Scroll Expander with Heating Structure and Their Systems for Distributed Power Source

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Scroll compressor has been used extensively for refrigeration since the early 1980's for its improved efficiency, greater reliability, smoother operation, lower noise and vibration. And also, nowadays, the scroll mechanism is used for expander even though in niche market yet. But scroll expander has not been used for high-temperature and high-pressure gas, because the continuous expansion of the gas causes a wide range of temperature distribution over the whole scroll wrap that leads to differential thermal expansion of scroll elements, which results in system vibrations, noise and efficiency losses. For the scroll expander to produce power more efficiently, all of radial and radial clearances between scroll wrap must be the same. In order to reduce differential thermal expansion in addition to improvements in thermal efficiency and specific power, we propose a scroll expander with heating structure. Heat-pipe heating structure is considered as the most effective method to heat the scroll expander at a uniform temperature. This paper includes some results of preliminary study of the scroll expander with heating structure and proposals of their systems for power generation and refrigeration.