Fireless Steam
Steam trains have had several versions in which there was no fuel other than superheated stream on board. One could either load up the boiler by replacing the water or heating it with an internal heater that was fed from an external combustion source, or one could carry a store of heat to heat the steam along the way. The two methods where water is replaced and heat is stored lend themselves readily for use wiht solar energy"Modern manufacturing techniques can enable long, high-pressure accumulator tanks to be built out of alloy steels, at very competitive prices. A modern fireless design based on traditional concepts, could use multiple high-pressure tanks, each with its own perforated recharging pipe at tank bottom. Each tank could also be supplied with its own onboard coiled monotube boiler. Monotube boilers have been built that operate at over 1,000-psig, with 200-Hp thermal capability and up to 85% heat transfer efficiency from combustion to steam generation. Theoretically, such boilers would only be used for energy recharging where no external supply of high-pressure superheated steam is available. Performance improvements and extended operating range would result from increased thermal storage capacity and improved piston efficiency. Most thermal recharges would be done using stationary, high-pressure water-tube boilers (up to 2,000-psig) fired by gasified renewable (local) bio-fuels, or solar thermal energy stored at high temperature. A multi-tank accumulator fireless locomotive could be fully recharged within 15-30 minutes." http://solarsteamtrain.com/cms/content/view/13/28/ source
"Recent advances in thermal energy storage technology have involved combining similar metallic oxide compounds so as to lower the overall melting temperature while raising the latent heat of fusion. These advances come at a time when new corrosion-resistant, high thermal-conductivity ceramic material such as silicon-carbide and silicon-nitride are becoming commercially available. Materials now available from the aluminium industry offer the potential to develop materials with high latent heats of fusion and high thermal conductivity and that melt at temperatures that can generate steam."
Source
The use of a fireless turbine would be possible in trucks as well
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