Argon ICE

[matt brown]

Has anyone heard of the Argon engine ? No, not a neuvo chic warp drive for Trekkies, but an AIP style ICE where some of the usual air is replaced with argon. Sounds nutty, but it's really quite clever. Argon is monatomic and air is diatomic, so argon increases temperature faster than air when adiabatically compressed. So, substituting some air with argon will provide a higher compression temperature, thus higher efficiency (due Carnot) while also lowering exhaust temperature (cause the argon temp conversely drops faster than air). Unfortunately, most current researchers appear grantmeisters mooching off green funds, so they're chasing hydrogen fuel. Scrubbing and recycling the argon is no problem, but they're discovering various combustion issues, hydrogen or gasoline. How can I get paid to eat donuts and scribble on napkins ? i dreamt up this same scheme over 20 yrs ago during a late night sidebar comparing mono vs dia adiabatic indices, but my magic fuel was acetone.

[Bret]

I was thinking of using acetone, low boiling point and should make the sterling engine work more efficiently? As is heavier then air, but not sure if work make it sluggish or not.
Kind regards
Bret