The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 03, 2014
Filed:
Jun. 06, 2008
Applicant:
David R. Mills, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Inventor:
David R. Mills, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Assignee:
Areva Solar, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B60K 16/00 (2006.01); F02C 7/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
Combined cycle power plants and related methods are disclosed here. In the plants, a mediating thermal energy storage unit is used to store waste or residual thermal energy recovered from a heat engine employing a top thermodynamic cycle of the combined cycle power plant, so that the stored residual thermal energy may be used as an energy source in a bottom thermodynamic cycle of the power plant. In the combined cycle power plants described here, the heat engine employing a top cycle may comprise a Brayton cycle heat engine and the heat engine employing the bottom thermodynamic cycle may be a Rankine cycle heat engine.