alternator and two tanks. The rest can be added as needed to increase the output.

The third pic uses what I call a lenz boiler to add heat to the system when input temps are low. It also has a seperate heating and cooling system from the drive system and uses heat exchangers to heat and cool the gas. This way water can be used as a heat transfer fluid while hydraulic fluid is used to drive the system. Also since the water system ca operate at a lower pressure, less expensive valves and pumps are needed. A small electric motor normally drives the water pump and gas pumps but the system can use a hydraulic motor to drive them along with and lenz boilers through electric clutches. It’s use will reduce the run time slightly but should keep the output power level up to normal.

The fourth pic is just simple version of the one above without the lenz boiler section. It also uses smaller tanks.

The picture at left is what a lenz boiler would look like. It is basically an axial alternator but with shorted iron coils. The lenz forces on the iron coils and the fact that the coils ends are shorted together cause the coils to heat up causing the gas pumped through it to heat up and expand raising the pressure inside the boiler. This is designed to be used with propane, butane or freon.

The next picture is an alternative setup that uses an air motor between the tanks to generate a little more power instead of just bleeding the gas to equalize at cycle end.

This is a slightly different setup where the propane that provides the operating pressure is fed into a flash boiler to create the pressure. It is also dumped into a condenser at the end of the cycle to aid in speeding up the next cycle. Since this design uses a pump to feed the propane. It can have more control over the average psi in the hydraulic fluid tanks. This would allow the system to maintain maximum psi throughout a cycle and get the most power output possible.

                      Hot water powered Combination engine

This is another simple combination between the “drum” engine and the “micro-tide” design.This particular setup uses a pelton turbine for the alternator driver.
All the parts for it could be bought right off of store shelves. They would currently cost somewhere in the range of $7000 for a system built from completely new parts. ( Propane tanks this size are very expensiveand hard to get.  The turbine retails for about $1500 from Harris Turbine Co.
  This design would have about a 12 minute run time between cycling between tanks. The output would be a maximum of about 350 watts at 12 volts dc. This system cycles the same water through the water turbine and the heating and cooling section. It would work ok but it is far too expensive for the power output available.

Hot water powered Combination engine

This is an alternative version of the ‘Micro-Tide’ system 1 that uses external heat exchangers. This is a low power system that would generate about 400 watts max at 12 volts dc. It uses just the propane and a sealed radial piston engine turning an alternator of the axial windmill style.