The Marnoch heat engine (MHE) is a new type of heat engine currently under development at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. The MHE can use waste or collected heat at temperatures that are currently unusable or not eco- nomically viable to use by conventional technologies. The MHE operates by using a heat source to heat the air in one heat exchanger and cool the air in another. This creates a pressure di erence. This pressure di erence drives a two-way piston connected to a ywheel. A generator connected to the ywheel converts the me- chanical energy of the ywheel into electricity. This thesis presents a simulation of the current MHE prototype. The simulation is designed to be easily customized to allow it to model the performance of future possible MHE installations and predict their performance. The simulation is shown to accurately model the performance of the MHE prototype by running under conditions similar to those found in the lab, and comparing its results to collected data from the prototype. Simulations were also run to show the model's ability to model possible applications with di erent operating conditions and physical components. / UOIT

The Marnoch Heat Engine (MHE) is a recently patented type of new heat engine that produces electricity from lower temperature heat sources. The MHE utilizes lower temperature differences to generate electricity than any currently available conventional technologies. Heat can be recovered from a variety of sources to generate electricity, i.e., waste heat from thermal power plants, geothermal, or solar energy. This thesis examines the performance of an MHE demonstration unit, which uses air and a pneumatic piston assembly to convert mechanical flow work from pressure differences to electricity. This thesis finds that heat exchangers and the piston assembly do not need to be co-located, which allows benefits of positioning the heat exchangers in various configurations. This thesis presents a laboratory-scale, proof-of-concept device, which has been built and tested at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada. It also presents a thermodynamic analysis of the current system. Based on the MHE results, component modifications are made to improve the thermal performance and efficiency. The current configuration has an efficiency of about thirty percent of the maximum efficiency of a Carnot heat engine operating in the temperature range of 0oC to 100oC. The analysis and experimental studies allow future scale-up of the MHE into a pre-commercial facility for larger scale production of electricity from waste heat. / UOIT

The Marnoch heat engine (MHE) is a new type of power generation device that is under research and development at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. In this thesis, the transient heat transfer behaviour of the source heat exchanger of the Marnoch heat engine is studied, and its operation for laminar and turbulent flows is modelled. The temperature variations of the working fluid, the heating fluid and the wall, are calculated. The temperature distribution of the fluids and the wall over the length of the heat exchanger is also calculated. It is found that the temperature of the working fluid rises sharply to a peak and then gradually decreases. The wall temperature decreases exponentially, and the temperature of the heating fluid falls sharply, and then gradually decreases. A base model for the step change in the mass flow of the working fluid is developed and compared against past works for the purpose of validation. / UOIT