| Generally people relate 'steam power' to the slow | | | | Clean Power Technologies have created an |
| moving steam trains and boats of an age long since | | | | experimental model in which engine exhaust at 750C, |
| left in the dust, a sentimental picture of a Victorian | | | | the typical for a lorry, is run through a steam |
| railway perhaps... not exactly state of the art | | | | accumulator which heats water to 360C plus, creating |
| eco-power you may say. However steam power is | | | | high pressure steam which they are ultimately aiming |
| getting a re-vamp thanks to a company who are | | | | to pump back to the main engine to drive the |
| trying to make the steam-engine more efficient and | | | | pistons. However at the moment they are using the |
| compatible with modern day technology. | | | | steam to run refrigeration units transporting frozen |
| Clean Power Technologies, in Newhaven on the | | | | goods on the trucks. A demonstration truck is under |
| English south coast, are trying to create a car that | | | | construction to be completed by the end of October. |
| runs on steam power. They are developing steam | | | | Once they have completed the refrigeration units, |
| hybrid engines that cut down and reuse the huge | | | | the company is planning to expand to powering the |
| amount of energy wasted by the internal combustion | | | | electronics and air conditioning for boats, and |
| engine. | | | | hopefully by 2011 a complete steam hybrid car. |
| "When you talk of steam people think you are going | | | | The plans are supported by Dr Ralph Clague, a |
| backwards," said Abdul Mitha, the company's CEO | | | | mechanical engineer at Imperial College London, |
| and president, "Anywhere where you are wasting a | | | | "Recycling exhaust heat and energy that is rejected |
| lot of heat, we can go in, capture the heat and turn | | | | from the engine has got to be the way forward in |
| it into energy savings ... Steam has tremendous | | | | the future." He feels that there has been no need to |
| power. If it can drive a steam locomotive, why can't | | | | improve the efficiency before, however people are |
| it drive an automotive engine?" | | | | now faced with minimal fuel supplies and rocketing |
| Of the energy in a vehicles petrol tank, just 27% is | | | | prices, "A tank of petrol or a tank of diesel is such an |
| converted into forward motion, 33% is spent cooling | | | | incredibly good energy store that we have been able |
| the engine, 4% is lost as friction and a huge 36% is | | | | to afford to throw some of it away up until now." |
| lost as exhaust heat. The company is aiming to | | | | Although these ideas have been around in the |
| harness the wasted heat that is pumped out of the | | | | industry for a while, Clean Power technology is |
| exhaust and convert it into useful power. "There is a | | | | addressing them practically and productively. "It's a |
| lot of heat that is created and totally wasted. Clean | | | | perfectly feasible idea ... Obviously now with rising oil |
| Power Technologies aims to recover 40% of this | | | | prices etc it becomes essential to extract more |
| exhaust heat", Mitha. | | | | energy from the fuel you are putting in." Clague. |