanical energy input to drive heat transfer in a reversed direction.

References

  1. discussion on Ridders' quick reply to emails on HMEM - machine builder hobby site.
  2. Jan Ridder's engines at the "Machinist Blog" website
  3. Easy to make LTD (Low Temperature Difference) Stirling engine
  4. Example (one of many) of discussion on self made design inspired by Ridder's design. This design has been shown extensively on the web, for example at the TreeHugger site
  5. See external links
  6. An example of recent development Archived 2009-05-29 at archive.today of thermal solar solutions using concentrated light. This solution was developed with funding from Boeing.
  7. Bio (in Dutch) Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine at Majosoft scale models (online hobbyist) website
  8. According to the bio on his personal website
  9. NLS Dutch model builders association and image of award on Jan's personal website.
  10. The carborator page Archived 2010-12-11 at the Wayback Machine on the magazine's website, among other articles.