The atmospheric vortex engine

Mechanical energy is produced when heat is carried upward by convection in the atmosphere. An atmospheric vortex engine (AVE) uses an artificially created anchored tornado like vortex to capture the mechanical energy produced during upward heat convection. The vortex is created by admitting warm or humid air tangentially into the base of a circular wall. The heat source can be solar energy, warm sea water, warm humid air or waste industrial heat. There is no need for solar collectors; the heat collector is the earth's surface in its natural state. The AVE has the same thermodynamic basis as the solar chimney except that the physical chimney is replaced by centrifugal force in a vortex and that the solar collector is replaced by the earth's surface in its unaltered state. The mechanical energy is produced in peripheral turbo-generators. The AVE has a large energy production potential and could alleviate global warming by reducing the quantity of fuel required to meet energy needs. An AVE would increase the efficiency of a thermal power plant by reducing its cold source temperature from the temperature at the bottom of the troposphere to the temperature of the tropopause. The AVE process could remediate global warming by lifting heat above greenhouse gases so that the heat can be more easily radiated to space.