Inventing a way
Technology
Stratitrope's Heat Pump Generators are devices capable of simultaneously providing heating, cooling and electrical generation for residential, commercial, and industrial applications. Our products incorporate an intrinsic heat pump, not powered by electricity, but by sources like natural gas, RNG, thermal solar, geothermal, and industrial waste heat streams.
The devices are driven by a patented technology called stratitropic processes. They create powerful effects that achieve cooling, remarkable reductions in energy use, and enhanced cogeneration.
All of our devices use a 21st century reinvention of the Stirling engine, designed to best capture the Stratitropic effect. Independent displacers, actuated by an advanced control system, replace Cam shafts and rhombic drives. In addition to multiple cell-separators to capture the stratitropic effect, a variable-back-pressure device allows us to change cycle response for each stroke. A state-of-the-art control system is essential, using the information from each stroke to optimize the next, based on changes in demand and the environment.
​
Our heat pump generator heats a home and provides its electricity using 28% less energy than a mid-efficiency furnace would use just to heat!
This example is based on the heating and electrical requirement for a mid sized Chicago home on a cold winter's day. A mid efficiency furnace would require 12.5 kW of heat simply to deliver the 10 kW of heat required. A typical high efficiency furnace would require 10.5.
In our example, we meet the electrical need and heating for 28% less usage than the mid efficiency furnace.
​
How did we do this? The heat pump effect allows us to extract added heat from the environment, increase its temperature and put it in the home.
What is a Stratitrope?
The Stratitropic process is a patented way of splitting up a gas then heating each portion separately so they create even higher temperatures. We then use these higher temperatures to generate more power with less energy than existing generators. We do the same with cooling. We split up a gas then cool each portion separately, which lets us reach remarkably low temperatures to provide air conditioning, while generating power.
​
The word Stratitropic is a combination of the words stratified and polytropic. Stratified means "formed or arranged in strata or layers." Polytropic describes a specific thermodynamic process that includes both work and heat transfer.
Conventional heating
Most of the world's electricity is produced using thermodynamic cycles. Essentially, a gas or other fluid is heated which causes it to increase in pressure. It is then allowed to expand performing work as it expands in a turbine or piston. A cooling source (heat sink) then brings it back to its original conditions.
​
In our example, by doubling the temperature from 300K to 600K, at constant volume, we double the pressure according to Boyle's law.
The maximum efficiency that a heat engine achieves increases with the difference between it's hot and cold temperatures.
Stratitropic Heating
As opposed to conventional homogenous heating, Stratitropic heating is a heterogeneous process where each cell is separated from the other. In the diagram example, the gas is separated into two cells by a single separator. It is free to move up and down but is insulated to keep heat from crossing the separator.
​
Instead of heating the entire gas at one time, in step one, we only heat the lower half of the gas. It expands as it reaches the heat source temperature. As it expands, it compresses the other cell. This in turn increases its temperature to 343K based on adiabatic expansion in our example.
​
Next the upper cell is heated to Th=600K, causing the lower cell to be compressed thus heating adiabatically to 652K. In absolute terms we have increased the temperature nearly 10% above the source temperature by adding a single separator! The final temperature and pressure are nearly 5 percent above using the conventional heating method. Cooling two cells would have a similar effect, creating a temperature below the heat sink temperature.
​
Our technology uses these effects to produce cooling, heating, and to generate power using significantly less input energy.
The Power of Stratitropes
Boosted
Efficiency
Significantly increase the efficiency of generating electricity by boosting the Hot/Cold temperature ratios, using subcooled temperatures to generate power, and enhancing regenerator recovery
Simultaneous Effects
Our products can produce heating, cooling and power simultaneously. This can be used in a variety of commercial and industrial applications where heat can be extracted to cool (computer systems), then used elsewhere for heating and power generation.
Future
Ready
Our technology reduces the amount of renewable energy required. This makes going green much more affordable, and let's be honest, more likely. We can accept all renewable sources like RNG, thermal solar and hydrogen as they become more readily available.
Enhanced Cogeneration
Mid temperature discharge can be used as winter heating for residential or commercial uses such as greenhouses. This acts as enhanced cogeneration due to the heat pump effect
This example uses helium to to demonstrate the potential Stratitrope developed using a high temperature heat source of 327C (600K) and a low temperature heat sink of 27C (300K). The temperature differential for a conventional heat engine could not exceed 300 degrees (600-300). In our case we have increased it to 426 degrees (401+25).
​
This is a remarkable improvement. The coldest temperature is 97 degrees below the coldest heat sink temperature and the hottest temperature is 184 degrees above the heat source temperature. In the power industry it is well understood that performance and efficiency improve as you increase the hottest temperature and reduced the minimum temperature.