WHat's the big fly in this ointment?
The size of the radiator (or "condensor" as it would be called) to convert all that steam back into water.
It would have to be about 10 feet wide and 4 feet high, using the best available heat transfer technology, to do the job for even a 150 horsepower engine.
It won't work; that's why we don't have steam cars today.
Anyone remember Mr. Lear?
He was going to do this back in the '70s, he put together a big engineering team - and 2years later quietly gave up when the condensor issue reared its ugly head.
you do realize it is 2008, it could probably be done.
Just a couple decades ago an entrepreneur was trying to revive the steam locomotive. Not the old kind, with the giant boiler and the big cylinders and tall driving wheels, but a New Technology one that resembled the diesel locomotives of today.
To make it even remotely competitive with diesels, they would have to have the same closed fluid system you (and the original article author) mentioned.
Even with a full sized locomotive chassis, They didn’t have room for a radiator that could get rid of fifteen megawatts of heat when running in “notch eight.”
Steam locomotives solved the problem by not having a closed loop. You would still need a closed cycle, but then use an open system to cool it. Stopping occasionally to fill the water tank.
What worries me more is the thought of my neighbor having a 1962 nuclear reactor up on blocks in his front yard.
This may be a stupid idea but what about using liquid nitrogen to cool the steam? Instead of stopping at a gas station to refuel they could stop and recharge the liquid nitrogen tanks.
Funny you should mention Lear. I read his biography and when he was marketing his steam idea, he said he had a magic fluid which turned out to be water. The guy was a genius and a little loopy.